Practically, there is not much difference between the old heathenism and the new Christianity.  We may put the dogmas out of the question.  They hear them and believe in them devoutly, and do not understand them in the least.  They had just received the Immaculate Conception, as they had received many mysteries before it; and were not a little delighted to have a new occasion for decorating themselves and their churches with flowers, marching in procession, dancing, beating drums, and letting off rockets by daylight, as their manner is.  The real essence of both religions is the same to them.  They had gods, to whom they built temples, and in whose honour they gave offerings, maintained priests, danced and walked in processions—­much as they do now, that their divinities might be favourable to them, and give them good crops and success in their enterprises.  This is pretty much what their present Christianity consists of.  As a moral influence, working upon the character of the people, it seems scarcely to have had the slightest effect, except, as I said, in causing them to leave off human sacrifices, which were probably not an original feature of their worship, but were introduced comparatively at a late time, and had already been almost abolished by one king.

The Indians still show the greatest veneration for a priest; and Heller well illustrates this feeling when he tells us how he happened to ride through the country in a long black cloak, and the Indians he met on the road used to fall on their knees as he passed, and ask for his blessing, regardless of the deep mud and their white trousers.  However, this was ten years before we were in the country, and I doubt whether the cloak would get so much veneration now.  The best measure of the influence of the Church is the fact that when Mexico adopted a republican constitution, in imitation of that of the United States, it was settled that no Church but that of Rome should be tolerated in the country; and this law still remains one of the fundamental principles of the State, in which universal liberty and equality, freedom of the press, and absolute religious intolerance form rather a strange jumble.  It is curious to observe that, though the Independence confirmed the authority of the Roman Catholic religion, it considerably reduced the church-revenues, by making the payment of tithes a matter of mere option.  The Church—­of course—­diligently preaches the necessity of paying tithes, putting their obligation in the catechism, between the ten commandments and the seven sacraments, and they still get a good deal in this way.