C O N T E N T S
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CONTENTS  OF  THE  FIRST  VOLUME

CONTENTS  OF  THE  SECOND  VOLUME

CONTENTS  OF  THE  THIRD  VOLUME

CONTENTS  OF  THE  FOURTH  VOLUME

CONTENTS  OF  THE  FIFTH  VOLUME

CONTENTS  OF  THE  SIXTH  VOLUME

CONTENTS  OF  THE  SEVENTH  VOLUME

CONTENTS  OF  THE  EIGHTH & NINTH  VOLUMES

(under construction)

3
(see A.L., p. 116)



A P P E N D I X.

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THE  INTERPRETATION  OF  THE  HIEROGLYPHICAL  PAINTINGS  OF
THE  COLLECTION  OF  MENDOZA.

4
(see A.L., p. 116)

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(see A.L., p. 116)

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(see A.L., p. 116)

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(see Simon, pp. 89-90)

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(see A.L., pp. 116-17)

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(see A.L., p. 117)

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(see A.L., p. 117)

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(see A.L., p. 117)

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(see Simon, pp. 89-90)

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(see Simon, p. 57)

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(see Simon, p. 94)

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(see Simon, pp. 94-95)

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(see Simon, pp. 95 & 117)

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102
(see A.L., p. 117)

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107
(see A.L., p. 117)



THE  SECOND  PART....

108
(see A.L., p. 117)

109
(see A.L., p. 117)

110
(see A.L., p. 117)

111
(see A.L., pp. 117-18)

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113
(see Simon, p. 219)

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115
(see A.L., p. 118)

116
(see A.L., pp. 118-19)

117
(see A.L., p. 178)

118
(see A.L., p. 178)

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(see A.L., p. 178)

120
(see A.L., p. 178-79)

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144
(see A.L., p. 178-79)

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(see A.L., p. 178-79)

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(pages 165-74 not transcribed)

175
(see A.L., pp. 265)

176
(see A.L., pp. 265-66)

177
(see A.L., p. 266)

178
(see A.L., p. 266)

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(pages 179-80 not transcribed)

115
(see Simon, pp. 89-90)

The dress and costumes of the Mexicans, and their sandals, resemble the apparel and sandals worn in the early ages 
in the East, especially by the Jews: and the serpent with which the Mexican priests ornamented their heads and 
persons, was perhaps a fashion introduced from Egypt into the New World ... 
VI 181

The following passage, translated from the second section of the seventh chapter of the Third Book of Garcia's, 
Origin of the Indians, shows that the attention of that learned writer had been drawn to this coincidence: 
'In New Spain the word Mesico is found, which as Brother Stephen de Salacar remarks, is Hebrew, and is therefore 
introduced in the second Psalm, and signifies His anointed ... since the leader who conducted those who peopled 
Mexico was named Mesi, or as others write Mexi; and the city and nation were afterward called after him, in the 
same way as we see that many cities, provinces and nations have been named after those who peopled or founded them, 
or to whom they owed their origin, as we shall presently point out. The word Mesi should be noted as being really 
Hebrew, and it agrees surprisingly with the name of the chief, head, or captain of the Mexicans.'
(Lost Tribe Info note ... according to modern Jewish interpretation, the word, Mesi, may bear a relationship to 
the word Moshiach) 
VI 186


It may be here observed, that the particle, teo, in the Mexican language prefixed to the names of persons, places 
and nations, and meaning divine, as in Teocipactli, Teochichimeca, corresponds exactly with, jeru, in Hebrew, 
which signifies, in the same manner, holy or divine. 
VI 186


The Jews considered the brazen serpent which Moses lifted up in the wilderness as a type of the coming of their future 
Messiah; and since the Mexicans were so well acquainted with the early history of the Pentateuch, and with the signs 
and wonders which Moses performed in Egypt by uplifting his rod, which became a serpent, it is probable that they were 
not ignorant of the history of the brazen serpent, and that Quecalcoatle (which proper name signifies the precious 
feathered serpent) was so named after the memorable prodigy of the serpent in the wilderness, the feathers perhaps 
alluding to the rabbinical tradition that the fiery serpents which bit the children of Israel, and which God 
sent suddenly against them, were of a winged species. 
VI 207, 208 [cf. AL 322]



Isaiah, whose Prophecies the Mexicans were acquainted with by paintings and tradition ... 
VI 216


It may be remarked , that most of the speeches in the above mentioned book (Sahagun's History of New Spain - 6th book) 
have a strong tincture of Jewish rhetoric, the same complacent mode of speaking of themselves as God's peculiar people, 
the same familiar converse with the Deity, beginning frequently as in Abraham's dialogue with God, with the word 
'Peradventure' (Por Ventura); the same unceasing solicitude after dreams, visions, and inspirations; the same manner 
of addressing each other by the appellation of Brethren; and finally the same choice of metaphors distinguish the 
composition of the Jews and the Mexicans ... 
VI 221


The Jews believe that the shrill sound of the horn or the trumpet stirs the soul to repentance ... It is singular that 
the Mexicans should have entertained the same notion. 
VI 223




It is true, as a general remark, that both nations [[Mexicans and Jews]], in their costumes and the external decorations 
of their persons and buildings, nearly resembled each other... The same custom prevailed amongst the Mexicans; on whose 
persons, as represented in their ancient paintings, we  recognize all the ornaments mentioned in the Old Testament as 
worn by the Jews ... 
VI 229 [cf Simon, 93]


