IX. GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP

IX. GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP

THE MOTHER OR ALL-NOURISHING GODDESS UNDER VARIOUS NAMES AND IN VARIOUS ASPECTS -- HER FEAST IN THE ELEVENTH AZTEC MONTH OCHPANIZTLI -- FESTIVALS OF THE EIGHTH MONTH, HUEYTECUILHUITL, AND OF THE FOURTH, HUEYTOZOZTLI -- THE DEIFICATION OF WOMEN THAT DIED IN CHILD-BIRTH -- THE GODDESS OF WATER UNDER VARIOUS NAMES AND IN VARIOUS ASPECTS -- CEREMONIES OF THE BAPTISM OR LUSTRATION OF CHILDREN -- THE GODDESS OF LOVE, HER VARIOUS NAMES AND ASPECTS -- RITES OF CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION -- THE GOD OF FIRE AND HIS VARIOUS NAMES -- HIS FESTIVALS IN THE TENTH MONTH XOCOTLVETI AND IN THE EIGHTEENTH MONTH YZCALI; ALSO HIS QUADRIENNIAL FESTIVAL IN THE LATTER MONTH -- THE GREAT FESTIVAL OF EVERY FIFTY-TWO YEARS; LIGHTING THE NEW FIRE -- THE GOD OF HADES, AND TEOYAOMIQUE, COLLECTOR OF THE SOULS OF THE FALLEN BRAVE -- DEIFICATION OF DEAD RULERS AND HEROES -- MIXCOATL, GOD OF HUNTING AND HIS FEAST IN THE FOURTEENTH MONTH, QUECHOLLI -- VARIOUS OTHER MEXICAN DEITIES -- FESTIVAL IN THE SECOND MONTH, TLACAXIPEHUALIZTLI, WITH NOTICE OF THE GLADIATORIAL SACRIFICES -- COMPLETE SYNOPSIS OF THE FESTIVALS OF THE MEXICAN CALENDAR, FIXED AND MOVABLE -- TEMPLES AND PRIESTS.

Centeotl is a goddess, or according to some good authorities a god, who held, under many names and in many characters, a most important place in the divine world of the Aztecs, and of other Mexican and Central American peoples. She was goddess of maize, and consequently, from the importance in America of this grain, of agriculture, and of the producing earth generally. Many of her various names seem dependent on the varying aspects of the maize at different stages of its growth; others seem to have originated in the mother-like nourishing qualities of the grain of which she was the deity. Müller lays much stress on this aspect of her character: "The force which sustains life must also have created it. Centeotl was therefore considered as bringing children to light, and is represented with an infant in her arms. Nebel gives us such a representation, and in our Mexican museum at Basel there are many images in this form, made of burnt clay. Where agriculture rules, there more children are brought to mature age than among the hunting nations, and the land revels in a large population. No part of the world is so well adapted to exhibit this difference as America. Centeotl is consequently the great producer, not of children merely, she is the great goddess, the most ancient goddess."[IX-1]

[Sidenote: THE MOTHER-NOURISHER.]

Centeotl was known, according to Clavigero, by the titles Tonacajohua, 'she who sustains us;' Tzinteotl, 'original goddess;' and by the further names Xilonen, Iztacacenteotl, and Tlatlauhquicenteotl. She was further, according to the same author, identical with Tonantzin, 'our mother,' and, according to Müller and many Spanish authorities, either identical or closely connected with the various deities known as Teteionan, 'the mother of the gods,'[IX-2] Cihuatcoatl, 'the snake-woman,' Tazi or Toci or Tocitzin, 'our grandmother,' and Earth, the universal material mother. Squier says of Tiazolteotl, that "she is Cinteotl the goddess of maize, under another aspect."[IX-3]

She was particularly honored by the Totonacs, with whom she was the chief divinity. They greatly loved her, believing that she did not demand human victims, but was content with flowers and fruits, the fat banana and the yellow maize, and small animals, such as doves, quails, and rabbits. More, they hoped that she would in the end utterly deliver them from the cruel necessity of such sacrifices, even to the other gods.

With very different feelings, as we shall soon see, did the Mexicans proper approach this deity, making her temples horrid with the tortured forms of human sacrifices. It shows how deep the stain of the blood was in the Mexican religious heart, how poisonous far the odor of it had crept through all the senses of the Aztec soul, when it could be believed that the great sustainer, the yellow waving maize, the very mother of all, must be fed upon the flesh of her own children.[IX-4]

To make comprehensible various allusions it seems well here to sum up rapidly the characters given of certain goddesses identical with or resembling in various points this Centeotl. Chicomecoatl[IX-5] was, according to Sahagun, the Ceres of Mexico, and the goddess of provisions, as well of what is drunk as of what is eaten. She was represented with a crown on her head, a vase in her right hand, and on her left arm a shield with a great flower painted thereon; her garments and her sandals were red.

The first of the Mexican goddesses was, following the same authority, Cioacoatl, or Civacoatl, the goddess of adverse things, such as poverty, downheartedness, and toil. She appeared often in the guise of a great lady, wearing such apparel as was used in the palace; she was also heard at night in the air shouting and even roaring. Besides her name Cioacoatl, which means 'snake-woman,' she was known as Tonantzin, that is to say, 'our mother.' She was arrayed in white robes, and her hair was arranged in front, over her forehead, in little curls that crossed each other. It was a custom with her to carry a cradle on her shoulders, as one that carries a child in it, and after setting it down in the market-place beside the other women, to disappear. When this cradle was examined, there was found a stone knife in it, and with this the priests slew their sacrificial victims.

[Sidenote: MEDICINE-GODDESS.]

The goddess of Sahagun's description most resembling the Toci of other writers, is the one that he calls 'the mother of the gods, the heart of the earth, and our ancestor or grandmother (abuela).' She is described as the goddess of medicine and of medicinal herbs, as worshiped by doctors, surgeons, blood-letters, of those that gave herbs to produce abortions, and also of the diviners that pronounced upon the fortune of children according to their birth. They worshiped her also that cast lots with grains of maize, those that augured by looking into water in a bowl, those that cast lots with bits of cord tied together, those that drew little worms or maggots from the mouth or eyes, those that extracted little stones from other parts of the body, and those that had sweat-baths, temazcallis, in their houses. These last always set the image of this goddess in the baths, calling her Temazcalteci, that is to say, 'the grandmother of the baths.' Her adorers made this goddess a feast every year, buying a woman for a sacrifice, decorating this victim with the ornaments proper to the goddess. Every evening they danced with this unfortunate, and regaled her delicately, praying her to eat as they would a great lady, and amusing her in every way that she might not weep nor be sad at the prospect of death. When the dreadful hour did come, having slain her, together with two others that accompanied her to death, they flayed her; then a man clothed himself in her skin, and went about all the city playing many pranks--by all of which her identity with Tozi seems sufficiently clear. This goddess was represented with the mouth and chin stained with ulli, and a round patch of the same on her face; on her head she had a kind of turban made of cloth rolled round and knotted behind. In this knot were stuck plumes which issued from it like flames, and the ends of the cloth fell behind over the shoulders. She wore sandals, a shirt with a kind of broad serrated lower border, and white petticoats. In her left hand she held a shield with a round plate of gold in the centre thereof; in her right hand she held a broom.[IX-6]

The festival in which divers of the various manifestations of the mother-goddess were honored, was held in the beginning of the eleventh Aztec month, beginning on the 14th of September; Centeotl, or Cinteotl, or Centeutl, or Tzinteutl, is however represented therein as a male and not a female.

[Sidenote: SACRIFICE TO THE MOTHER-GODDESS.]

Fifteen days before the commencement of the festival those that took part in it began to dance, if dancing it could be called, in which the feet and body were hardly moved, and in which the time was kept by raising and lowering the hands to the beat of the drum. This went on for eight days, beginning in the afternoon and finishing with the set of sun, the dancers being perfectly silent, arranged in four lines, and each having both hands full of flowers, cut branches and all. Some of the youths, indeed, too restless to bear the silence, imitated with their mouths the sound of the drum; but all were forced to keep, as well in motion as in voice, the exactest time and good order. On the expiration of these eight days the medical women, both old and young, divided themselves into two parties, and fought a kind of mock battle before the woman that had to die in this festival, to amuse her and keep tears away; for they held it of bad augury if this miserable creature gave way to her grief, and as a sign that many women had to die in childbirth. This woman who was called for the time being, 'the image of the mother of the gods,' led in person the first attack upon one of the two parties of fighters, being accompanied by three old women that were to her as mothers and never left her side, called respectively Aoa, Tlavitezqui, and Xocuauhtli.[IX-7] The fight consisted in pelting each other with handfuls of red leaves, or leaves of the nopal, or of yellow flowers called cempoalsuchitl, the same sort as had been carried by the actors in the preceding dance. These women all wore girdles, to which were suspended little gourds filled with powder of the herb called yietl. When the pelting-match was over, the woman that had to die was led back to the house where she was guarded; and all this was repeated during four successive days. Then the victim representing Toci, that is to say, 'our grandmother or ancestor,' for so was called the mother of the gods, was led for the last time through the market-place by the medical woman. This ceremony was called 'the farewell to the market-place;' for never more should she see it who this day passed through, decorated in such mournful frippery, surrounded by the pomp of such hollow mirth. She went sowing maize on every side as she walked, and having passed through the market she was received by the priests who took her to a house near the cu where she had to be killed. There the medical women and midwives consoled her: Daughter, be joyful and not sad, this night thou shalt sleep with the king. Then they adorned her with the ornaments of the goddess Toci, striving all the while to keep the fact of her death in the back-ground, that she might die suddenly and without knowing it. At midnight, in darkness, not so much as a cough breaking the silence, she was led to the holy temple-top, and caught up swiftly on the shoulders of a man. There was hardly a struggle; her bearer felt himself deluged with blood, while she was beheaded with all despatch, and flayed, still warm. The skin of the thighs was first taken off and carried, for a purpose to be presently revealed, to the cu of Centeotl, who was the son of Toci. With the remainder of the skin, next taken off, a priest clothed himself, drawing it on, it would appear from other records, like a glove; this priest who was a young man chosen for his bodily forces and size, thus clothed represented Toci, the goddess herself. The Toci priest, with this horrible jacket sticking to his sinewy bust, then came down from the temple amid the chanting of the singers of the cu. On each side of him went two persons, who had made a vow to help him in this service, and behind came several other priests. In front there ran a number of principal men and soldiers, armed with besoms of blood-stained grass, who looked back from time to time, and struck their shields as if provoking a fight; these he pretended to pursue with great fury, and all that saw this play (which was called cacacalli) feared and trembled exceedingly. On reaching the cu of Huitzilopochtli, the Toci priest spread out his arms and stood like a cross before the image of the war god; this he did four times and then went on to the cu of Centeotl, whither, as we remember, the skin of the thighs of the flayed woman had been sent. This skin of the thighs another young priest, representing the god Centeotl, son of Toci, had put on over his face like a mask. In addition to this loathsome veil, he wore a jacket of feathers and a hood of feathers attached to the jacket. This hood ran out into a peak of a spiral form falling behind; and the back-bone or spine of this spiral resembled the comb of a cock; this hood was called ytztlacoliuhqui, that is to say 'god of frost.'

The Toci priest and the Centeotl priest next went together to the cu of Toci, where the first waited for the morning (for all this already described took place at night) to have certain trappings put on over his horrid under-vest. When the morning broke, amid the chanting of the singers, all the principal men, who had been waiting below, ran with great swiftness up the steps of the temple carrying their offerings. Some of these principal men began to cover the feet and the head of the Toci priest with the white downy inner feathers of the eagle; others painted his face red; others put on him a rather short shirt with the figure of an eagle wrought or woven into the breast of it, and certain painted petticoats; others beheaded quails and offered copal. All this done quickly, these men took their departure.

[Sidenote: THE SKIN-BEARERS.]

Then were brought forth and put on the Toci priest all his rich vestures, and a kind of square crown very wide above and ornamented with five little banners, one in each corner, and in the centre one higher than the others. All the captives that had to die were brought out and set in line, and he took four of them one after the other, threw them down on the sacrificial stone and took out their hearts; the rest of the captives he handed over to the other priests to complete the work he had begun. After this he set out with the Centeotl priest for the cu of the latter. In advance of these a little way there walked a party of their devotees, called ycuexoan, decorated with papers, girt for breech-clout with twisted paper, carrying at their shoulders a crumpled paper, round like a shield, and tassels of untwisted cotton. On either side also there went those that sold lime[IX-8] in the market, and the medical women, moving to the singing of the priests and the beat of drum. Having come to the place where heads were spitted at the cu of Centeotl, the Toci priest set one foot on the drum and waited there for the Centeotl priest. The two being come together it would seem that he who represented Centeotl now set out alone, with much haste and accompanied by many soldiers, for a place on the enemy's frontier where there was a kind of small hut built. There at last was deposited and left the skin of the thighs of the sacrificed woman which had served such ghastly use. And often, it is said, it happened, this ceremony taking place on the border of a hostile territory, that the enemy sallied out against the procession, and there was fighting and many were slain.

