weigh what is said as to the religious beliefs of the Mexicans. What we
can discern of the religion of the Nahua and Maya tribes shows us that
it is not at all probable they had reached a stage of development in
which they had any idea of One Supreme, Over-ruling Power. But our
scholars differ on that point, many contending that the Mexicans
distinctly affirmed the existence of such a God.<48> To form such
conceptions implies a power of reasoning on abstract topics that is
vain to expect of a people in their state of development. We think,
therefore, that the idea that they had such a belief, arises from a
misconception. Let us see if we can discover how that was.

Nearly all of the North American tribes had some word to express
supernatural power. The Iroquois used for this purpose the words "oki"
and "otkon."<49> The first meaning of these words is "above." As used
by these Indians, however, they expressed the working of any unseen,
mysterious, and, therefore, to them, supernatural power. There was,
however, no idea of personality or of unity about it. Other Indian
tribes had words to express the same meaning. The English and French
explorers translated these words into their languages in various ways.
The most common is the rather absurd one of "medicine," which has passed
into common use. Thus, to mention one in very frequent use, we have the
expression "Medicine-men"--meaning their priests and conjurers. The same
custom prevailed among the higher class of sedentary Indians of Mexico
and Central America. The Aztecs used the word "teotl" to express the
name meaning; the Mayas, the word "ku;" the Peruvians, "huaca." But the
word used, in each case, meant not so much a personal supreme-being
as it did an ill-defined sense of supernatural, mysterious power. This
point not being clearly understood, it was quite natural that the early
writers understood by these various expressions their name of the First
Cause.

In the present state of our knowledge, it is certainly very hard to give
an intelligent statement of the religious conceptions of the Maya and
Nahua tribes. Among the Nahuas, their conception of creative power
was that of a pair--a man and wife. These were not the active agents,
however--they engendered four sons, who were the creators. This seems to
be a widely extended form of tradition. Two authors, writing about
fifty years after the conquest, speak of the four principal deities
and statues. They had a grea