he peak on which their ancestors escaped in the flood, or that
in the terrestrial paradise from which flow the rains. Their
construction took men away from war and the chase, encouraged
agriculture, peace, and a settled disposition, and fostered the love of
property, of country, and of the gods. The priests were also close
observers of nature, and were the first to discover its simpler laws.
The Aztec sages were as devoted star-gazers as the Chaldeans, and their
calendar bears unmistakable marks of native growth, and of its original
purpose to fix the annual festivals. Writing by means of pictures and
symbols was cultivated chiefly for religious ends, and the word
_hieroglyph_ is a witness that the phonetic alphabet was discovered
under the stimulus of the religious sentiment. Most of the aboriginal
literature was composed and taught by the priests, and most of it refers
to matters connected with their superstitions. As the gifts of votaries
and the erection of temples enriched the sacerdotal order individually
and collectively, the terrors of religion were lent to the secular arm
to enforce the rights of property. Music, poetic, scenic, and historical
recitations, formed parts of the ceremonies of the more civilized
nations, and national unity was strengthened by a common shrine. An
active barter in amulets, lucky stones, and charms, existed all over the
continent, to a much greater extent than we might think. As experience
demonstrates that nothing so efficiently promotes civilization as the
free and peaceful intercourse of man with man, I lay particular stress
on the common custom of making pilgrimages.

The temple on the island of Cozumel in Yucatan was visited every year by
such multitudes from all parts of the peninsula, that roads, paved with
cut stones, had been constructed from the neighboring shore to the
principal cities of the interior.[302-1] Each village of the Muyscas is
said to have had a beaten path to Lake Guatavita, so numerous were the
devotees who journeyed to the shrine there located.[302-2] In Peru the
temples of Pachacama, Rimac, and other famous gods, were repaired to by
countless numbers from all parts of the realm, and from other provinces
within a radius of three hundred leagues around. Houses of entertainment
were established on all the principal roads, and near the temples, for
their accommodation; and when they made known the object of their
journey, they were allowed a safe passage even th