After this the young man who represented the goddess Toci was taken to the house that is called Atempan. The king took his seat on a throne with a mat of eagle-skin and feathers under his feet, and a tiger-skin over the back of his seat, and there was a grand review of the army, and a distribution from the royal treasury of raiment, ornaments, and arms; and it was understood that those who received such arms had to die with them in war. This done, dancing was begun in the court-yard of the temple of Toci; and all who had received presents, as above, repaired thither. This dancing, as in the first part of the festival, consisted for the most part in keeping time to the beat of the drum with hands filled with flowers; so that the whole court looked like a living garden; and there was so much gold, for the king and all the princes were there, that the sun flashed through all as on water. This began at mid-day and went on for two days. On the evening of the second day, the priests of the goddess Chicomecoatl, clothed with the skins of the captives that had died in a former day, ascended a small cu called the table of Huitzilopochtli and sowed maize of all kinds, white and yellow and red, and calabash-seeds, upon the heads of the people that were below. The people tried to gather up these as they fell, and elbowed each other a good deal. The damsels, called cioatlamacazque, that served the goddess Chicomecoatl, carried each one on her shoulder, rolled in a rich mantle, seven ears of maize, striped with melted ulli and wrapped in white paper; their legs and arms were decorated with feathers sprinkled over with marcasite. These sang with the priest of their goddess. This done, one of the priests descended from the above-mentioned cu of Huitzilopochtli, carrying in his hand a large basket filled with powdered chalk and feather-down, which he set in a small chamber, or little cave, called coaxalpan, between the temple-stairs and the temple itself. This cavity was reached from below by four or five steps, and when the basket was put down there was a general rush of the soldiers to be first to secure some of the contents. Every one, as he got his hands filled, with much elbowing, returned running to the place whence he had set out. All this time the Toci priest had been looking on, and now he pretended to chase those that ran, while they pelted him back with the down and powdered chalk they had in their hands; the king himself running a little way and pelting him like the rest. After this fashion they all ran away from him and left him alone, except some priests, who followed him to a place called Tocititlan, when he took off the skin of the sacrificed woman and hung it up in a little hut that was there; taking care that its arms were stretched out, and that the head (or, surely, the neck--for have we not read that the head was cut off the woman on the fatal night which terminated her life?), was turned toward the road, or street. And this was the last of the ceremonies of the feast of Ochpaniztli.[IX-9]

[Sidenote: THE XILONEN FESTIVAL.]

The intimate connection of the goddess Xilonen (from xilotl, a young or tender ear of maize) with Centeotl is shown by the fact that in the cu of Centeotl was killed the unfortunate woman who was decorated to resemble the goddess Xilonen. The festival of Xilonen commenced on the eleventh day of the eighth Mexican month, which month begins on the 16th of July. The victim was made to resemble the image of the goddess by having her face painted yellow from the nose downward, and her brow red. On her head was put a crown of paper with four corners, from the centre and top of which issued many plumes. Round her neck and over her breasts hung strings of precious stones, and over these was put a round medal of gold. Her garments and sandals were curiously wrought, the latter painted with red stripes. On her left arm was a shield, and in the right hand she held a stick, or baton, painted yellow. The women led her to death dancing round her, and the priests and the principal men danced before them, sowing incense as they went. The priest who was to act as executioner had on his shoulders a bunch of feathers held there in the grip of an eagle's talons, artificial; another of the priests carried the hollow board filled with rattles, so often mentioned. At the foot of the cu of Centeotl, this latter stopped in front of the Xilonen woman, scattered incense before her, and rattled with his board, waving it from side to side. They ascended the cu, and one of the priests caught the victim up, twisting her backwards, her shoulders against his shoulders; on which living altar her heart was cut out through her breast, and put into a cup. After that there was more dancing, in which the women, old and young, took part in a body by themselves, their arms and legs decorated with red macaw feathers, and their faces painted yellow and dusted with marcasite. There was also a banquet of small pies called xocotamalli, during which to the old men and women license was given to drink pulque; the young, however, being restrained from the bacchanalian part of this enjoyment by severe and sometimes capital punishment.[IX-10]

Lastly, the intimate connection or identity of Centeotl with the earth-mother, the all-nourisher, seems clearly symbolized in the feast of the fourth month of the Mexicans, which began on the 27th of April. In it they made a festival to the god of cereals, under the name of Centeotl, and to the goddess of provisions, called Chicomecoatl. First they fasted four days, putting certain rushes or water-flags beside the images of the gods, staining the white part of the bottom of each rush with blood drawn from their ears or legs; branches too, of the kind called acxoiatl, and a kind of bed or mattress of hay were put before the altars. A sort of porridge of maize called mazamorra was also made and given to the youths. Then all walked out into the country, and through the maize-fields, carrying stalks of maize, and other herbs called mecoatl. With these they strewed the image of the god of cereals that every one had in his house, and they put papers on it and food before it of various kinds; five chiquivites,[IX-11] or baskets, of tortillas, and on the top of each chiquivitl a cooked frog, a basket of chian[IX-12] flour, which they call pinolli;[IX-13] and a basket of toasted maize mixed with beans. They cut also a joint from a green maize-stalk, stuffed the little tube with morsels of every kind of the above-mentioned food, and set it carefully on the back of the frog.[IX-14] This each one did in his own house, and in the afternoon all this offering of food was carried to the cu of the goddess of provisions, of the goddess Chicomecoatl, and eaten there in a general scramble, take who take could; symbolizing one knows not what, if not the laisser-faire and laisser-aller system of national commisariat much advocated by many political economists, savage and civilized.

[Sidenote: BLESSING THE SEED-MAIZE.]

In this festival the ears of maize that were preserved for seed were carried in procession by virgins to a cu, apparently the one just mentioned, but which is here called the cu of Chicomecoatl and of Centeotl. The maidens carried on their shoulders not more than seven ears of corn apiece, sprinkled with drops of oil of ulli, and wrapped first in papers and then in a cloth. The legs and arms of these girls were ornamented with red feathers, and their faces were smeared with the pitch called chapopotli and sprinkled with marcasite. As they went along in this bizarre attire, the people crowded to see them pass, but it was forbidden to speak to them. Sometimes indeed an irrepressible youth would break out into words of admiration or love toward some fair pitch-besmeared face, but his answer came sharp and swift from one of the old women that watched the younger, in some such fashion as this: And so thou speakest, raw coward! thou must be speaking, eh? Think first of performing some man's feat, and get rid of that tail of hair at the nape of thy neck that marks the coward and the good-for-nothing. It is not for thee to speak here; thou art as much a woman as I am; thou hast never come out from behind the fire! But the young lovers of Tenochtitlan were not without insolent springalls among them, much given to rude gibes, and retorts like the following: Well said, my lady, I receive this with thanks, I will do what you command me, will take care to show myself a man; but as for you, I value two cacao-beans more than you and all your lineage; put mud on your body, and scratch yourself; fold one leg over the other and roll in the dust; see! here is a rough stone, knock your face against it; and if you want anything more take a red-hot coal and burn a hole in your throat to spit through; for God's sake, hold your peace.

This the young fellows said, writes Sahagun, to show their courage; and so it went, give and take, till the maize was carried to the cu and blessed. Then the folk returned to their houses and sanctified maize was put in the bottom of every granary, and it was said that it was the heart thereof, and it remained there till taken out for seed. These ceremonies were specially in honor of the goddess Chicomecoatl. She supplied provisions, she it was that had made all kinds of maize and frijoles, and whatsover vegetables could be eaten, and all sorts of chia; and for this they made her that festival with offerings of food, and with songs and dances, and with the blood of quails. All the ornaments of her attire were bright red and curiously wrought, and in her hands they put stalks of maize.[IX-15]

The Mexicans deified, under the name Cioapipilti, all women that died in child-bed. There were oratories raised to their honor in every ward that had two streets. In such oratories, called cioateucalli or ciateupan, there were kept images of these goddesses adorned with certain papers called amatetevitl. The eighth movable feast of the Mexican calendar was dedicated to them, falling in the sign Cequiahuitl, in the first house; in this feast were slain in their honor all lying in the jails under pain of death. These goddesses were said to move through the air at pleasure, and to appear to whom they would of those that lived upon the earth, and sometimes to enter into and possess them. They were accustomed to hurt children with various infirmities, especially paralysis and other sudden diseases. Their favorite haunt on earth was the cross-roads, and, on certain days of the year, people would not go out of their houses for fear of meeting them. They were propitiated in their temples and at the cross-roads by offerings of bread kneaded into various shapes--into figures of butterflies and thunderbolts for example--by offerings of small tamales, or pies, and of toasted maize. Their images, besides the papers above mentioned, were decorated by having the face, arms, and legs painted very white; their ears were made of gold; their hair was dressed like that of ladies, in little curls; the shirt was painted over with black waves; the petticoats were worked in divers colors; the sandals were white.

[Sidenote: THE MOTHER-GODDESS AND WOMAN IN CHILD-BED.]

The mother-goddess, under the form of the serpent-woman, Cioacoatl, or Ciuacoatl, or Cihuacoatl, or, lastly, Quilaztli, seems to have been held as the patroness of women in child-bed generally, and, especially, of those that died there. When the delivery of a woman was likely to be tedious and dangerous, the midwife addressed the patient saying: Be strong, my daughter; we can do nothing for thee. Here are present thy mother and thy relations, but thou alone must conduct this business to its termination. See to it, my daughter, my well-beloved, that thou be a strong and valiant and manly woman; be like her who first bore children, like Cioacoatl, like Quilaztli. And if still after a day and a night of labor the woman could not bring forth, the midwife took her away from all other persons and brought her into a closed room and made many prayers, calling upon the goddess Cioacoatl, and upon the goddess Yoalticitl,[IX-16] and upon other goddesses. If, notwithstanding all, however, the woman died, they gave her the title, mociaquezqui, that is 'valiant woman,' and they washed all her body, and washed with soap her head and her hair. Her husband lifted her on his shoulders, and, with her long hair flowing loose behind him, carried her to the place of burial. All the old midwives accompanied the body, marching with shields and swords, and shouting as when soldiers close in the attack. They had need of their weapons, for the body that they escorted was a holy relic which many were eager to win; and a party of youths fought with these Amazons to take their treasure from them: this fight was no play but a very bone-breaking earnest. The burial procession set out at the setting of the sun and the corpse was interred in the court-yard of the cu of the goddesses, or celestial women called Cioapipilti. Four nights the husband and his friends guarded the grave and four nights the youths, or rawest and most inexperienced soldiers, prowled like wolves about the little band. If, either from the fighting midwives or from the night-watchers, they succeeded in securing the body, they instantly cut off the middle finger of the left hand and the hair of the head; either of these things being put in one's shield, made one fierce, brave, invincible in war, and blinded the eyes of one's enemies. There prowled also round the sacred tomb certain wizards, called temamacpalitotique, seeking to hack off and steal the whole left arm of the dead wife; for they held it to be of mighty potency in their enchantments, and a thing that when they went to a house to work their malice thereon, would wholly take away the courage of the inmates, and dismay them so that they could neither move hand nor foot, though they saw all that passed.

[Sidenote: THE HOUSE OF THE SUN.]

The death of this woman in child-bed was mourned by the midwives, but her parents and relations were joyful thereat; for they said that she did not go to hades, or the under-ground world, but to the western part of the House of the Sun. To the eastern part of the House of the Sun, as the ancients said, were taken up all the soldiers that died in war. When the sun rose in the morning these brave men decorated themselves in their panoply of war, and accompanied him towards the mid-heaven, shouting and fighting, apparently in a sham or review battle, until they reached the point of noonday, which was called nepantlatonatiuh. At this point the heroines, whose home was in the west of heaven, the mocioaquezque, the valiant women, dead in child-bed, who ranked as equal with the heroes fallen in war, met these heroes and relieved them of their duty as guards of honor of the sun. From noon till night, down the western slope of light, while the forenoon escort of warriors were scattered through all the fields and gardens of heaven, sucking flowers till another day should call them anew to their duty, the women, in panoply of war, just as the men had been, and fighting like them with clashing shields and shouts of joy, bore the sun to his setting; carrying him on a litter of quetzales, or rich feathers, called the quetzal-apanecaiutl. At this setting-place of the sun the women were, in their turn, relieved by those of the under world, who here came out to receive him. For it was reported of old by the ancients that when night began in the upper world the sun began to shine through hades, and that thereupon the dead rose up from their sleep and bore his shining litter through their domain. At this hour too the celestial women, released from their duty in heaven, scattered and poured down through the air upon the earth, where, with a touch of the dear nature that makes the world kin, they are described as looking for spindles to spin with, and shuttles to weave with, and all the old furniture and implements of their house-wifely pride. This thing, says Sahagun, "the devil wrought to deceive withal, for very often, in the form of those women, he appeared to their bereaved husbands, giving them petticoats and shirts."