From the sixth verse of the eighth chapter of the Song of Solomon, "Set me a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon 
thine arm," it appears that the Jews wore their seals fastened to their arms. And it is very singular since there was 
something peculiar in the Hebrew fashion, that this should have been a Mexican custom likewise; as we learn from Cortes, 
Torquemada, and Bernard Diaz, [that it was]. --- Torquemeda says, in the 20th chapter of the 8th book of his "
Indian Monarchy," that the priests and ministers who lived in the great Temple of Mexico, were more than five thousand, 
who resided by day and by night within its walls, occupied in the service of the Temple. These priests are constantly 
named Levites by Acosta, and certainly that learned author may be excused for giving them that appellation, as the Temple 
service of the Mexicans was in reality very like that of the Jews.
VI 229 [cf Simon, 93-94]



The entire of Garcia's third book of the, Origin of the Indians, treats accordingly the likeness, which in their 
laws, their, ancestors, their moral qualities and habits, their ceremonies, their sacrifices, their mutual 
inclination to idolatry, and even in their early history,- the two nations bore to each other ... In the seventh 
he compares the Hebrew language with some of the American idioms ... 
VI 235


The interpreter of the Codex Vaticanus is of the opinion that the ceremonies of the Mexicans, as well as their 
sacrifices, may be urged as proof of their being descended from the Jews. 
VI 235



The extreme aversion which the North American Indians felt for swine, and the opprobrious term of Shukapa, or swine 
eaters, which they bestowed on Europeans because they perceived that ate the flesh of that animal, have already been 
noticed by Adair in the twelfth Argument of his treatise on the descent of the American Indians from the Jews. 
Whether, however, the fact of no mention being made by any Spanish authors of the flesh of the pecari, or Mexican hog, 
being eaten by the Mexicans, or that animal being domesticated among them or sacrificed in their temples, or even 
offered as provision to the Spanish soldiers, before whom they placed all other kinds of food when on the marches 
through their country, can be a considered a negative proof of the Mexicans entertaining the same aversion for swine 
as the more northern Indian tribes, we shall leave it to others to determine. 
VI 236


... the various marvels which Gomara, Torquemada, Acosta, and Herrera testify that the Mexicans believed to have 
occurred in the course of their pilgrimage from Aztlan, -- such as heaven raining bread; water flowing at the command of 
their god from a dry rock; a small brook suddenly overflowing its banks, and causing the enemy to flee before them; the 
punishment of those who murmured against the will of Huitzlopochtli, and wished to remain in Tulan instead of proceeding 
onwards to the promised land; the frequent consultations the priests held with their god, and the answers which they 
received .... 
VI 244

... since the national unity of the Mexicans must have been so highly flattered at believing themselves to be the 
chosen people of God, who ha wrought the most extraordinary miracles in their favour on their quitting Aztlan, Himself 
forsaking heaven to be present at their camp, as their legislator and the guide of their way, and assuming the titles 
of Tetzauhtectl (the God of armies, and the terrible God to strike fear and dismay into the breasts of other enemies) ... 
VI 244


from the Idea de una Nueva Historia ... "original Tultec map recorded events of the greatest antiquity, especially 
the confusion of tongues which took place at the time of the Tower of Babel ... on which occasion seven Tultecas, 
who assisted in the building of said tower, perceiving that they could not understand the others, separated themselves, 
together with their wives and sons ... 
VI 245


The Tultecas [Toltecas?] were most probably Jews who had colonized America in very early ages, bringing along with them 
the knowledge of of various mechanical arts, and instructing the Indians in them; but especially propagating amongst 
them their own religious doctrines, rites, ceremonies, and superstitions, which seem to have pervaded the New World 
from one end of that vast continent to the other; and to have extended to some of the islands in the Pacific Ocean;  
for we read in Captain Cook's Voyages of the rite of tabooing, or consecrating and putting apart, or making unclean 
for a definite period of time, both animate and inanimate things; and also that the natives of some of those islands, 
which are probably peopled from America, practised circimcision. 
VI 255, 256 [cf AL 322 rite of tatooing?]


Azcatlxochitl a Tultec princess ... seems to be a snycope for Aztecatlxochitl, a name which would signify The Rose Of 
the Aztecs ... it would afford grounds for supposing that the Tultecas were also called Aztecas, and that they 
proceeded from Aztlan ... 
VI 256

The reason for supposing that the domination of the Tultecas had rather merged in that of the Chichimecas ... is the 
estimation in which they were held long after their empire had passed away; and the pride which the chichimecan 
sovereigns felt in being descended from them ... 
VI 256

... how to account for an extreme similarity which their history, their laws, their rites, ceremonies, and superstitions 
present to those of the Jews,- would be found in the fact that the Tultecas were Jews who had colonized America ... 
from whom likewise many of the Indian tribes might with much probability have a borrowed a portion of their early 
history, especially the account of their pretended migration. 
VI 256



The Peruvians when first discovered by the Spaniards had already attained a high degree of civilization; 
and it would appear from a passage of Gomara's History of the Indies, that the Spaniards were struck by 
the resemblance of some of the tribes of Indians in that part of America to Jews. 
VI 271


It will be remarked that Gumilla says the Salivas circumcised their children on the eighth day after their birth; 
and by the covenant which God made with abraham, the Jews circumcised their children on the same day ... 
VI 272


