Note II-23 — Chapter II · ORIGIN AND END OF THINGS.

Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chichimeca in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. ix., pp. 205-6. The same author, in his Relaciones, Ib. pp. 321-2, either through his own carelessness or that of a transcriber, transposes the second and third Ages. To see that it is an oversight of some sort, we have but to pass to the summary he gives at the end of these same Relaciones, Ib., p. 459, where the account is again found in strict agreement with the version given in the text. Camargo, Hist. de Tlax. in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., tom. xcix., 1843, p. 132, giving as we may suppose the Tlascaltec version of the general Mexican myth, agrees with Ixtlilxochitl as to the whole number of Ages, following, however, the order of the error above noticed in the Relaciones. The Tlascaltec historian, moreover, affirms that only two of these Ages are past, and that the third and fourth destructions are yet to come. M. Ternaux-Compans, Nouvelles Annales des Voy., tom. lxxxvi., 1840, p. 5, adopts this Tlascaltec account as the general Mexican tradition; he is followed by Dr. Prichard, Researches, vol. v., pp. 360-1. Dr. Prichard cites Bradford as supporting the same opinion, but erroneously, as Bradford, Am. Antiq., p. 328, follows Humboldt. Boturini, Idea de una Hist., p. 3. and Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 57, agree exactly with the text. The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg also accepts the version of three past destructions. S'il existe des Sources de l'Hist. Prim., pp. 26-7. Professor J. G. Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, pp. 510-12, admits that the version of three past destructions and one to come, as given in the text, and in the order there given, 'seems to be the most ancient Mexican version;' though he decides to follow Humboldt, and adopts what he calls the 'latest and fullest form of the myth.' The Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano [Vaticano] contradicts itself, giving first two past destructions, and farther on four, Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., pp. 163-7; as does also the Explic. del Codex Telleriano-Remensis, Ib., pp. 134-6. Kingsborough himself seems to favor the idea of three past destructions and four ages in all; see Mex. Antiq., vol. vi., p. 171, note. Gomara, Hist. Mex., fol. 297-8; Leon y Gama, Dos Piedras, parte i., pp. 94-5; Humboldt, Vues, tom. ii., pp. 118-129; Prescott, Conq. of Mex., vol. i., p. 61; Gallatin, in Am. Ethnol. Soc., Transact., vol. i., p. 325—describe four past destructions and one yet to come, or five Ages, and the Chimalpopoca MS., see note 13, seems also to favor this opinion. Lastly, Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 81, declares that the Mexicans believe in five Suns, or Ages, in times past; but these suns were of inferior quality, so that the soil produced its fruits only in a crude and imperfect state. The consequence was that in every case the inhabitants of the world died through the eating of divers things. This present and sixth Sun was good, however, and under its influence all things were produced properly. Torquemada—who has, indeed, been all along appropriating, by whole chapters, the so long inedited work of Mendieta; and that, if we believe Icazbalceta, Hist. Ecles., Noticias del Autor., pp. xxx. to xlv., under circumstances of peculiar turpitude—of course gives also five past Ages, repeating Mendieta word for word with the exception of a single 'la.' Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 79.