Very beautiful was the form of address before burial used by the midwife to the dead woman who had taken rank among the mocioaquezque or mocioaquetza: O woman, strong and warlike, child well-beloved, valiant one, beautiful and tender dove, strong hast thou been and toil-enduring as a hero; thou hast conquered, thou hast done as did thy mother the lady Cioacoatl, or Quilaztli. Very valiantly hast thou fought, stoutly hast thou handled the shield and the spear that the great mother put in thine hand. Up with thee! break from sleep! behold it is already day; already the red of morning shoots through the clouds; already the swallows and all birds are abroad. Rise, my daughter, attire thyself, go to that good land where is the house of thy father and mother the Sun; thither let thy sisters, the celestial women, carry thee, they that are always joyful and merry and filled with delight, because of the Sun with whom they take pleasure. My tender daughter and lady, not without sore travail hast thou gotten the glory of this victory; a great pain and a hard penance hast thou undergone. Well and fortunately hast thou purchased this death. Is this, peradventure, a fruitless death, and without great merit and honor? Nay, verily, but one of much honor and profit. Who receives other such great mercy, other such happy victory as thou? for thou hast gained with thy death eternal life, a life full of joy and delight, with the goddesses called Cioapipilti, the celestial goddesses. Go now, my lady, my well-beloved; little by little advance toward them; be one of them, that they may receive thee and be always with thee, that thou mayest rejoice and be glad in our father and mother the Sun, and accompany him whithersoever he wish to take pleasure. O my lady, my well-beloved daughter, thou hast left us behind, us old people, unworthy of such glory; thou hast torn thyself away from thy father and mother, and departed. Not indeed of thine own will, but thou wast called; thou didst follow a voice that called. We must remain orphans and forlorn, old and luckless and poor; misery will glorify itself in us. O my lady, thou hast left us here that we may go from door to door and through the streets in poverty and sorrow; we pray thee to remember us where thou art, and to provide for the poverty that we here endure. The sun wearies us with his great heat, the air with its coldness, and the frost with its torment. All these things afflict and grieve our miserable earthen bodies; hunger is lord over us, and we can do nothing against it. My well-beloved, I pray thee to visit us since thou art a valorous woman and a lady, since thou art settled forever in the place of delight and blessedness, there to live and be forever with our Lord. Thou seest him with thine eyes, thou speakest to him with thy tongue, pray to him for us, entreat him that he favor us, and therewith we shall be at rest.[IX-17]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: CHALCHIHUITLICUE.]

Chalchihuitlicue or Chalchiuhcyeje is described by Clavigero as the goddess of water and the mate of Tlaloc. She had other names relating to water in its different states, as Apozonallotl and Acuecuejotl, which mean the swelling and fluctuation of water; Atlacamani, or the storms excited thereon; Ahuic and Aiauh, or its motion, now to one side, now to the other; and Xixiquipilihui, the alternate rising and falling of the waves. The Tlascaltecs called her Matlalcueje, that is 'clothed in a green robe;' and they gave the same name to the highest mountain of Tlascala, on whose summit are found those stormy clouds which generally burst over the city of Puebla. To that summit the Tlascaltecs ascended to perform their sacrifices, and offer up their prayers. This is the very same goddess of water to whom Torquemada gives the name of Hochiquetzal, and Boturini that of Macuilxochiquetzalli.[IX-18]

Of the accuracy of the assertions of this last sentence I am by no means certain; Boturini and Torquemada both describe their goddess of water without giving any support thereto. Boturini says that she was metaphorically called by the Mexicans the goddess of the Petticoat of Precious Stones--chalchihuites, as it would appear from other authorities, being meant--and that she was represented with large pools at her feet, and symbolized by certain reeds that grow in moist places. She was particularly honored by fishermen and others whose trade connected them with water, and great ladies were accustomed to dedicate to her their nuptials--probably, as will be seen immediately, because this goddess had much to do with certain lustral ceremonies performed on new-born children.[IX-19]

Many names, writes Torquemada, were given to this goddess, but that of Chalchihuitlicue was the most common and usual; it meant to say, 'petticoat of water, of a shade between green and blue,' that is, of the color of the stones called chalchihuites.[IX-20] She was the companion, not the wife of Tlaloc, for indeed as our author affirms, the Mexicans did not think so grossly of their gods and goddesses as to marry them.[IX-21]

[Sidenote: IDOL OF CHALCHIHUITLICUE.]

According to Sahagun, Chalchihuitlicue was the sister of the Tlalocs. She was honored because she had power over the waters of the sea and of the rivers to drown those that went down to them, to raise tempests and whirlwinds, and to cause boats to founder. They worshiped her all those that dealt in water, that went about selling it from canoes, or peddled jars of it in the market. They represented this goddess as a woman, painted her face yellow, save the forehead, which was often blue, and hung round her neck a collar of precious stones from which depended a medal of gold. On her head was a crown of light blue paper, with plumes of green feathers, and tassels that fell to the nape of her neck. Her ear-rings were of turquoise wrought in mosaic. Her clothing was a shirt, or upper body-garment, clear blue petticoats with fringes from which hung marine shells, and white sandals. In her left hand she held a shield, and a leaf of the broad round white water-lily, called atlacuezona.[IX-22] In her right hand she held as a sceptre a vessel in the shape of a cross, or of a monstrance of the Catholic Church. This goddess, together with Chicomecoatl, goddess of provisions, and Vixtocioatl, goddess of salt, was held in high veneration by kings and lords, for they said that these three supported the common people so that they could live and multiply.[IX-23]

[Sidenote: TWO LUSTRATIONS OR BAPTISMS.]

Chalchihuitlicue was especially connected with certain ceremonies of lustration of children, resembling in many points baptism among Christians. It would seem that two of these lustrations were practiced upon every infant, and the first took place immediately upon its birth. When the midwife had cut the umbilical cord of the child, then she washed it, and while washing it said, varying her address according to its sex: My son, approach now thy mother, Chalchihuitlicue, the goddess of water; may she see good to receive thee, to wash thee, and to put away from thee the filthiness that thou takest from thy father and mother; may she see good to purify thine heart, to make it good and clean, and to instill into thee good habits and manners.

Then the midwife turned to the water itself and spoke: Most compassionate lady, Chalchihuitlicue, here has come into the world this thy servant, sent hither by our father and mother, whose names are Ometecutli and Omecioatl,[IX-24] who live on the ninth heaven, which is the place of the habitation of the gods. We know not what are the gifts that this infant brings with it; we know not what was given to it before the beginning of the world; we know not what it is, nor what mischief and vice it brings with it taken from its father and mother. It is now in thine hands, wash and cleanse it as thou knowest to be necessary; in thine hands we leave it. Purge it from the filthiness it inherits from its father and its mother, all spot and defilement let the water carry away and undo. See good, O our lady, to cleanse and purify its heart and life that it may lead a quiet and peaceable life in this world; for indeed we leave this creature in thine hands, who art mother and lady of the gods, and alone worthy of the gift of cleansing that thou has held from before the beginning of the world; see good to do as we have entreated thee to this child now in thy presence.

Then the midwife spake again; I pray thee to receive this child here brought before thee. This said, the midwife took water and blew her breath upon it, and gave to taste of it to the babe, and touched the babe with it on the breast and on the top of the head. Then she said: My well-beloved son, or daughter, approach here thy mother and father, Chalchihuitlicue and Chalchihuitlatonac; let now this goddess take thee, for she has to bear thee on her shoulders and in her arms through this world. Then the midwife dipped the child into water and said: Enter, my son, into the water that is called mamatlac and tuspalac; let it wash thee; let him cleanse thee that is in every place, let him see good to put away from thee all the evil that thou hast carried with thee from before the beginning of the world, the evil that thy father and thy mother have joined to thee. Having so washed the creature, the midwife then wrapped it up, addressing it the while as follows: O precious stone, O rich feather, O emerald, O sapphire, thou wert shaped where abide the great god and the great goddess that are above the heavens; created and formed thou wert by thy mother and father, Ometecutli and Omecioatl, the celestial woman and the celestial man. Thou hast come into this world, a place of many toils and troubles, of intemperate heat and intemperate cold and wind, a place of hunger and thirst, of weariness and of tears; of a verity we cannot say that this world is other than a place of weeping, of sadness, of vexation. Behold thy lot, weariness and weeping and tears. Thou hast come, my well-beloved, repose then and take here thy rest; let our Lord that is in every place provide for and support thee. And in saying all these things the midwife spake softly, as one that prays.

The second lustration or baptism, usually took place on the fifth day after birth, but in every case the astrologers and diviners were consulted, and if the signs were not propitious, the baptism was postponed till a day of good sign came. The ceremony, when the child was a boy, began by bringing to it a little shield, bow, and arrows; of which arrows there were four, one pointing toward each of the four points of the world. There were also brought a little shield, bow, and arrows, made of paste or dough of wild amaranth seeds, and a pottage of beans and toasted maize, and a little breech-clout and blanket or mantle. The poor in such cases had no more than the little shield, bow, and arrows, together with some tamales and toasted maize. When the child was a girl, there were brought to it, instead of mimic weapons, certain woman's implements and tools for spinning and weaving, the spindle and distaff, a little shirt and petticoats. These things being prepared, suiting the sex of the infant, its parents and relatives assembled before sunrise. When the sun rose the midwife asked for a new vessel full of water; and she took the child in her hands. Then the by-standers carried all the implements and utensils already mentioned into the court-yard of the house, where the midwife set the face of the child toward the west, and spake to the child saying: O grandson of mine, O eagle, O tiger, O valiant man, thou hast come into the world, sent by thy father and mother, the great Lord and the great lady; thou wast created and begotten in thy house, which is the place of the supreme gods that are above the nine heavens. Thou art a gift from our son Quetzalcoatl, who is in every place; join thyself now to thy mother, the goddess of water, Chalchihuitlicue.

Then the 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 her moistened fingers she touched the breast of the child, and said: Behold the pure water that washes and cleanses thine 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, washing and cleansing. I pray that this celestial water, blue and light blue, may enter into thy body and there live; I pray that it may destroy in thee and put away from thee all the things evil and adverse that were given thee before the beginning of the world. Into thine hand, O goddess of water, are all mankind put, because thou art our mother Chalchihuitlicue. Having so washed the body of the child and so spoken, the midwife said: Wheresoever thou art in this child, O thou hurtful thing, begone, leave it, put thyself apart; for now does it live anew, and anew is it born; now again is it purified and cleansed; now again is it shaped and engendered by our mother the goddess of water.

[Sidenote: PRAYER TO THE EARTH-MOTHER.]

All these things being done and spoken, the midwife lifted the child in both her hands toward heaven and said: O Lord, behold here thy creature that thou hast sent to this place of pain, of affliction, of anguish, to this world. Give it, O Lord, thy gifts and thine inspiration, forasmuch as thou art the great god, and hast with thee the great goddess. Then the midwife stooped again and set the child upon the earth, and raised it the second time toward heaven, saying: O our lady, who art mother of the heavens, who art called Citlalatonac,[IX-25] to thee I direct my voice and my cry; I pray thee to inspire with thy virtue, what virtue soever it may be, to give and to instil it into this creature. Then the midwife stooped again and set the child on the ground, and raised it the third time toward heaven, and said: O our Lord, god and goddess celestial, that are in the heavens, behold this creature; see good to pour into it thy virtue and thy breath, so that it may live upon the earth. Then a fourth and last time the midwife set the babe upon the ground, a fourth time she lifted it toward heaven, and she spake to the sun and said: O our Lord, Sun, Totonametl, Tlaltecutli, that art our mother and our father, behold this creature, which is like a bird of precious plumage, like a zaquan or a quechutl;[IX-26] thine, O our Lord the Sun, he is; thou who art valiant in war and painted like a tiger in black and gray, he is thy creature and of thine estate and patrimony. For this he was born, to serve thee and to give thee food and drink; he is of the family of warriors and soldiers that fight on the field of battle.

[Sidenote: DEDICATION OF THE CHILD TO WAR.]

Then the midwife took the shield, and the bow and the dart that were there prepared, and spake to the Sun after this sort: Behold here the instruments of war which thou art served with, which thou delightest in; impart to this babe the gift that thou art wont to give to thy soldiers, enabling them to go to thine house of delights, where, having fallen in battle, they rest and are joyful and are now with thee praising thee. Will this poor little nobody ever be one of them? Have pity upon him, O clement Lord of ours.

During all the time of these ceremonies a great torch of candlewood was burning; and when these ceremonies were accomplished, a name was given to the child, that of one of his ancestors, so that he might inherit the fortune or lot of him whose name was so taken. This name was applied to the child by the midwife, or priestess, who performed the baptism. Suppose the name given was Yautl. Then the midwife began to shout and to talk like a man to the child: O Yautl, O valiant man, take this shield and this dart; these are for thy amusement, they are the delight of the sun. Then she tied the little mantle on its shoulders and girt the breech-clout about it. Now all the boys of the ward were assembled, and at this stage of the ceremony they rushed into the house where the baptism had taken place, and representing soldiers and forrayers, they took food that was there prepared for them, which was called 'the navel-string,' or 'navel,' of the child, and set out with it into the streets, shouting and eating. They cried O Yautl, Yautl, get thee to the field of battle, put thyself into the thickest of the fight; O Yautl, Yautl, thine office is to make glad the sun and the earth, to give them to eat and to drink; upon thee has fallen the lot of the soldiers that are eagles and tigers, that die in war, that are now making merry and singing before the sun. And they cried again: O soldiers, O men of war, come hither, come to eat of the navel of Yautl. Then the midwife, or priestess, took the child into the house, and departed, the great torch of candlewood being carried burning before her, and this was the last of the ceremony.[IX-27]

[Sidenote: THE AZTEC VENUS.]