Amongst the Jews, all wars, not excepting their civil ones, bore a religious character, &c. and in the twelfth chapter 
of Deuteronomy, directions are given to the priests to accompany and exhort the soldiers to battle. The interpreter of 
the collection of Mendoza says, that priests likewise followed the Mexican armies, not only for the purpose of joining 
the combatants, but also to perform certain religious ceremonies, in which some analogy is discovered between the customs 
of the two nations." --- "It has already been observed, that many analogies might be pointed out, in the usages of the 
Mexicans and Jews, in reference to their treatment of their kings. But omitting, in this place, to notice the oath which 
was administered to the kings of Mexico, at their coronation, by the high priest, (which is described by Gomara, p. 122, 
of his History of the Conquest of Mexico, in which the kings made a covenant with the people to protect the established
religion, to preserve the laws, and to maintain justice, reminding us of what David did, on a similar occasion, as
recorded by Samuel -- "So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron, &c." and the great burning of spices and 
other odoriferous substances, which took place at the funerals of the kings of Mexico, which was also customary at the 
funerals of the Jewish kings, we shall remark that the regalia, worn by the kings of both nations, were nearly the same. 
Amongst the Jews, they consisted of a crown and bracelets, as is evident from 2 Sam. i. 18, where the Amalekite announces 
to David the death of Saul, bringing him, not his sword and armour, but what he thought would be a more agreeable present 
to an aspirant to the throne, the royal insignia. A sceptre was also part of the Jewish regalia, and a mantle. The crown 
of the Jewish king more nearly resembled a mitre than the crown worn by emperors and monarchs. A crown and bracelets, 
sceptre and mantle constituted, though not the entire, the principal part of the royal costume of the Mexican kings. The 
crown was named Teocatli represented in the 57th plate, in the collection of Mendoza, as forming a specimen of the dress 
worn by the Mexican kings, since the regal apparel of Montezuma differed but slightly from that of Moquihuix. It is true 
as a general remark, that both nations, in their costume and the external decoration of their persons and buildings, 
nearly resembled each other. "Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm," and it is very singular since 
there was something peculiar in the Hebrew fashion, that this should have been a Mexican custom likewise, as we learn from 
Cortez, Torquemeda, and Bernal Diaz." --- "Torquemeda says, in the 20th chapter of the 8th book of his "Indian Monarchy," 
that the priests and ministers who lived in the great Temple of Mexico, were more than five thousand, who resided by day 
and by night within its walls, occupied in the service of the Temple. These priests are constantly named Levites by 
Acosta, and certainly that learned author may be excused for giving them that appellation, as the Temple service of the 
Mexicans was in realityvery like that of the Jews. ... 
VI 281 - cf Simon 92-94]


In the tenth chapter of his twelfth book, Torquemeda affirms, that the Devil counterfeited amongst the Indians the Feast 
of Passover. This third month of the Mexicans commenced on the fifteenth of March, which like the solemn Passover of the 
Jews, lasted eight days, when they offered the first fruits. The ripe grain and the ears, it was unlawful for them to 
taste before they had presented the said first fruits to the priests. The Indians observed the same custom on this third 
month, (the Pasqua) which they celebrated in honor of their (ancients or lords.) Before the arrival of the day appointed 
for carrying these first fruits to the temples and altars, no one dared to  smell them, for they were forbidden to do so 
by an express law; as the Jews were forbidden to taste the ears of corn; and (adds the complacent,son of the church,) 
"It might well provoke a hearty laugh from Christians, to see that the Devil wished to constitute himself the god of the 
first fruits," &c. ... 
VI 282 [cf Simon 145]


... the Mexicans in their dress, in the domestic economy of their house (which had flat roofs or terraces like those 
of the Jews), in their mode of receiving guests and saluting strangers, in their respect for the old (rising up on their 
approach), and in the pains which they bestowed on the education of their children ... strongly remind us of the Jews 
VI 276


The celebrated Las Casas entertained no doubt that the continent of America had in early ages been 
colonized by the Jews; and he goes so far as to say that the language of the Island of Saint Domingo 
was "corrupt Hebrew."
VI 282 [cf Simon p. 3 -- need to copy]


The Mexican priests, like the Levites, bathed and made frequent use of ablutions in their religious ceremonies: some 
of them like the Jewish Nazarites, permitted their hair to grow without ever cutting it. 
VI 292

In the same way as amongst the Jews none were permitted except the Levites to enter the secret place of sanctuary, 
so the Mexican ritual forbade any but the priests to enter the sanctuary of Tetzcatlipoca. 
VI 292 (see also below)


It is said in the thirty-fifth chapter of Exodus, of the Israelites: "And they came ... and brought bracelets, and 
ear-rings, and rings, and tablets, all jewels of gold: and every man that offered, offered an offering of gold unto 
the Lord." ... the Mexicans were accustomed to present at the shrines of their gods jewels of gold, bracelets, and 
necklaces ... 
VI 292


Returning to the consideration of other Hebrew analogies in the Indian rites and ceremonies, -- having already mentioned 
the temple of Mexico, the fire that was continually burning in it, the celebration of the festivals of the new moons 
and the offering of first-fruits at stated seasons of the year; we may further observe, that the Mexicans in other 
parts of their temple service resembled the Jews. Like the Jews, besides sacrifices, they offered incense, flowers, 
and golden chains and jewels ... It is unnecessary to quote Scripture to show that to offer incense in their temple 
was a Jewish custom, since no nation except the Indians ever came near the Jews in their prodigality in making this 
offering to the Deity ... 
VI 292


that the Jews were expressly commanded, in the fortieth verse of the twenty-third chapter of Leviticus, to carry boughs 
and branches of trees in their hands as a religious ceremony ... The Mexicans were accustomed to decorate profusely their 
temples with branches of trees and flowers, and to carry them in their hands in certain festive processions. 
VI 292



