Stone implements of Europe and America

We find a striking likeness between the works of the Stone Age in
America and Europe, as shown in the figures here given.

The same singular custom which is found among the Jews and the Hindoos, for “a man to raise up seed for his deceased brother by marrying his widow,” was found among the Central American nations. (Las Casas, Ms.  “Hist.  Apoloq.,” cap. ccxiii., ccxv.  Torquemada, “Monarq.  Ind.,” tom. ii., 377-8.)

No one but the Jewish high-priest might enter the Holy of Holies.  A similar custom obtained in Peru.  Both ate the flesh of the sacrifices of atonement; both poured the blood of the sacrifice on the earth; they sprinkled it, they marked persons with it, they smeared it upon walls and stones.  The Mexican temple, like the Jewish, faced the east.  “As among the Jews the ark was a sort of portable temple, in which the Deity was supposed to be continually present, so among the Mexicans, the Cherokees, and the Indians of Michoacan and Honduras, an ark was held in the highest veneration, and was considered an object too sacred to be touched by any but the priests.” (Kingsborough, “Mex.  Antiq., “vol. viii., p.258.)

The Peruvians believed that the rainbow was a sign that the earth would not be again destroyed by a deluge. (Ibid., p. 25.)

The Jewish custom of laying the sins of the people upon the head of an animal, and turning him out into the wilderness, had its counterpart among the Mexicans, who, to cure a fever, formed a dog of maize paste and left it by the roadside, saying the first passer-by would carry away the illness. (Dorman, “Prim.  Super.,” p. 59.) Jacob’s ladder had its duplicate in the vine or tree of the Ojibbeways, which led from the earth to heaven, up and down which the spirits passed. (Ibid., p. 67.)

Both Jews and Mexicans offered water to a stranger that he might wash his feet; both ate dust in token of humility; both anointed with oil; both sacrificed prisoners; both periodically separated the women, and both agreed in the strong and universal idea of uncleanness connected with that period.

Both believed in the occult power of water, and both practised baptism.

“Then the Mexican midwife gave the child to taste of the water, putting her moistened fingers in its mouth, and said, ’Take this; by this thou hast to live on the earth, to grow and to flourish; through this we get all things that support existence on the earth; receive it.’  Then with moistened fingers she touched the breast of the child, and said, ’Behold the pure water that washes and cleanses thy heart, that removes all filthiness; receive it:  may the goddess see good to purify And cleanse thine heart.’  Then the midwife poured water upon the head of the child, saying, ’O my grandson—­my son—­take this water of the Lord of the world, which is thy life, invigorating and refreshing,