The goddess (or god, as some have it) connected by the Mexicans with carnal love was variously called Tlazolteotl, Ixcuina, Tlaclquani, with other names, and, especially it would appear in Tlascala, Xochiquetzal. She had no very prominent or honorable place in the minds of the people and was much more closely allied to the Roman Cloacina than to the Greek Aphrodite. Camargo, the Tlascaltec, gives much the most agreeable and pleasing account of her. Her home was in the ninth heaven, in a pleasant garden, watered by innumerable fountains, where she passed her time spinning and weaving rich stuffs, in the midst of delights, ministered to by the inferior deities. No man was able to approach her, but she had in her service a crowd of dwarfs, buffoons, and hunchbacks, who diverted her with their songs and dances, and acted as messengers to such gods as she took a fancy to. So beautiful was she painted that no woman in the world could equal her; and the place of her habitation was called Iamotamohuanichan, Xochitlycacan, Chitamihuany, Cicuhnauhuepaniuhcan, and Tuhecayan, that is to say 'the place of Tamohuan, the place of the tree of flowers Xochitlihcacan, where the air is purest, beyond the nine heavens.' It was further said, that whoever had been touched by one of the flowers that grow in the beautiful garden of Xochiquetzal should love to the end, should love faithfully.[IX-28]

[Sidenote: TLAZOLTEOTL SEDUCES YÁPPAN.]

Boturini gives a legend in which this goddess figures in a very characteristic way. There was a man called Yáppan, who, to win the regard of the gods made himself a hermit, leaving his wife and his relations, and retiring to a desert place, there to lead a chaste and solitary life. In that desert was a great stone or rock, called Tehuehuetl, dedicated to penitential acts, which rock Yáppan ascended and took up his abode upon like a western Simeon Stylites. The gods observed all this with attention, but doubtful of the firmness of purpose of the new recluse, they set a spy upon him in the person of an enemy of his, named Yáotl, the word yáotl indeed signifying 'enemy.' Yet not even the sharpened eye of hate and envy could find any spot in the austere continent life of the anchorite, and the many women sent by the gods to tempt him to pleasure were repulsed and baffled. In heaven itself the chaste victories of the lonely saint were applauded, and it began to be thought that he was worthy to be transformed into some higher form of life. Then Tlazolteotl, feeling herself slighted and held for naught, rose up in her evil beauty, wrathful, contemptuous, and said: Think not, ye high and immortal gods, that this hero of yours has the force to preserve his resolution before me, or that he is worthy of any very sublime transformation; I descend to earth, behold now how strong is the vow of your devotee, how unfeigned his continence!

That day the flowers of the gardens of Xochiquetzal were untended by their mistress, her singing dwarfs were silent, her messengers undisturbed by her behests, and away in the desert, by the lonely rock, the crouching spy Yáotl saw a wondrous sight: one shaped like a woman, but fairer than eye can conceive, advancing toward the lean penance-withered man on the sacred height. Ha! thrills not the hermit's mortified flesh with something more than surprise, while the sweet voice speaks: My brother Yáppan, I the goddess Tlazolteotl, amazed at thy constancy, and commiserating thy hardships, come to comfort thee; what way shall I take, or what path, that I may get up to speak with thee? The simple one did not see the ruse, he came down from his place and helped the goddess up. Alas, in such a crisis, what need is there to speak further?--no other victory of Yáppan was destined to be famous in heaven, but in a cloud of shame his chaste light went down for ever. And thou, O shameless one, have thy fierce red lips had their fill of kisses, is thy Paphian soul satisfied withal, as now, flushed with victory, thou passest back to the tinkling fountains, and to the great tree of flowers, and to the far-reaching gardens where thy slaves await thee in the ninth heaven? Do thine eyes lower themselves at all in any heed of the miserable disenchanted victim left crouching, humbled on his desecrated rock, his nights and days of fasting and weariness gone for naught, his dreams, his hopes dissipated, scattered like dust at the trailing of thy robes? And for thee, poor Yáppan, the troubles of this life are soon to end; Yáotl, the enemy, has not seen all these things for nothing; he, at least, has not borne hunger and thirst and weariness, has not watched and waited in vain. O it avails nothing to lift the pleading hands, they are warm but not with clasping in prayer, and weary but not with waving the censer; the flint-edged mace beats down thy feeble guard, the neck that Tlazolteotl clasped is smitten through, the lips she kissed roll in the dust beside a headless trunk.

The gods transformed the dead man into a scorpion, with the forearms fixed lifted up as when he deprecated the blow of his murderer; and he crawled under the stone upon which he had abode. His wife, whose name was Tlahuitzin, that is to say 'the inflamed,' still lived. The implacable Yáotl sought her out, led her to the spot stained with her husband's blood, detailed pitilessly the circumstances of the sin and death of the hermit, and then smote off her head. The gods transformed the poor woman into that species of scorpion called the alacran encendido, and she crawled under the stone and found her husband. And so it comes that tradition says that all reddish colored scorpions are descended from Tlahuitzin, and all dusky or ash-colored scorpions from Yáppan, while both keep hidden under the stones and flee the light for shame of their disgrace and punishment. Last of all the wrath of the gods fell on Yáotl for his cruelty and presumption in exceeding their commands; he was transformed into a sort of locust that the Mexicans call ahuacachapullin.[IX-29]

[Sidenote: CONFESSION.]

Sahagun gives a very full description of this goddess and her connection with certain rites of confession, much resembling those already described in speaking of Tezcatlipoca.[IX-30] The goddess had according to our author, three names. The first was Tlazolteotl, that is to say 'the goddess of carnality.' The second name was Yxcuina, which signifies four sisters, called respectively, and in order of age, Tiacapan, Teicu, Tlaco, Xucotsi. The third and last name of this deity was Tlaclquani, which means 'eater of filthy things,' referring it is said to her function of hearing and pardoning the confessions of men and women guilty of unclean and carnal crimes. For this goddess, or these goddesses, had power not only to inspire and provoke to the commission of such sins, and to aid in their accomplishment, but also to pardon them, if they were confessed to certain priests who were also diviners and tellers of fortunes and wizards generally. In this confession, however, Tlazolteotl seems not to have been directly addressed, but only the supreme deity under several of his names. Thus the person whom, by a stretch of courtesy, we may call the penitent, having sought out a confessor from the class above mentioned, addressed that functionary in these words: Sir, I wish to approach the all-powerful god, protector of all, Yoalliehecatl, or Tezcatlipoca; I wish to confess my sins in secret. To this the wizard, or priest, replied: Welcome, my son; the thing thou wouldst do is for thy good and profit. This said, he searched the divining book, tonalamatl, to see what day would be most opportune for hearing the confession. That day come, the penitent brought a new mat, and white incense called copalli, and wood for the fire in which the incense was to be burned. Sometimes when he was a very noble personage, the priest went to his house to confess him, but as a general rule the ceremony took place at the residence of the priest. On entering this house the penitent swept very clean a portion of the floor and spread the new mat there for the confessor to seat himself upon, and kindled the wood. The priest then threw the copal upon the fire and said: O Lord, thou that art the father and the mother of the gods and the most ancient god,[IX-31] know that here is come thy vassal and servant, weeping and with great sadness; he is aware that he has wandered from the way, that he has stumbled, that he has slidden, that he is spotted with certain filthy sins and grave crimes worthy of death. Our Lord, very pitiful, since thou art the protector and defender of all, accept the penitence, give ear to the anguish of this thy servant and vassal.

At this point the confessor turned to the sinner and said: My son, thou art come into the presence of God, favorer and protector of all; thou art come to lay bare thy inner rottenness and unsavoriness; thou art come to publish the secrets of thine heart; see that thou fall into no pit by lying unto our Lord; strip thyself, put away all shame before him who is called Yoalliehecatl and Tezcatlipoca. It is certain that thou art now in his presence, although thou art not worthy to see him, neither will he speak with thee, for he is invisible and impalpable. See then to it how thou comest, and with what heart; fear nothing to publish thy secrets in his presence, give account of thy life, relate thine evil deeds as thou didst perform them; tell all with sadness to our Lord God, who is the favorer of all, and whose arms are open and ready to embrace and set thee on his shoulders. Beware of hiding anything through shame or through weakness.

Having heard these words the penitent took oath, after the Mexican fashion, to tell the truth. He touched the ground with his hand and licked off the earth that adhered to it;[IX-32] then he threw copal in the fire, which was another way of swearing to tell the truth. Then he set himself down before the priest and, inasmuch as he held him to be the image and vicar of god, he, the penitent, began to speak after this fashion: O our Lord who receivest and shelterest all, give ear to my foul deeds; in thy presence I strip, I put away from myself what shameful things soever I have done. Not from thee, of a verity, are hidden my crimes, for to thee all things are manifest and clear. Having thus said, the penitent proceeded to relate his sins in the order in which they had been committed, clearly and quietly, as in a slow and distinctly pronounced chant, as one that walked along a very straight way turning neither to the right hand nor to the left. When he had done the priest answered him as follows: My son, thou hast spoken before our Lord God, revealing to him thine evil works; and I shall now tell thee what thou hast to do. When the goddesses Civapipilti descend to the earth, or when it is the time of the festival of the four sister goddesses of carnality that are called Yxcuina, thou shalt fast four days afflicting thy stomach and thy mouth; this feast of the Yxcuina being come, at daybreak thou shalt do penance suitable to thy sins.[IX-33] Through a hole pierced by a maguey-thorn through the middle of thy tongue thou shall pass certain osier-twigs called teucalzacatl or tlacotl, passing them in front of the face and throwing them over the shoulder one by one; or thou mayest fasten them the one to the other and so pull them through thy tongue like a long cord. These twigs were sometimes passed through a hole in the ear; and, wherever they were passed, it would appear by our author that there were sometimes used of them by one penitent to the number of four hundred, or even of eight hundred.

[Sidenote: PENANCES.]

If the sin seemed too light for such a punishment as the preceding, the priest would say to the penitent: My son, thou shalt fast, thou shall fatigue thy stomach with hunger and thy mouth with thirst, and that for four days, eating only once on each day and that at noon. Or, the priest would say to him: Thou shalt go to offer paper in the usual places, thou shalt make images covered therewith in number proportionate to thy devotion, thou shalt sing and dance before them as custom directs. Or, again, he would say to him: Thou hast offended God, thou hast got drunk; thou must expiate the matter before Totochti, the god of wine; and when thou goest to do penance thou shalt go at night, naked, save only a piece of paper hanging from thy girdle in front and another behind; thou shalt repeat thy prayer and then throw down there before the gods those two pieces of paper, and so take thy departure.

This confession was held not to have been made to a priest, or to a man, but to God; and, inasmuch as it could only be heard once in a man's life, and, as for a relapse into sin after it there was no forgiveness, it was generally put off till old age. The absolution given by the priest was valuable in a double regard; the absolved was held shriven of every crime he had confessed, and clear of all pains and penalties, temporal or spiritual, civil or ecclesiastical, due therefor. Thus was the fiery lash of Nemesis bound up, thus were struck down alike the staff of Minos and the sword of Themis before the awful ægis of religion. It may be imagined with what reluctance this last hope, this unique life-confession was resorted to; it was the one city of refuge, the one Mexican benefit of sanctuary, the sole horn of the altar, of which a man might once take hold and live, but no more again for ever.[IX-34]

[Sidenote: GOD OF FIRE.]

The Mexican god of fire as we have already noticed was usually called Xiuhtecutli. He had, however, other names such as Ixcozauhqui, that is to say, 'yellow-faced;' and Cuecaltzin, which means 'flame of fire;' and Huehueteotl, or 'the ancient god.'[IX-35] His idol represented a naked man, the chin blackened with ulli, and wearing a lip-jewel of red stone. On his head was a parti-colored paper crown, with green plumes issuing from the top of it like flames of fire; from the sides hung tassels of feathers down to the ears. The ear-rings of the image were of turquoise wrought in mosaic. On the idol's back was a dragon's head made of yellow feathers and some little marine shells. To the ankles were attached little bells or rattles. On the left arm was a shield, almost entirely covered with a plate of gold, into which were set in the shape of a cross five chalchiuites. In the right hand the god held a round pierced plate of gold, called the 'looking-plate,' (mirador ó miradero); with this he covered his face, looking only through the hole in the golden plate. Xiuhtecutli was held by the people to be their father, and regarded with feelings of mingled love and fear; and they celebrated to him two fixed festivals every year, one in the tenth and another in the eighteenth month, together with a movable feast in which, according to Clavigero, they appointed magistrates and renewed the ceremony of the investiture of the fiefs of the kingdom. The sacrifices of the first of these festivals, the festival of the tenth month, Xocotlveti, were particularly cruel even for the Mexican religion.

[Sidenote: FESTIVAL OF THE FIRE GOD.]