The purple veil said to have been spread before the shrine of Tezcatlipoca, and to have been painted with skulls and 
bones, recalls to our recollection the 35th verse of the 36th chapter of Exodus, in which mention is made of the veil 
of the tabernacle. Torquemeda says " that the skulls and bones which occupied the place of the Cherubims in the temple 
of Tezcatlipoca, signified that God possessed equal power over life and death." --- " In the same way as amongst the 
Jews, none were permitted except the Levites to enter the place of the Sanctuary, so the Mexican ritual forbade any but 
the priests to enter the Sanctuary of Tezcatlipoca." Acosta, describing the temple of that god in the 13th of the 5th 
book, says: --- "As the Temple in Jerusalem contained great store of gold and silver vessels which the king of Babylon 
pillaged, so the Peruvian temples were excessively rich in precious vases, especially that of Pachacamac, near Lima, 
from which Acosta observes Francis Pizarro and his soldiers obtained immense quantities of gold and silver vases." It 
was customary among the Jews to summon the people to worship by the sounding of horns; and to blow trumpets, was a 
religious ceremony which Moses declared in the 23d chapter of Leviticus, that God himself appointed. "And the LORD spake 
unto Moses, saying, speak unto the children of Israel, saying, in the seventh month, in the first day of the month, 
shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation: "and again in the 29th chapter of 
Numbers, "In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of the 
trumpets unto you." It is not a little curious that according to Torquemeda, the Mexicans should have been summoned to 
prayer at stated hours by the blowing of horns, in the same way as the Jews, although they were acquainted with bells; 
and that according to Garcia, they should have approached the temple with the same reverential custom oí pulling off 
their sandals when within a certain number of paces distant from it. See Exodus iii. They have likewise imitated the 
Jews in their sacerdotal costume, and Garcia, in the 2nd chapter of the 36th of the account of the Indians, treating of 
the resemblance of the Indian dress to that of the Jews, says, "Father Augustin Dovila, Arcopisco de St. Domingo, 
ressere on su Historia Dominicana del Nuevo Mondo, como en un pueblo, llamado Tamaculapa que es en la Misteca de Nallaron 
unas vestiduras sagradas de al que ellos teieen por escondidas los Indios." The Arcopisco of St. Domingo, relates in his 
Historia Dominicana of the New World, that some sacred vestments were discovered in a town called Tecpati, in Mexico, 
which had belonged to the person whom they considered the High Priest, which nearly resembled those worn by the High 
Priest of the Mexican nation, which vestments the Indians kept concealed.
VI 292-293 [cf Simon, 99; and Gazetteer of the Old and New Testaments, 71]

... according to Garcia, they should have approached their temple with the same reverential custom of pulling off 
their sandals when within a certain number of paces distant from it. 
VI 293



Garcia, in the second chapter of the third book of the, Origin of the Indians ... "Fr. Agustin Davila, Arcobispo de 
Santo Domingo, refiere en su Historia Dominica del Nuevo Mundo, como un pueblo llamado Tamaculpa, que es en la Misteca, 
se halloran unas vestiuras Sagrados de el que ellos tenian por summo sacerdote, muy semejantes a la que se ponian los 
pontificos maximos de la lei de Moises ..." -- "Brother Augustin Davila, the archbishop of Santo Domingo, relates in 
his Dominican History of the New World, that some sacerdotal vestments were discovered in a town called Tamaculapa, 
in Misteca, which had belonged to the person whom they considered their high priest, which nearly resembled those 
worn by the high priests of the Mosaic law ... 
VI 293


It was customary among the Jews to summon the people to the synagogue by the sounding of horns; and to blow trumpets 
was a religious ceremony, which Moses declares, in the twenty-third chapter of Leviticus ... It is certainly not a 
little curious that, according to Torquemada, the Mexicans should have been summoned to prayers at stated hours by 
the blowing of horns, in the same way as the Jews ... 
VI 293 [cf Simon, 99]


their sandals when within a certain number of paces distant from it. See Exodus iii. They [[Peruvians]] seem likewise 
to have imitated the Jews in their sacerdotal costume. 
VI 293 [cf Simon, 100 -- more to copy]


It would appear from what Garcia asserts, ... that the dress of the Peruvians was more like that of the Jews than was 
the Mexicans, whilst the sandals of the people of New Spain were strictly in the Hebrew fashion. [We know, from the 
expression of John the Baptist, "There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy 
to stoop down and unloose," the nature of the Hebrew sandals, which probably exactly resembled those worn by the 
Mexicans. 
VI 295 [cf Simon, 100 -- more to copy]

The natives of Peru in ancient times allowed their hair to grow long like the Nazarites, with the exception of that 
class called Orezonia; and those who are yet unconquered, wear at the present day the hair in this fashion. That this 
was the dress and costume of the Hebrews, is evident, as well from their histories, as from their ancient paintings, 
which represent them habited in this apparel: and this kind of dress and sandals was worn by the Apostles. ... no Hebrew 
fashion was wanting in the New World.
VI 295 [cf Simon, 100 -- more to copy]

Garcia says, in the last section of the second chapter of the third book of his, Origin of the Indians, "If the dress 
which the Indians wear is duly considered, particularly the Peruvian, it will be found very like that worn by the 
Jews; for they use a tunic or shift, which resembles a surplice without sleeves, and over it they wrap a mantle. 
They substitute sandals in the place of shoes ... 
VI 295 [cf Simon 99-100 -- need to check]


It is certainly surprising to see how nearly the Jewish costume is imitated in some of the Mexican paintings. 
VI 296 [cf AL 322]


