"[1]
Now it may be doubted by some whether this most extraordinary
supplication could have come down from the Glacial Age; but it must
be remembered that it may have been many times repeated in the deep
cavern before the terror fled from the souls of the desolate fragment
of the race; and, once established as a religious prayer, associated
with such dreadful events, who would dare to change a word of it?
[1. Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 200.]
{p. 191}
Who would dare, among ourselves, to alter a syllable of the "Lord's
Prayer"? Even though Christianity should endure for ten thousand
years upon the face of the earth; even though the art of writing were
lost, and civilization itself had perished, it would pass unchanged
from mouth to mouth and from generation to generation, crystallized
into imperishable diamonds of thought, by the conservative power of
the religious instinct.
There can be no doubt of the authenticity of this and the other
ancient prayers to Tezcatlipoca, which I shall quote hereafter. I
repeat what H. H. Bancroft says, in a foot-note, in his great work:
"Father Bernardino de Sahagun, a Spanish Franciscan, was _one of the
first preachers sent to Mexico_, where he was much employed in the
instruction of the native youth, working for the most part in the
province of Tezcuco.
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