The assistants began by cutting down a great tree of five and twenty fathoms long and dressing off the branches, removing all it would seem but a few round the top. This tree was then dragged by ropes into the city, on rollers apparently, with great precaution against bruising or spoiling it; and the women met the entering procession giving those that dragged cacao to drink. The tree, which was called xocotl, was received into the court of a cu with shouts; and there set up in a hole in the ground and allowed to remain for twenty days. On the eve of the festival Xocotlvetzi, they let this large tree or pole down gently to the ground, by means of ropes and trestles, or rests, made of beams tied two and two, probably in an X shape; and carpenters dressed it perfectly smooth and straight, and, where the branches had been left, near the top, they fastened with ropes a kind of yard or cross-beam of five fathoms long. Then was prepared, to be set on the very top of the pole or tree, a statue of the god Xiuhtecutli, made like a man out of the dough of wild amaranth seeds, and covered and decorated with innumerable white papers. Into the head of the image were stuck strips of paper instead of hair; sashes of paper crossed the body from each shoulder; on the arms were pieces of paper like wings, painted over with figures of sparrow-hawks; a maxtli of paper covered the loins; and a kind of paper shirt or tabard covered all. Great strips of paper, half a fathom broad and ten fathoms long, floated from the feet of the dough god half way down the tree; and into his head were struck three rods with a tamale or small pie on the top of each. The tree being now prepared with all these things, ten ropes were attached to the middle of it, and by the help of the above-mentioned trestles and a large crowd pulling all together, the whole structure was reared into an upright position and there fixed, with great shouting and stamping of feet.

Then came all those that had captives to sacrifice; they came decorated for dancing, all the body painted yellow (which is the livery color of the god), and the face vermilion. They wore a mass of the red plumage of the parrot, arranged to resemble a butterfly, and carried shields covered with white feathers and as it were the feet of tigers or eagles walking. Each one went dancing side by side with his captive. These captives had the body painted white, and the face vermilion, save the cheeks which were black; they were adorned with papers, much, apparently, as the dough image was, and they had white feathers on the head and lip-ornaments of feathers. At set of sun the dancing ceased; the captives were shut up in the calpulli, and watched by their owners, not being even allowed to sleep. About midnight every owner shaved away the hair of the top of the head of his slave, which hair, being fastened with red thread to a little tuft of feathers, he put in a small case of cane, and attached to the rafters of his house, that every one might see that he was a valiant man and had taken a captive. The knife with which this shaving was accomplished was called the claw of the sparrow-hawk. At daybreak the doomed and shorn slaves were arranged in order in front of the place called Tzompantli, where the skulls of the sacrificed were spitted in rows. Here one of the priests went along the row of captives taking from them certain little banners that they carried and all their raiment or adornment, and burning the same in a fire; for raiment or ornament these unfortunates should need no more on earth. While they were standing thus all naked and waiting for death, there came another priest, carrying in his arms the image of the god Paynal and his ornaments; he ran up with this idol to the top of the cu Tlacacouhcan where the victims were to die. Down he came, then up again, and as he went up the second time the owners took their slaves by the hair and led them to the place called Apetlac and there left them. Immediately there descended from the cu those that were to execute the sacrifice, bearing bags of a kind of stupefying incense called yiauhtli,[IX-36] which they threw by handfuls into the faces of the victims to deaden somewhat their agonies in the fearful death before them. Each captive was then bound hand and foot and so carried up to the top of the cu where smouldered a huge heap of live coal. The carriers heaved their living burdens in; and the old narrative gives minute details about the great hole made in the sparkling embers by each slave, and how the ashy dust rose in a cloud as he fell. As the dust settled the bound bodies could be seen writhing and jerking themselves about in torment on their soft dull-red bed, and their flesh could be heard crackling and roasting. Now came a part of the ceremony requiring much experience and judgment; the wild-eyed priests stood grappling-hook in hand biding their time. The victims were not to die in the fire, the instant the great blisters began to rise handsomely over their scorched skins it was enough, they were raked out. The poor blackened bodies were then flung on the 'tajon' and the agonized soul dismissed by the sacrificial breast-cut (from nipple to nipple, or a little lower); the heart was then torn out and cast at the feet of Xiuhtecutli, god of fire.

[Sidenote: CLIMBING FOR THE GOD.]

This slaughter being over, the statue of Paynal was carried away to its own cu and every man went home to eat. And the young men and boys, all those called quexpaleque,[IX-37] because they had a lock of hair at the nape of the neck, came, together with all the people, the women in order among the men, and began at mid-day to dance and to sing in the court-yard of Xiuhtecutli; the place was so crowded that there was hardly room to move. Suddenly there arose a great cry, and a rush was made out of the court toward the place where was raised the tall tree already described at some length. Let us shoulder our way forward, not without risk to our ribs, and see what we can see: there stands the tall pole with streamers of paper and the ten ropes by which it was raised dangling from it. On the top stands the dough image of the fire god, with all his ornaments and weapons, and with the three tamales sticking out so oddly above his head. Ware clubs! we press too close; shoulder to shoulder in a thick serried ring round the foot of the pole stand the 'captains of the youths' keeping the youngsters back with cudgels, till the word be given at which all may begin to climb the said pole for the great prize at the top. But the youths are wild for fame; old renowned heroes look on; the eyes of all the women of the city are fixed on the great tree where it shoots above the head of the struggling crowd; glory to him who first gains the cross-beam and the image. Stand back, then, ye captains, let us pass! There is a rush, and a trampling, and despite a rain of blows, all the pole with its hanging ropes is aswarm with climbers, thrusting each other down. The first youth at the top seizes the idol of dough; he takes the shield and the arrows and the darts and the stick atalt for throwing the darts; he takes the tamales from the head of the statue, crumbles them up, and throws the crumbs with the plumes of the image down into the crowd; the securing of which crumbs and plumes is a new occasion for shouting and scrambling and fisticuffs among the multitude. When the young hero comes down with the weapons of the god which he has secured, he is received with far-roaring applause and carried up to the cu Tlacacouhcan, there to receive the reward of his activity and endurance, praises and jewels and a rich mantle not lawful for another to wear, and the honor of being carried by the priests to his house, amid the music of horns and shells. The festivity is over now; all the people lay hold on the ropes fastened to the tree, and pull it down with a crash that breaks it to pieces, together, apparently, with all that is left of the wild-amaranth-dough image of Xiuhtecutli.[IX-38]

Another feast of the god of fire was held in the month Yzcalli, the eighteenth month; it was called motlaxquiantota, that is to say 'our father the fire toasts his food.' An image of the god of fire was made, with a frame of hoops and sticks tied together as the basis or model to be covered with his ornaments. On the head of this image was put a shining mask of turquoise mosaic, banded across with rows of green chalchiuites. Upon the mask was put a crown fitting to the head below, wide above, and gorgeous with rich plumage as a flower; a wig of reddish hair was attached to this crown so that the evenly cut locks flowed from below it, behind and around the mask, as if they were natural. A robe of costly feathers covered all the front of the image and fell over the ground before the feet, so light that it shivered and floated with the least breath of air till the variegated feathers glittered and changed color like water. The back of the image seems to have been left unadorned, concealed by a throne on which it was seated, a throne covered with a dried tiger-skin, paws and head complete. Before this statue new fire was produced at midnight by boring rapidly by hand one stick upon another; the spunk or tinder so inflamed was put on the hearth and a fire lit.[IX-39] At break of day came all the boys and youths with game and fish that they had captured on the previous day; walking round the fire, they gave it to certain old men that stood there, who taking it threw it into the flames before the god, giving the youths in return certain tamales that had been made and offered for this purpose by the women. To eat these tamales it was necessary to strip off the maize-leaves in which they had been wrapped and cooked; these leaves were not thrown into the fire, but were all put together and thrown into water. After this all the old men of the ward in which the fire was, drank pulque and sang before the image of Xiuhtecutli till night. This was the tenth day of the month and thus finished that feast, or that part of the feast, which was called vauquitamalqualiztli.

On the twentieth and last day of the month was made another statue of the fire god, with a frame of sticks and hoops as already described. They put on the head of it a mask with a ground of mosaic of little bits of the shell called tapaztli,[IX-40] composed below the mouth of black stones, banded across the nostrils with black stones of another sort, and the cheeks made of a still different stone called tezcapuchtli. As in the previous case there was a crown on this mask, and over all and over the body of the image costly and beautiful decorations of feather-work. Before the throne on which this statue sat there was a fire, and the youths offered game to and received cakes from the old men with various ceremonies; the day being closed with a great drinking of pulque by the old people, though not to the point of intoxication. Thus ended the eighteenth month; and with regard to the two ceremonies just described, Sahagun says, that though not observed in all parts of Mexico, they were observed at least in Tezcuco.

[Sidenote: FOURTH YEAR FESTIVAL.]

It will be noticed that the festivals of this month have been without human sacrifices; but every fourth year was an exception to this. In such a year on the twentieth and last day of this eighteenth month, being also, according to some, the last day of the year, the five Nemonteni, or unlucky days, being excepted, men and women were slain as images of the god of fire. The women that had to die carried all their apparel and ornaments on their shoulders, and the men did the same. Arrived thus naked where they had to die, men and women alike were decorated to resemble the god of fire; they ascended the cu, walked round the sacrificial stone, and then descended and returned to the place where they were to be kept for the night. Each male victim had a rope tied round the middle of his body which was held by his guards. At midnight the hair of the crown of the head of each was shaven off before the fire and kept for a relic, and the head itself was covered with a mixture of resin and hens' feathers. After this the doomed ones burned or gave away to their keepers their now useless apparel, and as the morning broke they were decorated with papers and led in procession to die, with singing and shouting and dancing. These festivities went on till mid-day, when a priest of the cu, arrayed in the ornaments of the god Paynal, came down, passed before the victims, and then went up again. They were led up after him, captives first and slaves after, in the order they had to die in; they suffered in the usual manner. There was then a grand dance of the lords, led by the king himself; each dancer wearing a high-fronted paper coronet, a kind of false nose of blue paper, ear-rings of turquoise mosaic, or of wood wrought with flowers, a blue curiously flowered jacket, and a mantle. Hanging to the neck of each was the figure of a dog made of paper and painted with flowers; in the right hand was carried a stick shaped like a chopping-knife, the lower half of which was painted red and the upper half white; in the left hand was carried a little paper bag of copal. This dance was begun on the top of the cu and finished by descending and going four times round the court-yard of the cu; after which all entered the palace with the king. This dance took place only once in four years, and none but the king and his lords could take part in it. On this day the ears of all children born during the three preceding years were bored with a bone awl, and the children themselves passed near or through the flames of a fire as already related.[IX-41] There was a further ceremony of taking the children by the head and lifting them up "to make them grow;" and from this the month took its name, Yzcalli meaning 'growth.'[IX-42]

There was generally observed in honor of fire a custom called 'the throwing,' which was that no one ate without first flinging into the fire a scrap of the food. Another common ceremony was in drinking pulque to first spill a little on the edge of the hearth. Also when a person began upon a jar of pulque he emptied out a little into a broad pan and put it beside the fire, whence with another vessel he spilt of it four times upon the edge of the hearth; this was 'the libation or the tasting.'[IX-43]

[Sidenote: THE GREAT NEW FIRE FESTIVAL.]

The most solemn and important of all the Mexican festivals was that called Toxilmolpilia or Xiuhmolpilli, the 'the binding up of the years.' Every fifty-two years was called a sheaf of years; and it was held for certain that at the end of some sheaf of fifty-two years the motion of the heavenly bodies should cease and the world itself come to an end. As the possible day of destruction drew near all the people cast their household gods of wood and stone into the water, as also the stones used on the hearth for cooking and bruising pepper. They washed thoroughly their houses, and last of all put out all fires. For the lighting of the new fire there was a place set apart, the summit of a mountain called Vixachtlan, or Huixachtla, on the boundary line between the cities of Itztapalapa and Colhuacan, about six miles from the city of Mexico. In the production of this new fire none but priests had any part, and the task fell specially upon those of the ward Copolco. On the last day of the fifty-two years, after the sun had set, all the priests clothed themselves with the dress and insignia of their gods, so as to themselves appear like very gods, and set out in procession for the mountain, walking very slowly, with much gravity and silence, as befitted the occasion and the garb they wore, "walking," as they phrased it, "like gods." The priest of the ward of Copolco, whose office it was to produce the fire, carried the instruments thereof in his hand, trying them from time to time to see that all was right. Then, a little before midnight, the mountain being gained, and a cu which was there builded for that ceremony, they began to watch the heavens and especially the motion of the Pleiades. Now this night always fell so that at midnight these seven stars were in the middle of the sky with respect to the Mexican horizon; and the priests watched them to see them pass the zenith and so give sign of the endurance of the world, for another fifty and two years. That sign was the signal for the production of the new fire, lit as follows. The bravest and finest of the prisoners taken in war was thrown down alive, and a board of very dry wood was put upon his breast; upon this the acting priest at the critical moment bored with another stick, twirling it rapidly between his palms till fire caught. Then instantly the bowels of the captive were laid open, his heart torn out, and it with all the body thrown upon and consumed by a pile of fire. All this time an awful anxiety and suspense held possession of the people at large; for it was said, that if anything happened to prevent the production at the proper time of the new fire, there would be an end of the human race, the night and the darkness would be perpetual, and those terrible and ugly beings the Tzitzimitles[IX-44] would descend to devour all mankind. As the fateful hour approached, the people gathered on the flat house-tops, no one willingly remaining below. All pregnant women, however, were closed into the granaries, their faces being covered with maize-leaves; for it was said that if the new fire could not be produced, these women would turn into fierce animals and devour men and women. Children also had masks of maize-leaf put on their faces, and they were kept awake by cries and pushes, it being believed that if they were allowed to sleep they would become mice.