It is evident, from the passage of Exodus (29:6) ... that the holy crown was distinct from the mitre: it consisted of 
a plate of gold, that was tied with a blue lace over the mitre ... it says, in the thirty-sixth and following verses of 
the same chapter: "And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, 
Holiness to the Lord. And thou shalt put it on blue lace, that it may be upon the mitre; upon the forefront of the 
mitre it shall be. And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead ..." Three things deserved to be noticed in the Mexican mitre. 
It frequently consisted of a plate of gold on a blue ground; it was tied to the head by a lace or ribbon; it was 
peculiarly worn on the forehead of the king or the priest. 
VI 296 [cf AL 323 -- more to copy]


In Peru ... some of the Ingas wore a crown more nearly resembling an episcopal mitre ... 
VI 297 [see below]


From the forty-second verse of the twenty-eighth chapter of Exodus: "And thou shall make them linen breeches to cover 
their nakedness: from the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach." It would appear that the mantle, worn from a 
sense of decency by the Mexican priests round their loins, very  much resembled the breeches which Moses made for 
Aaron and his sons.... 
VI 298 [cf AL 324]


Sahgun says in mentioning in the fourteenth chapter of his first book the festival of Xochilhuitl ... that the Mexicans 
ate on one of their feasts unleavened bread. 
VI 307



A curious parallel of the Jewish and Indian moral laws may be found in that chapter of the third book of Garcia's Origin 
of the Indians, which he has entitled, "Como los Indios guardaron los Preceptos del Decalogo." "How the Indians obeyed 
the Ten Commandments"! 
VI 331

The words of Las Casas, "Loquela tua manifestun te facit," "Your speech betrays you," in reference to the Mexicans, 
or some other tribe of Indians, whom he took to be real Jews ..." 
VI 332

With respect to circimcision, Peter Martyr and Gomara, whose veracity as historians has never been doubted both 
affirm that the Indians were circumcised. 
VI 334


... from the writings of Acosta himself, as well as from the works of Sahgun (previous Lost Tribes Info excerpt, 
notwithstanding) and Torquemada, and the commentary of the anonymous interpreter of the Vatican MS., that the Indians 
of New Spain did expect a Messiah whom they even named Mexi, which name exactly resembles the Hebrew, whose advent 
they expected in the year of the Cane, or the year of the Lord ... 
VI 338



It is very extraordinary that the Mexicans should have assigned to the serpent the same quality of superior wisdom 
as the Jews did, since we read of no other nations except the Jews and the Mexicans who believed in that fact in 
natural history. 
VI 356


In a Mexican painting in the Bodleian library at Oxford is a symbol very much resembling the jaw-bone of an ass, 
from the side of which water seems to flow forth; which night allude to the story of Samson slaying a thousand of 
the Philistines with such a bone, which remained miraculously unbroken in his hands, and from which he afterwards 
quenched his thirst. 
VI 361 [cf Bancroft, Native Races, 90]


In Exodus xix. 6, God commands Moses to address the following language to the Hebrews, "Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of 
priests, an holy nation." The Mexicans  resembled the Hebrews in being a nation of priests, &c. Jeremiah's apostrophe, 
"I am called by Thy Name, O LORD God of Hosts." This text may receive some illustration from the following curious 
passage of Sahagun's History, in which that learned author gives some account of the ancient Toitecas, "they were very 
religious and much addicted to prayer, they worship one God only whom they name Quetzalcoatl, whose priests bore likewise 
the same appellation." Of a particular person with whom the author had conversation, he goes on to say, "He was 
frequently accustomed to declare that there was one God only, and Lord, whose name was Quetzalcoatl, and that he requires 
no other sacrifices than snakes and butterflies." We here only wish to refer to the thirty-sixth page of the present 
work, in order to point out the probability that God's promise to Jeremiah, "Thou shalt be as my mouth," was known to the 
Mexicans; since the newly elected king of Mexico, in a prayer of Thanksgiving to Tezcatlipoca, there emphatically says 
of kings in general, "Vuestros instrumentos y vuestras imagenes para regir vuestros reynos, estando dentro de ellos y 
hablando por su boca, y pronunciando ellos vuestras palabras." --- "They are thine instruments and thine images to 
govern thy kingdoms, thou being in them, and speaking through their mouth, and they pronouncing thy words." &c.
VI 371 [cf Simon, 111]



Both nations, Hebrews and Mexicans, were most punctual in the payment of their religious offerings and first-fruits. 
The Mexicans, as Montezuma informed Cortes, feared that if they failed in this part of their religious duties, they 
would incur the most severe vengeance. The paintings of the Mexicans show that censers were used in profusion in the 
ceremonies of their religion. The priests lodged round the temples in chambers built for the express purpose; and 
it is stated in the Book of Chronicles that a certain portion of the Levites lodged round the Temple built by Solomon. 
The Mexican temples contained fountains in the courts in which the priests performed their ablutions, and Solomon is 
said to have made a molten sea, which contained two thousand baths for the same purpose, and stood in the court of the 
Temple. Many passages of Scripture lead us to imagine that the ground-plan of the great temple of Mexico resembled that 
of Jerusalem ... "And Moses [said] unto Korah, Be thou and all thy company before the Lord, thou, and they, and Aaron, 
tomorrow: and take every man his censer, and put incense in them, and bring ye before the Lord every man his censer, 
two hundred and fifty censers; thou also, and Aaron, each of you his censer." 
VI 376, 377 [cf A gazetteer of the Old and New Testaments p. 71]

The Mexicans were accustomed [to show] their respect for the persons of ambassadors by burning odoriferous perfumes in 
censers before them ... Daniel 2:46 "Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded 
that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours to him." 
VI 377

The Mexicans to decorate the inner walls of their temples and palaces with figures painted in vermilion. ... twenty-third 
chapter of Ezekiel "When she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion ..." 
VI 377


Every thing that related to the preserving unextinguished the sacred fires which burnt in their temples, was considered 
by the Mexicans as a matter of the utmost consequence. --- 2 Maccabees 1 "For when our fathers were led into Persia, 
the priests that were then devout took the fire of the altar privily, and hid it in a hollow place of a pit without 
water, where they kept it sure, so that the place was unknown to all men ..." 
VI 377


8 The Mexican priests lodged round their temples in chambers built for the express purpose ... Chronicles 9:27 "And 
they lodged round about the house of God, because the charge was upon them, and the opening thereof every morning 
pertained to them ..." 
VI 377


Many passages in the Old Testament would lead us to imagine that the grand plan, at least, of the greater temple 
of Mexico resembled that of the temple of Jerusalem ... 
VI 377, 378


Both nations [[viz. Hebrews and Mexicans]] were most punctual in the payment of their religious offerings, and first 
fruits, &c. The Mexicans, as Montezuma informed Cortez, feared if they failed in this part of their religious duties 
that they would incur the severest vengeance, &c. And the prophet Malachi, or rather God speaking through the mouth 
of that prophet, assures the Jews that they were under a peculiar blessing promised in the third chapter of the book
of Malachi." * * * "The paintings of the Mexicans shew that censers were used in profusion in the ceremonies of their 
religion. The priests lodged round the temples in chambers built for the express purpose, and it appears from the 
twenty-seventh verse of the ninth chapter of Chronicles, that a certain portion of the Lévites lodged round the Temple 
built by Solomon. The Mexican temples contained fountains in the courts, in which t he priests performed their ablutions, 
and Solomon is said to have made a molten-sea which contained two thousand baths, which served the same purpose, and 
stood in the court of the Temple. Every thing relating to preserving unextinguished the sacred fire which burnt in the 
Temple, was considered by the Mexicans as a matter of the utmost consequence. The manner in which they kindled the 
sacred fire is not precisely known: that it was a religious rite accompanied with certain ceremonies, cannot be doubted; 
and we may even be permitted to believe from an expression in the fourteenth verse of the nineteenth chapter of Ezekiel: 
"And fire has gone forth from a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruits," that they were acquainted with 
the Mexican method of kindling fire by wood." --- "Many passages of scripture lead us to imagine that the ground-plan 
of the great Temple of Mexico resembled that of Jerusalem.
VI 377-78 [cf Simon 104] 



The walls of the Mexican temples were delicately plastered, and frequently ornamented with stucco, especially the 
temple of Palenque ... Ecclesiasticus 22:17 "A heart settled upon a thought of understanding is a fair plastering on 
the wall of a gallery." 
VI 380

M. Dupaix, in describing the figures in plaster upon the walls of the temple of Palenque, notices a peculiarity in 
them all, the excessive size of the nose. He did not perhaps know that Solomon ascribed beauty and majesty to 
countenances distinguished by that characteristic ... an exaggeration of the Hebrew line of beauty ... 
VI 380


... the Tultecas actually built towers in memory of the Tower of Babel. 
VI 387, 388

Bouturini ... "The Indians likewise celebrated their sad origin in ancient songs, and retained such perfect 
recollection of the Tower of Babel, that they sought to imitate it in various monstrous edifices of the New world." --- 
"Celecraron assimismo los Indios su dicho origen en antiques cantares, y tuvieron tan viva la memoria de la Torre de 
Babel, que la quisieron imitar en America con varios monstruosos edificios." 
VI 388


... It is not too much to suppose, that the Hebrews [Jews?] did, on their arrival in Cuzco [America?], and on 
their acquiring wealth and power a the country, determine to commemorate their ancient temple, by building there 
other temples of great magnificence in imitation of it; such as were the temple of Pachacama, (or of the Creator) 
situated at the distance of four miles from the city of Lima; and the great[er] temple of Mexico. The foundation 
stones of the former of these Temples, are said by some Spanish writers to have been soldered together with gold 
and silver, and the interior plated with gold, as was also those of the famous Temple of Cuzco, which was likewise 
dedicated to the worship of Pachacamac, who, as the priests pretended, delivered oracular answers to those who 
came to inquire of Him..... The Toltecas," who were great artists, and who excelled in working jewellery, probably 
recollected the words of David -- "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem!" and it is a fact notorious to all, that wherever 
Jews exist the recollection of the Temple and of its destruction (to preserve among them the coming of the Messiah, 
and their own restoration to the New Jerusalem, and rebuilding of the Temple) continually occupy their thoughts." 
--- "The retrospect, however, of the city and the Holy hill, which their ancestors seem to have founded in the new 
world and called Churula, after Jerusalem, and Tlactichualtepetc (or the hill of sacrifice) after Mount Zion, 
will not be so agreeable to the Jews of the present day as the prospect of the sceptre returning to Judah.
VI 388 [cf Simon 217, 194]



The names of the Chiapanese chiefs whose heads are found on the calendar, bear a considerable resemblance to Hebrew 
proper names; and even the signs of the Mexican calendar seem to have some reference to the emblems under which 
Jacob, when dying, predicted the destinies of his posterity. 
VI 388