[Sidenote: FEAST OF THE NEW FIRE.]

From the crowded house-tops every eye was bent on Vixachtlan. Suddenly a moving speck of light was seen by those nearest, and then a great column of flame shot up against the sky. The new fire! and a great shout of joy went up from all the country round about. The stars moved on in their courses; fifty and two years more at least had the universe to exist. Every one did penance; cutting his ear with a splinter of flint and scattering the blood toward the part where the fire was; even the ears of children in the cradle were so cut. And now from the blazing pile on the mountain, burning brands of pine candle-wood were carried by the swiftest runners toward every quarter of the kingdom. In the city of Mexico, on the temple of Huitzilopochtli, before the altar, there was a fire-place of stone and lime containing much copal; into this a blazing brand was flung by the first runner, and from this place fire was carried to all the houses of the priests, and thence again to all the city. There soon blazed great central fires in every ward, and it was a thing to be seen the multitude of people that came together to get light, and the general rejoicings.

The hearth-fires being thus lit, the inhabitants of every house began to renew their household gods and furniture, and to lay down new mats, and to put on new raiment; they made everything new in sign of the new sheaf of years; they beheaded quails, and burned incense in their court-yard toward the four quarters of the world, and on their hearths. After eating a meal of wild amaranth seed and honey, a fast was ordered, even the drinking of water till noon being forbidden. Then the eating and drinking were renewed, sacrifices of slaves and captives were made, and the great fires renewed. The last solemn festival of the new fire was celebrated in the year 1507, the Spaniards being not then in the land; and through their presence, there was no public ceremony when the next sheaf of years was finished in 1559.[IX-45]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: TEOYAOMIQUE.]

Mictlan, the Mexican hades, or place of the dead, signifies either primarily, or by an acquired meaning, 'northward, or toward the north,' though many authorities have located it underground or below the earth. This region was the seat of the power of a god best known under his title of Mictlantecutli; his female companion was called Mictlancihuatl, made identical by some legends with Tlazolteotl, and by others apparently with the serpent-woman and mother goddess.[IX-46] There has been discovered and there is now to be seen in the city of Mexico a huge compound statue, representing various deities, the most prominent being a certain goddess Teoyaomique, who, it seems to me, is almost identical with or at least a connecting link between the mother goddess and the companion of Mictlantecutli. Mr Gallatin says[IX-47] that the Mexican gods "were painted in different ways according to their various attributes and names: and the priests were also in the habit of connecting with the statue of a god or goddess, symbols of other deities which partook of a similar character. Gama has adduced several instances of both practices, in the part of his dissertation which relates to the statue of the goddess of death found buried in the great Square of Mexico of which he, and lately Mr Nebel, have given copies.[IX-48] Her name is Teoyaomiqui, which means, to die in sacred war, or 'in defense of the gods,' and she is the proper companion of Huitzilopochtli, the god of war. The symbols of her own attributes are found in the upper part of the statue: but those from the waist downwards relate to other deities connected with her or with Huitzilopochtli. The serpents are the symbols of his mother Cohuatlycue, and also of Cihuacohuatl, the serpent woman who begat twins, male and female, from which mankind proceeded: the same serpents and feathers are the symbol of Quezatlcohuatl, the precious stones designate Chalchihuitlycue, the goddess of water; the teeth and claws refer to Tlaloc and to Tlatocaocelocelotl (the tiger king): and together with her own attributes, the whole is a most horrible figure."

[Sidenote: GAMA ON THE COMPOUND IMAGE.]

Of this great compound statue of Huitzilopochtli (for the most part under his name of Teoyaotlatohua), Teoyaomique, and Mictlantecutli, and of the three deities separately Leon y Gama treats, in substance as follows, beginning with Mictlantecutli:[IX-49]--

The Chevalier Boturini mentions another of his names, Teoyaotlatohua, and says that as director and chief of sacred war he was always accompanied by Teoyaomique, a goddess whose business it was to collect the souls of those that died in war and of those that were sacrificed afterward as captives. Let these statements be put alongside of what Torquemada says, to wit, that in the great feast of the month Hueimiccailhuitl,[IX-50] divine names were given to dead kings and to all famous persons who had died heroically in war, and in the power of the enemy; idols were made furthermore of these persons, and they were put with the deities; for it was said that they had gone to the place of delights and pleasures there to be with the gods. From all this it would appear that before this image, in which were closely united Teoyaotlatohua and Teoyaomique, there were each year celebrated certain rites in memory and honor of dead kings and lords and captains and soldiers fallen in battle. And not only did the Mexicans venerate in the temple this image of many gods, but the judicial astrologers feigned a constellation answering thereto and influencing persons born under it. In depicting this constellation Teoyaotlatohua Huitzilopochtli was represented with only half his body, as it were seated on a bench, and with his mouth open as if speaking. His head was decorated after a peculiar fashion with feathers, his arms were made like trunks of trees with branches, while from his girdle there issued certain herbs that fell downwards over the bench. Opposite this figure was Teoyaomique, naked save a thin robe,[IX-51] and standing on a pedestal, apparently holding her head in her hands, at any rate with her head cut off, her eyes bandaged, and two snakes issuing from the neck where the head should have been. Between the god and the goddess was a flowering tree divided through the middle, to which was attached a beam with various crosspieces, and over all was a bird with the head separated from its body. There was to be seen also the head of a bird in a cup, and the head of a serpent, together with a pot turned upside down while the contents--water as it would appear by the hieroglyphics attached--ran out.

In this form were painted these two gods, as one of the twenty celestial signs, sufficiently noticed by Boturini, although as he confesses, he had not arranged them in the proper order. Returning to notice the office attributed to Teoyaomique, that of collecting the souls of the dead, we find that Cristóbal del Castillo says that all born under the sign which, with the god of war, this goddess ruled, were to become at an early age valorous soldiers; but that their career was to be short as it was brilliant, for they were to fall in battle young. These souls were to rise to heaven, to dwell in the house of the sun, where were woods and groves. There they were to exist four years, at the end of which time they were to be converted into birds of rich and beautiful plumage, and to go about sucking flowers both in heaven and on earth.

[Sidenote: MICTECACIHUATL.]

To the statue mentioned above there was joined with great propriety the image of another god, feigned to be the god of hell, or of the place of the dead, which latter is the literal signification of his name, Mictlantecutli. This image was engraved in demi-relief on the lower plane of the stone of the great compound statue; but it was also venerated separately in its own proper temple, called Tlalxicco, that is to say, 'in the bowels or navel of the earth.' Among the various offices attributed to this deity was that of burying the corpses of the dead, principally of those that died of natural infirmities; for the souls of these went to hell to present themselves before this Mictlantecutli and before his wife Mictecacihuatl, which name Torquemada interprets as 'she that throws into hell.' Thither indeed it was said that these dead went to offer themselves as vassals carrying offerings, and to have pointed out to them the places that they were to occupy according to the manner of their death. This god of hades was further called Tzontemoc, a term interpreted by Torquemada to mean 'he that lowers his head;' but it would rather appear that it should take its signification from the action indicated by the great statue, where this deity is seen as it were carrying down tied to himself the heads of corpses to bury them in the ground, as Boturini says. The places or habitations supposed to exist in hell, and to which the souls of the dead had to go, were nine; in the last of which, called Chicuhnauhmictlan, the said souls were supposed to be annihilated and totally destroyed. There was lastly given to this god a place in heaven, he being joined with one of the planets and accompanied by Teotlamacazqui; at his feet, there was painted a body that was half buried, or covered with earth from the head to the waist, while the rest stuck out uncovered. It only remains to be said that such was the veneration and religious feeling with which were regarded all things relating to the dead, that not only there were invented for them tutelary gods, much honored by frequent feasts and sacrifice; but the Mexicans elevated Death itself, dedicating to it a day of the calendar (the first day of the sixth 'trecena'), joining it to the number of the celestial signs; and erecting to it a sumptuous temple called Tolnahuac, within the circuit of the great temple of Mexico, wherein it was particularly adored with holocausts and victims under the title Ce Miquiztli.[IX-52]

[Sidenote: MIXCOATL, GOD OF HUNTING.]

Mixcoatl is the god--or goddess according to some good authorities--of hunting. The name means 'cloud-serpent' and indeed seems common to a whole class of deities or heroes somewhat resembling the Nibelungs of northern European mythology.[IX-53] He is further supposed to be connected with the thunderstorm: "Mixcoatl, the Cloud-Serpent, or Iztac-Mixcoatl, the White or Gleaming Cloud-Serpent," writes Brinton,[IX-54] "said to have been the only divinity of the ancient Chichimecs, held in high honor by the Nahuas, Nicaraguans, and Otomís, and identical with Taras, supreme god of the Tarascos, and Camaxtli, god of the Teo-Chichimecs, is another personification of the thunderstorm. To this day this is the familiar name of the tropical tornado in the Mexican language. He was represented, like Jove, with a bundle of arrows in his hand, the thunderbolts. Both the Nahuas and Tarascos related legends in which he figured as father of the race of man. Like other lords of the lightning he was worshiped as the dispenser of riches and the patron of traffic; and in Nicaragua his image is described as being 'engraved stones' probably the supposed products of the thunder."

In the fourteenth month, called Quecholli, and beginning, according to Clavigero, on the fourteenth of November, there was made with many obscure ceremonies, a feast to this god. On the sixth day of the month all assembled at the cu of Huitzilopochtli, where during four days they made arrows and darts for use in war and for general practice at a mark, mortifying at the same time their flesh by drawing blood, and by abstaining from women and pulque. This done they made, in honor of the dead, certain little mimic darts of a hand long, of which four seem to have been tied together with four splinters of candle-wood pine; these were put on the graves, and at set of sun, lit and burned, after which the ashes were interred on the spot. There were taken a maize-stalk of nine knots with a paper flag on the top that hung down to the bottom, together with a shield and dart belonging to the dead man, and his maxtli and blanket; the last two being attached to the maize-stalk. The hanging flag was ornamented on either side with red cotton thread, in the figure of an X; a piece of twisted white thread also hung down to which was suspended a dead humming-bird. Handfuls of the white feathers of the heron were tied two and two and fastened to the burdened maize-stalk, while all the cotton threads used were covered with white hen's feathers, stuck on with resin. Lastly all these were burned on a stone block called the quaulixicalcalico.

In the court of the cu of Mixcoatl was scattered much dried grass brought from the mountains, upon which the old women-priests, or cioatlamacazque, seated themselves, each with a mat before her. All the women that had children came, each bringing her child and five sweet tamales; and the tamales were put on the mats before the old women, who in return took the children, tossed them in their arms and then returned them to their mothers.

[Sidenote: DRIVE-HUNT OF MIXCOATL.]

About the middle of the month was made a special feast to this god of the Otomís, to Mixcoatl. In the morning all prepared for a great drive-hunt, girding their blankets to their loins, and taking bows and arrows. They wended their way to a mountain-slope, anciently Zapatepec, or Yxillantonan, above the sierra of Atlacuizoayan, or as it is now called, according to Bustamante, Tacubaya. There they drove deer, rabbits, hares, coyotes, and other game together, little by little, every one in the meantime killing what he could; few or no animals escaping. To the most successful hunters blankets were given, and every one brought to his house the heads of the animals he had taken, and hanged them up for tokens of his prowess or activity.

There were human sacrifices in honor of this hunting god with other deities. The manufacturers of pulque bought, apparently two slaves who were decorated with paper and killed in honor of the gods Tlamatzincatl and Yzquitecatl; there were also sacrificed women supposed to represent the wives of these two deities. The calpixquis on their part led other two slaves to the death in honor of Mixcoatl and of Cohuatlicue his wife. On the morning of the last day but one of the month, all the doomed were brought out and led round the cu where they had to die; after mid-day they were led up the cu, round the sacrificial block, down again, then back to the calpulco, to be at once guarded and forced to keep awake for the night. At midnight their heads were shaven before the fire, and every one of them burned there what goods he had, little paper flags, cane tobacco-pipes[IX-55] and drinking-vessels; the women threw into the flame their raiment, their ornaments, their spindles, little baskets, vessels in which the spindles were twirled, warping-frames, fuller's earth, pieces of cane for pressing a fabric together, cords for fastening it up, maguey-thorns, measuring-rods, and other implements for weaving; and they said that all these things had to be given to them in the other world after their death. At daybreak these captives were carried or assisted up, each having a paper flag borne before him, to the several cues of the gods they were to die in honor of. Four that had to die, probably before Mixcoatl, were, each by four bearers, carried up to a temple, bound hand and foot to represent dead deer; while others were merely assisted up the steps by a youth at each arm, so that they should not faint nor fail; two other youths trailing or letting them down the same steps after they were dead. The preceding relates only to the male captives, the women being slain before the men, in a separate cu called the coatlan; it is said that as they were forced up the steps of it some screamed and others wept. In letting the dead bodies of these women down the steps again, it is also specially written, that they were not hurled down roughly, but rolled down little by little. At the place where the skulls of the dead were exposed, waited two old women called teixamique, having by them salt water and bread and a mess or gruel of some kind. The carcasses of the victims being brought to them, they dipped cane-leaves into the salt water and sprinkled the faces of them therewith, and into each mouth they put four morsels of bread moistened with the gruel or mess above-mentioned. Then the heads were cut off and spitted on poles; and so the feast ended.[IX-56]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: MACUILXOCHITL.]