Many customs of the Mexicans, strongly savouring at [of?]Judaism, besides that of circumcision, having already been 
noticed: such as their wearing fringes fastened to their garments, practising frequent ablutions; attending constantly 
public places of worship, to which they were summoned by the blowing of horns, as the Jews are to the synagogues; 
anointing themselves with oils; addressing each other with the appellation of Brother and Sister; their priests 
allowing their hair to grow long like Nazarites, though some were tonsured; their frequently doing penance, strewing 
dust on their heads, and blackening themselves with ashes as a sign of mortification, and eating earth (Isaiah 49:23) 
at the festival of Tetzcatlipoca. 
VI 388, 389


... that it is singular that the Spanish Inquisition should have crossed St. Andrew's crosses to be painted upon the 
dresses of Jews sentenced to be burnt at the solemnization of acts of faith ... since that symbol as well as a cross 
resembling in shape the Greek letter T, which was in Naples a badge of disgrace which the Jews were compelled to wear 
to distinguish them from the rest of the community, is not of unusual occurrence in Mexican paintings. 
VI 389

but the Zemes, or charms which Peter Martyr says that ... were pieces of paper containing written portions of the law ... 
the Indians of Haiti and Santo Domingo bound on their foreheads when they went to war ... the Jews ... that which was 
placed between their eyes ... phylacteries ... 
VI 391


Captain Cook also discovered the that circumcision had extended itself to the Islands of the South Sea. How, to use 
the words of Gumilla, are these moral phaenomena to be explained? 
VI 392



It is certainly very extraordinary to find from the "Oronco Illustrated" of Gumilla, and Coreat's Voyages to the 
West Indies, that Indian nations so remote from each other as those of the Oronco and the tribes who lived on the 
confines of Peru on the banks the La Plata, as well, as the Chalchaques, a people situated between Peru Tucuman, 
all used circumcision, and strictly abstained from the flesh of the swine. 
VI 392


Whether the Indians of the Islands of St. Domingo and Cuba, whose language is said to have been half Hebrew, and who, 
in many of their customs, nearly resembled the Jews, practised the same rites as those in use among the Indians of the 
continent, it would be difficult to say, but that they possessed traditions in common with them evidently derived from a 
Hebrew source, is plain from the following relation of Torquemeda, which we cannot refrain from inserting: 
"Verdad es que los de los Indios de la Isla Cuba dicen que tuvieron conocimiento que havia sido el cielo 
y las otras cosas criadas; y decian que por tres personas, y que la una vino por tal parte, y las otras dos de otras;y 
que tuvierongran noticiadel diluvio, y que se havia perdido el mundo por mucha agua; y decian los viejos de mas de 
setenta y ochenta anos, luego al principio que entraron los nuestros en equella isla, que un viejo sabiendo que havia 
de venir el diluvio, hico una grande nao, y se metio en ella con su casa y muchos animales, y queembio un cuervo, y 
no bolvio por comer de los cuerpos muertas, y que despues embio una paloma, la qual bolvio cantando, y trajo una rama 
con hoja que paracia hobo, pero que no era hobo; el qual salio del navio, y hico vino de las parras monteses, y se 
embriago..." -- "It is true that the Indians of of the Island of Cuba say that they knew that the heaven and other 
things had been created; and they affirm by three persons, one of whom came from such a part, and the other two from 
other parts; and that they were perfectly informed also of the deluge, and that the world had been destroyed by a 
quantity of water. The old men above seventy and eighty years of age reported, when first our countrymen settled in 
that island, that an old man knowing that the deluge was about to happen, built a large ship, in which he embarked 
with his household and many animals, and that he dispatched from thence a crow, which did not return, staying to prey 
upon the dead caucuses; and that afterwards sent a dove; which came back cooing, bringing a leafy branch which 
resembled a hop, although not one: on which he quitted the ship, and made wine of mountain grapes and became drunk 
and having two sons, one of them laughed, and said to the other, "Turn him into jest; "but the other reproved him, and 
covered his father, who, having slept off the effects of the wine, and knowing the impudence of his son, cursed him, 
and pronounced a blessing on the other, and from the former the Indians of these countries were descended."
VI 393 [cf Simon, 184-5]



The tradition of the inhabitants of Cuba certainly deserves to be compared with those of the people of Michuacan and 
Nicaragua, who also approximated to the Mosaic history in their accounts of the Deluge; although the former of the 
last-mentioned nations believed that it was the colibri, or the humming-bird, and not the dove, that returned with 
the branch of the tree. 
VI 394

The Indians of Chili, according to Rosales, had likewise a tradition of the Deluge; but he observes, that shells and 
other fossil remains discovered in abundance on the highest ranges of mountains, might have suggested that to them. 
VI 394



[But the Mexican tradition of the Deluge is that which bears the most unequivocal marks of having been derived from a 
Hebrew source.] --- This tradition records that a few persons escaped in the Ahuchueti, or Ark of fir, when the earth was 
swallowed up by the deluge, the chief of whom was Palecath [Patecatle?], or Cipaquetona, that he invented the art of 
making wine; that Xelua, one of his descendants was present at the building of a high Tower which the succeeding 
generation constructed  with a view of escaping from the deluge should it again occur; that Tonacatecutli, incensed at 
their presumption, destroyed the Tower with lightning, confounded their language and dispersed them. This age, called 
by them Atonatiali, or the age of water, closely bordered upon that of the Tzocuillicxeque, or age of giants; and it will 
be recollected that the age of the Flood in Scripture  was that of the giants also. --- The fact of the Mexicans recording 
both in their paintings and songs, the Deluge, the building the tower of Babel, the confusion of tongues, and the 
dispersion, &c. being generally admitted by the Spanish writers on America, it is almost unnecessary to refer to the 
authority of any particular author [writer?], to prove what no one will deny; since Gomara, in his history of the Indians, 
describing the conference of Nicaragua with Gil Goncales and the Calezcasters, introduces this chief as putting a variety 
of questions to the Spaniards. The first of which was, whether they were acquainted with the deluge, and others no less 
curious, showing that the Indians were not unaccustomed to abstruse speculation, and that besides the knowledge of many 
traditions contained in the Old Testament, they possessed some information respecting the New....
VI 401, 402 [cf Simon, 182-3]