In connection with the religious honors paid to the dead, it may be here said that the Mexicans had a deity of whom almost all we know is that he was the god of those that died in the houses of the lords or in the palaces of the principal men; he was called Macuilxochitl, 'the chief that gives flowers, or that takes care of the giving of flowers.'[IX-57] The festival of this god fell among the movable feasts and was called Xochilhuitl, or 'the festival of flowers.' There were in it the usual preliminary fasting (that is to say, eating but once a day, at noon, and then only of a restricted diet), blood-letting, and offering of food in the temple; though there did not occur therein anything suggestive either of a god of flowers or of a god of the more noble dead. The image of this deity was in the likeness of an almost naked man, either flayed or painted of a vermilion color; the mouth and chin were of three tints, white, black, and light blue; the face was of a light reddish tinge. It had a crown of light green color, with plumes of the same hue, and tassels that hung down to the shoulders. On the back of the idol was a device wrought in feathers, representing a banner planted on a hill; about the loins of it was a bright reddish blanket, fringed with sea-shells; curiously wrought sandals adorned its feet; on the left arm of it was a white shield, in the midst of which were set four stones, joined two and two; it held a sceptre, shaped like a heart and tipped with green and yellow feathers.[IX-58]

Ome Acatl was the god of banquets and of guests; his name signified 'two canes.' When a man made a feast to his friends, he had the image of this deity carried to his house by certain of its priests; and if the host did not do this, the deity appeared to him in a dream, rebuking him in such words as these: Thou bad man, because thou hast withheld from me my due honor, know that I will forsake thee and that thou shalt pay dearly for this insult. When this god was excessively angered, he was accustomed to mix hairs with the food and drink of the guests of the object of his wrath, so that the giver of the feast should be disgraced. As in the case of Huitzilopochtli, there was a kind of communion sacrament in connection with the adoration of this god of feasts: in each ward dough was taken and kneaded by the principal men into the figure of a bone of about a cubit long, called the bone of Ome Acatl. A night seems to have been spent in eating and in drinking pulque; then at break of day an unfortunate person, set up as the living image of the god, had his belly pricked with pins, or some such articles; being hurt thereby, as we are told. This done the bone was divided and each one ate what of it fell to his lot; and when those that had insulted this god ate, they often grew sick, and almost choked, and went stumbling and falling. Ome Acatl was represented as a man seated on a bunch of cyperus-sedges. His face was painted white and black; upon his head was a paper crown surrounded by a long and broad fillet of divers colors, knotted up at the back of the head; and again round and over the fillet, was wound a string of chalchiuite beads. His blanket was made like a net, and had a broad border of flowers woven into it. He bore a shield, from the lower part of which hung a kind of fringe of broad tassels. In the right hand he held a sceptre called the tlachielonique, or 'looker,'[IX-59] because it was furnished with a round plate through which a hole was pierced, and the god kept his face covered with the plate and looked through the hole.[IX-60]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: IXTLILTON, HEALER OF CHILDREN.]

Yxtliton, or Ixtlilton--that is to say 'the little negro,' according to Sahagun, and 'the black-faced,' according to Clavigero--was a god who cured children of various diseases.[IX-61] His 'oratory' was a kind of temporary building made of painted boards; his image was neither graven nor painted; it was a living man decorated with certain vestments. In this temple or oratory were kept many pans and jars, covered with boards, and containing a fluid which was called 'black water.' When a child sickened, it was brought to this temple and one of these jars was uncovered, upon which the child drank of the black water and was healed of its disease--the cure being probably most prompt and complete when the priests as well as the god knew something of physic. When one made a feast to this god--which seems to have been when one made new pulque--the man that was the image of Ixtlilton came to the house of the feast-giver with music and dancing, and preceded by the smoke of copal incense. The representative of the deity having arrived, the first thing he did was to eat and drink; there were more dances and festivities in his honor, in which he took part, and then he entered the cellar of the house, where were many jars of pulque that had been covered for four days with boards or lids of some kind. He opened one or many of these jars, a ceremony called 'the opening of the first, or of the new wine,' and himself with those that were with him drank thereof. This done, he went out into the court-yard of the house, where there were prepared certain jars of the above-mentioned black water, which also had been kept covered four days; these he opened, and if there was found therein any dirt, or piece of straw, or hair, or ash, it was taken as a sign that the giver of the feast was a man of evil life, an adulterer, or a thief, or a quarrelsome person, and he was affronted with the charge accordingly. When the representative of the god set out from the house where all this occurred, he was presented with certain blankets called yxguen, or ixquen, that is to say, 'covering of the face,' because when any fault had been found in the black water, the giver of the feast was put to shame.[IX-62]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: OPUCHTLI, GOD OF FISHING.]

Opuchtli, or Opochtli, 'the left-handed,' was venerated by fishermen as their protector and the inventor of their nets, fish-spears, oars, and other gear. In Cuitlahuac, an island of lake Chalco, there was a god of fishing called Amimitl, who, according to Clavigero, differed from the first-mentioned only in name. Sahagun says that Opuchtli was counted among the number of the Tlaloques, and that the offerings made to him were composed of pulque, stalks of green maize, flowers, the smoking-canes, or pipes called yietl, copal incense, the odorous herb yiauhtli, and parched maize. These things seem to have been strewed before him as rushes used to be strewed before a procession. There were used in these solemnities certain rattles enclosed in hollow walking-sticks. The image of this god was like a man, almost naked, with the face of that grey tint seen in quails' feathers; on the head was a paper crown of divers colors, made like a rose, as it were, of leaves overlapping each other, topped by green feathers issuing from a yellow tassel; other long tassels hung from this crown to the shoulders of the idol. Crossed over the breast was a green stole resembling that worn by the Christian priest when saying mass; on the feet were white sandals; on the left arm was a red shield, and in the centre of its field a white flower with four leaves disposed like a cross; and in the left hand was a sceptre of a peculiar fashion.[IX-63]

* * * * *

Xipe, or Totec, or Xipetotec, or Thipetotec, is, according to Clavigero, a god whose name has no meaning,[IX-64] who was the deity of the goldsmiths, and who was much venerated by the Mexicans, they being persuaded that those that neglected his worship would be smitten with diseases; especially the boils, the itch, and pains of the head and eyes. They excelled themselves therefore in cruelty at his festival time, occurring ordinarily in the second month.

Sahagun describes this god as specially honored by dwellers on the sea-shore, and as having had his origin at Zapotlan in Jalisco. He was supposed to afflict people with sore eyes and with various skin-diseases, such as small-pox, abscesses, and itch. His image was made like a human form, one side or flank of it being painted yellow, and the other of a tawny color; down each side of the face from the brow to the jaw a thin stripe was wrought; and on the head was a little cap with hanging tassels. The upper part of the body was clothed with the flayed skin of a man; round the loins was girt a kind of green skirt. It had on one arm a yellow shield with a red border, and held in both hands a scepter shaped like the calix of a poppy and tipped with an arrow-head.[IX-65]

[Sidenote: EATING THE BODIES OF THE SACRIFICED.]

On the last day of the second month--or, according to some authors, of the first--Tlacaxipehualiztli, there was celebrated a solemn feast in honor at once of Xipetotec and of Huitzilopochtli. It was preceded by a very solemn dance at noon of the day before. As the night of the vigil fell, the captives were shut up and guarded; at midnight--the time when it was usual to draw blood from the ears--the hair of the middle of the head of each was shaven away before a fire. When the dawn appeared they were led by their owners to the foot of the stairs of the temple of Huitzilopochtli--and if they would not ascend willingly the priests dragged them up by the hair. The priests threw them down one by one on the back on a stone of three quarters of a yard or more high, and square on the top something more than a foot every way. Two assistants held the victim down by the feet, two by the hands, and one by the head--this last according to many accounts putting a yoke over the neck of the man and so pressing it down. Then the priest, holding with both hands a splinter of flint, or a stone resembling flint, like a large lance-head, struck across the breast therewith, and tore out the heart through the gash so made; which, after offering it to the sun and other gods by holding it up toward the four quarters of heaven, he threw into a wooden vessel.[IX-66] The blood was collected also in a vessel and given to the owner of the dead captive, while the body, thrown down the temple steps, was taken to the calpule by certain old men, called quaquacuiltin, flayed, cut into pieces, and divided for eating; the king receiving the flesh of the thigh, while the rest of the carcass was eaten at the house of the owner of the captive, though, as will appear by a remark hereafter,[IX-67] it is improbable that the captor or owner himself ate any of it. With the skin of these flayed persons, a party of youths called the tototecli clothed themselves, and fought in sham fight with another party of young men; prisoners being taken on both sides, who were not released without a ransom of some kind or other. This sham battle was succeeded by combats of a terribly real sort, the famous so-called gladiatorial fights of Mexico. On a great round stone, like an enormous mill-stone, a captive was tied by a cord, passing round his waist and through the hole of the stone, long enough to permit him freedom of motion everywhere about the block--set near or at a temple called yopico, of the god Totec, or Xipe.[IX-68] With various ceremonies, more particularly described in the preceding volume, the bound man furnished with inferior weapons was made to fight with a picked Mexican champion--the latter holding up his sword and shield to the sun before engaging. If, as sometimes happened, the desperate though hampered and ill-armed captive--whose club-sword was, by a refinement of mockery, deprived of its jagged flint edging and set with feathers--slew his opponent, another champion was sent against him, and so on to the number of five, at which point, according to some, the captive was set free; though according to other authorities, he was not allowed so to escape, but champions were sent against him till he fell. Upon which a priest called the yooallaoa opened his breast, tore out his heart, offered it to the sun, and threw it into the usual wooden vessel; while the ropes used for binding to the fighting-stone were carried to the four quarters of the world, reverently with weeping and sighing. A second priest thrust a piece of cane into the gash in the victim's breast and held it up stained with blood to the sun. Then the owner of the captive came and received the blood into a vessel bordered with feathers; this vessel he took with a little cane-and-feather broom or aspergillum and went about all the temples and calpules, giving to each of the idols, as it were to taste of the blood of his captive. The slain body was then carried to the calpulco--where, while alive, it had been confined the night before the sacrifice--and there skinned. Thence it was brought to the house of its owner, who divided and made presents of it to his superiors, relatives, and friends; not however tasting thereof himself, for, we are told, "he counted it as the flesh of his own body," because from the hour that he took the prisoner "he held him to be his son, and the captive looked up to his captor as to a father."

[Sidenote: RELATIONS BETWEEN CAPTOR AND CAPTIVE.]

The skins of the dead belonged to their captors, who gave them again to others to be worn by them for apparently twenty days, probably as a kind of penance--the persons so clothed collecting alms from everyone in the meantime and bringing all they got, each to the man that had given him the skin. When done with, these skins were hid away in a rotting condition in a certain cave, while the ex-wearers thereof washed themselves with great rejoicings. At the putting away of these skins there assisted numbers of people ill with the itch and such other diseases as Xipe inflicted--hoping thus to be healed of their infirmities, and it is said that many were so cured.[IX-69]

The merchants of Mexico--a class of men who hawked their goods from place to place and wandered often far into strange countries to buy or sell--had various deities to whom they did special honor. Among these the chief, and often the only one mentioned, was the god Yiacatecutli, or Jacateuctli, or Iyacatecuhtli, that is 'the lord that guides,' otherwise called Yacacoliuhqui, or Jacacoliuhqui.[IX-70] This chief god of the merchants had, however, according to Sahagun, five brothers and a sister, also reverenced by traders, the sister being called Chalmecacioatl, and the brothers respectively Chiconquiavitl, Xomocuil, Nacxitl, Cochimetl, and Yacapitzaoac. The principal image of this god was a figure representing a man walking along a road with a staff; the face black and white; the hair tied up in a bundle on the middle of the top of the head with two tassels of rich quetzal-feathers; the ear-rings of gold; the mantle blue, bordered with a flowered fringe, and covered with a red net, through whose meshes the blue appeared; round the ankles leather straps from which hung marine shells; curiously wrought sandals on the feet; and on the arm a plain unornamented yellow shield, with a spot of light blue in the centre of its field. Practically, however, every merchant reverenced his own stout staff--generally made of a solid, knotless piece of black cane, called utatl--as the representative or symbol of this god Yiacatecutli; keeping it, when not in use, in the oratory or sacred place in his house, and invariably putting food before it preliminary to eating his own meal. When traveling the traders were accustomed nightly to stack up their staves in a convenient position, bind them about, build a fire before them,[IX-71] and then offering blood and copal, pray for preservation and shelter from the many perils to which their wandering life made them especially subject.[IX-72]

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[Sidenote: NAPATECUTLI.]