From this account it will be perceived, that as not only in New Spain and in Peru, but likewise in Nicaragua, the 
tradition of the Deluge was generally received among the Indians; and that the temptation of Eve, of the fall of man, 
and of the loss of Paradise, was no less general in the New World. --- Torquemada, in his thirty-first chapter of the sixth 
book of his [Indian Monarchy], gives this description of the goddess Cihuacohuatl, who is named by many writers the 
Aztec or Mexican Eve: "One of the goddesses greatly esteemed by the natives of New Spain was Cihuacohuatl, which name 
signifies "the woman serpent"; * * * This woman or goddess who they named Cihuacohuatl, was according to the etymology 
of the name, as Father Bernard de Shagun says, the first woman who existed in the world, the mother of the whole of the 
human race, who it is true was tempted by the serpent who appeared to her in the terrestial Paradise, and discoursed 
with her to persuade her to transgress the command of God, and that is likewise true, that after having committed sin, 
&c. she bore a son, and a daughter at the same birth, and that the son was named Cain and the daughter Calmana, --  and 
that afterwards she brought forth at a second birth, Abel, and his sister, Delborah, so that she bore them by twin births. 
The Mexicans therefore designated her for these two properties, Cihuacohuatl, which signifies the woman serpent, that 
is to say, whom the serpent tempted, and which also signified the woman who brought forth twins, a boy and a girl; for 
they call infants born at the same birth, Cocohua, or serpents, born from the woman serpent." * * * This appears to be 
a confused knowledge, which they had  received by tradition, of the ancient truth of the origin of the human race, and 
of the temptation of the serpent. The above account of Torquemada (or rather of Sahagun's whose authority he cites), 
is very curious...
VI 402 [cf Paul M. Hanson's Jesus Christ Among the Ancient Americans in Relation to the Book of Mormon, pp. 174-5]



which deserves to be considered in connection with the Peruvian tradition of men having been created by Viracocha, 
after the likeness of images made by himself .... 
VI 403 [cf Simon 217 -- need to copy]


Mexican traditions seem also to refer to the creation of the one sex from the bone of the other, as recorded in the 
second chapter of Genesis ... since the Mexicans believed that both sexes had been created from a bone ... 
VI 403


it may be inferred that altars of single stones were very common amongst the Jews, as they were also amongst the Mexicans....
VI 492


Another remarkable proof of the predilection which the Jews and the Mexicans manifested ... celebrating a year of 
jubilee at the expiration of every period of fifty years (Jews), and ... at the expiration of every fifty-two years 
(Mexicans) 
VI 505


Piedrahita, in the third chapter of the first book of his History of the Conquest of New Granada, describes the 
stranger who preached to the Mozcas, or Indians of Bogota,-whom some named Nemquetheba, others Bechicha, and others 
Zuhe,- as wearing a kind of phylactery on his forehead, in imitation of which the Indians of that province of South 
America continued to wear roses made of feathers hanging over their eyebrows, until the conquest of the territory 
by the Spaniards. 
VI 518

... the Mexicans believed, like the Jews, that God was omnipresent both in heaven and in hell ... 
VI 518
             
The omnipresence of the Deity is so often insisted upon in the prayers which the Mexicans addressed to Tezcatlipoca, 
that it is difficult to imagine but that they must have borrowed that notion from the Jews; for the ancient 
philosophers did not imagine that their idea of the Deity was heightened by adding to omnipotence and omniscience 
the attribute of omnipresence, but, on the contrary, that it was materialized and debased by it ... 
VI 518




Balboa, in the eighteenth chapter of his inedited History of Peru, to which he has given the title of "Miscellanea 
Antartica," mentions along with the tassel, a sceptre, a mantle, and sandals as composing the regalia of the Ingas ... 
VI 519


Captain Cook in the narrative of his Voyage to the Pacific Ocean ... the men of Tongataboo were all circumcised, ... 
the rite of 'taboo matee' or 'purifying from uncleanliness' contracted by the touch of a dead body, which was strictly 
enjoined by Moses to the Jews in the nineteenth chapter of the Book of numbers ... 
VI 520, 521

... and it is singular enough that the phrase 'taboo matee' should so nearly resemble the Hebrew expression ... 
VI 521


The trophy of a hand borne upon the top of a staff was used by the ancient Mexicans, and is sometimes represented in 
their mythological paintings. It is singular that a hand elevated aloft should also have been a Hebrew trophy ... 
VI 530


Sahagun, describing in the first paragraph in the twenty-ninth chapter of the tenth book of his History of New Spain 
the manners of the Tultecas, says, "La manera de cortarse el cabelloera segun su uso pulido que traian los cabellos 
desde la media cabeza otras." --- "They cut their hair in such a manner as to wear it agreeably to their refined 
fashion, only on the hinder half of their head." 
VI 535

That precisely the same custom (from previous excerpt) prevailed among the Jews, we learn from the following verse 
from the poet Nonnus's Paraphrase of the Gospel of St. John: "Christ, an invited guest, sat in company with the 
revelling crew, who were bald except at the back of their heads." 
VI 535

Transcriber's Comments




Lord Kingsborough's
Mexican Antiquities

(under construction)