Napatecutli, that is to say 'four times lord,' was the god of the mat-makers and of all workers in water-flags and rushes. A beneficent and helpful divinity, and one of the Tlalocs, he was known by various names, such as Tepahpaca Teaaltati, 'the purifier or washer;' Quitzetzelohua, or Tlaitlanililoni, 'he that scatters or winnows down;' Tlanempopoloa, 'he that is large and liberal;' Teatzelhuia, 'he that sprinkles with water;' and Amotenenqua, 'he that shows himself grateful.' This god had two temples in Mexico and his festival fell in the thirteenth month, by Clavigero's reckoning. His image resembled a black man, the face being spotted with white and black, with tassels hanging down behind supporting a green plume of three feathers. Round the loins and reaching to the knees was girt a kind of white and black skirt or petticoat, adorned with little sea-shells. The sandals of this idol were white; on its left arm was a shield made like the broad leaf of the water-lily, or nenuphar; while the right hand held a sceptre like a flowering staff, the flowers being of paper; and across the body, passing under the left arm, was a white scarf, painted over with black flowers.[IX-73]

The Mexicans had several gods of wine, or rather of pulque; of these the chief seems to have been Tezcatzoncatl, otherwise known as Tequechmecaniani 'the strangler,' and as Teatlahuiani 'the drowner;' epithets suggested by the effects of drunkenness. The companion deities of this Aztec Dionysus were called as a class by the somewhat extraordinary name of Centzontotochtin or 'the four hundred rabbits'; Yiaulatecatl, Yzquitecatl, Acoloa, Thilhoa, Pantecatl (the Patecatl of the interpreters of the codices), Tultecatl, Papaztac, Tlaltecaiooa, Ometochtli (often referred to as the principal god of wine), Tepuztecatl, Chimapalnecatl, were deities of this class. The principal characteristic of the image of the Mexican god of drunkenness was, according to Mendieta and Motolinia, a kind of vessel carried on the head of the idol, into which vessel wine was ceremoniously poured. The feast of this god, like that of the preceding divinity, fell in the thirteenth month, Tepeilhuitl, and in his temple in the city of Mexico there served four hundred consecrated priests, so great was the service done this everywhere too widely and well known god.[IX-74]

[Sidenote: THE HOUSEHOLD GODS.]

The Mexicans had certain household gods called Tepitoton, or Tepictoton, 'the little ones,'--small statues of which kings kept six in their houses, nobles four, and common folks two. Whether these were a particular class of deities or merely miniature images of the already described greater gods it is hard to say. Similar small idols are said to have adorned streets, cross-roads, fountains and other places of public traffic and resort.[IX-75]

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[Sidenote: THE CEREMONIAL CALENDAR.]

With these Tepitoton may be said to finish the list of Mexican gods of any repute or any general notoriety; so that it seems fit to give here a condensed and arranged résumé of all the fixed festivals and celebrations of the Aztec calendar, with its eighteen months of twenty days each, and its five supplementary days at the end of the year. There is some disagreement as to which of the months the year began with; but it will best suit our present purpose to follow the arrangement of Sahagun, the interpreters of the Codices, Torquemada, and Clavigero, in which the month variously called Atlcahualco, or Quahuitlehua, or Cihuailhuitl, or Xilomanaliztli, is the first.[IX-76] The name Atlchualco, or Atlaooalo, or Atalcaoplo, means 'the buying or scarcity of water;' Quahuitlehua, or Quavitleloa, 'the sprouting of trees;' and Xilomanaliztli, 'the offering of Xilotl (that is heads of maize, which were then presented to the gods to secure their blessing on the seed time).' This first month beginning on the second of February according to Sahagun, the eighteenth according to Gama, and the twenty-sixth according to Clavigero, was consecrated to Tlaloc and the other gods of water, and in it great numbers of children were sacrificed.[IX-77] In further honor of the Tlalocs there were also at this time killed many captives on the gladiatorial stone.

It was the second month, called Tlacaxiphualiztli,[IX-78] or 'the flaying of men,' that was specially famous for its gladiatorial sacrifices, sacrifices already described and performed to the honor of Xipe, or Xipetotec.[IX-79]

The third month called Tozoztontli, 'the lesser fast or penance,' was inaugurated by the sacrifice on the mountains of children to the Tlalocs. Those also that traded in flowers and were called Sochimanque, or Xochimanqui, made a festival to their goddess, Coatlycue, or Coatlantona, offering her the first-fruits of the flowers of the year, of these that had grown in the precincts of the cu yapico, a cu as we have seen, consecrated to Tlaloc. Into a cave belonging to this temple there were also at this time cast the now rotten skins of the human beings that had been flayed in the preceding month. Thither, "stinking like dead dogs," as Sahagun phrases it, marched in procession the persons that wore these skins and there they put them off, washing themselves with many ceremonies; and sick folk troubled with certain skin-diseases followed and looked on, hoping by the sight of all these things to be healed of their infirmities. The owners of the captives that had been slain had also been doing penance for twenty days, neither washing nor bathing during that time; and they now, when they had seen the skins deposited in the cave, washed and gave a banquet to all their friends and relatives, performing many ceremonies with the bones of the dead captives. All the twenty days of this month singing exercises, praising the god, were carried on in the houses called Cuicacalli, the performers not dancing but remaining seated.

The fourth month was called, in contradistinction to the third, Veitozoztli, or Hueytozoztli, that is to say, 'the greater penance or letting of blood;' because in it not only the priests but also the populace and nobility did penance, drawing blood from their ears, shins, and other parts of the body, and exposing at their doors leaves of sword-grass stained therewith. After this they performed certain already described ceremonies,[IX-80] and then made, out of the dough known as tzoalli,[IX-81] an image of the goddess Chicomecoatl, in the court-yard of her temple, offering before it all kinds of maize, beans, and chian, because she was the maker and giver of these things and the sustainer of the people. In this month, as well as in the three months preceding, little children were sacrificed, a cruelty which was supposed to please the water gods, and which was kept up till the rains began to fall abundantly.

[Sidenote: THE MONTH TOXCATL.]

The fifth month, called Toxcatl and sometimes Tepopochuiliztli,[IX-82] was begun by the most solemn and famous feast of the year, in honor of the principal Mexican god, a god known by a multitude of names and epithets, among which were Tezcatlipoca, Titlacaoan, Yautl, Telpuchtli, and Tlamatzincatl. A year before this feast, one of the most distinguished of the captives reserved for sacrifice was chosen out for superior grace and personal appearance from among all his fellows, and given in charge to the priestly functionaries called calpixques. These instructed him with great diligence in all the arts pertaining to good breeding, according to the Mexican idea: such as playing on the flute, walking, speaking, saluting those he happened to meet, the use and carrying about of straight cane tobacco-pipes and of flowers, with the dexterous smoking of the one, and the graceful inhalation of the odor of the other. He was attended upon by eight pages, who were clad in the livery of the palace, and had perfect liberty to go where he pleased night and day; while his food was so rich that to guard against his growing too fat, it was at times necessary to vary the diet by a purge of salt and water. Everywhere honored and adored as the living image and accredited representative of Tezcatlipoca, he went about playing on a small shrill clay flute, or fife, and adorned with rich and curious raiment furnished by the king, while all he met did him reverence kissing the earth. All his body and face was painted--black, it would appear; his long hair flowed to the waist; his head was covered with white hens' feathers stuck on with resin, and covered with a garland of the flowers called yzquisuchitl; while two strings of the same flowers crossed his body in the fashion of cross-belts. Earrings of gold, a necklace of precious stones with a great dependent gem hanging to the breast, a lip-ornament (barbote) of sea-shell, bracelets of gold above the elbow on each arm, and strings of gems called macuextli winding from wrist almost to elbow, glittered and flashed back the light as the doomed man-god moved. He was covered with a rich beautifully fringed mantle of netting, and bore on his shoulders something like a purse made of white cloth of a span square, ornamented with tassels and fringe. A white maxtli of a span broad went about his loins, the two ends, curiously wrought, falling in front almost to the knee. Little bells of gold kept time with every motion of his feet, which were shod with painted sandals called ocelunacace.

All this was the attire he wore from the beginning of his year of preparation; but twenty days before the coming of the festival, they changed his vestments, washed away the paint or dye from his skin, and cut down his long hair to the length, and arranged it after the fashion, of the hair of the captains, tying it up on the crown of the head with feathers and fringe and two gold-buttoned tassels. At the same time they married to him four damsels, who had been pampered and educated for this purpose, and who were surnamed respectively after the four goddesses, Xochiquetzal, Xilonen, Atlatonan, and Vixtocioatl.[IX-83] Five days before the great day of the feast,[IX-84] the day of the feast being counted one, all the people, high and low, the king it would appear being alone excepted, went out to celebrate with the man-god a solemn banquet and dance, in the ward called Tecanman; the fourth day before the feast, the same was done in the ward in which was guarded the statue of Tezcatlipoca. The little hill, or island, called Tepetzinco, rising out of the waters of the lake of Mexico, was the scene of the next day's solemnities; solemnities renewed for the last time on the next day, or that immediately preceding the great day, on another like island called Tepelpulco, or Tepepulco. There, with the four women that had been given him for his consolation, the honored victim was put into a covered canoe usually reserved for the sole use of the king; and he was carried across the lake to a place called Tlapitzaoayan, near the road that goes from Yztapalapan to Chalco, at a place where was a little hill called Acacuilpan, or Cabaltepec. Here left him the four beautiful girls, whose society for twenty days he had enjoyed, they returning to the capital with all the people; there accompanying the hero of this terrible tragedy only those eight attendants that had been with him all the year. Almost alone, done with the joys of beauty, banquet, and dance, bearing a bundle of his flutes, he walked to a little ill-built cu, some distance from the road mentioned above, and about a league removed from the city. He marched up the temple steps, not dragged, not bound, not carried like a common slave or captive; and as he ascended he dashed down and broke on every step one of the flutes that he had been accustomed to play on in the days of his prosperity. He reached the top;--by sickening repetition we have learned to know the rest; one thing only, from the sacrificial stone his body was not hurled down the steps, but was carried by four men down to the Tzompantli, to the place of the spitting of heads.

[Sidenote: THE FEAST OF TOXCATL.]

And the chroniclers say that all this signified that those who enjoyed riches, delights in this life, should at the end come to poverty and sorrow--so determined are these same chroniclers to let nothing escape without its moral.

In this feast of Toxcatl, in the cu called Huitznahuac, where the image of Huitzilopochtli was always kept, the priests made a bust of this god out of tzoalli dough, with pieces of mizquitl-wood inserted by way of bones. They decorated it with his ornaments; putting on a jacket wrought over with human bones, a mantle of very thin nequen, and another mantle called the tlaquaquallo, covered with rich feathers, fitting the head below and widening out above; in the middle of this stood up a little rod, also decorated with feathers and sticking into the top of the rod was a flint knife half covered with blood. The image was set on a platform made of pieces of wood resembling snakes and so arranged that heads and tails alternated all the way round; the whole borne by many captains and men of war. Before this image and platform a number of strong youths carried an enormous sheet of paper resembling pasteboard, twenty fathoms long, one fathom broad, and a little less than an inch thick; it was supported by spear-shafts arranged in pairs of one shaft above and one below the paper, while persons on either side of the paper held each one of these pairs in one hand. When the procession, with dancing and singing, reached the cu to be ascended, the snaky platform was carefully and cautiously hoisted up by cords attached to its four corners, the image was set on a seat, and those that carried the paper rolled it up and set down the roll before the bust of the god. It was sunset when the image was so set up; and the following morning every one offered food in his own house before the image of Huitzilopochtli there, incensing also such images of other gods as he had, and then went to offer quails' blood before the bust set up on the cu. The king began, wringing off the heads of four quails; the priests offered next, then all the people; the whole multitude carrying clay fire-pans and burning copal incense of every kind, after which every one threw his live coals upon a great hearth in the temple-yard. The virgins painted their faces, put on their heads garlands of parched maize with strings of the same across their breasts, decorated their arms and legs with red feathers, and carried black paper flags stuck into split canes. The flags of the daughters of nobles were not of paper but of a thin cloth called canaoac, painted with vertical black stripes. These girls joining hands danced round the great hearth, upon or over which on an elevated place of some kind there danced, giving the time and step, two men, having each a kind of pine cage covered with paper flags on his shoulders, the strap supporting which passed, not across the forehead--the usual way for men to carry a burden--but across the chest as was the fashion with women. The priests of the temple, dancing on this occasion with the women, bore shields of paper, crumpled up like great flowers; their heads were adorned with white feathers, their lips and part of the face were smeared with sugar-cane juice which produced a peculiar effect over the black with which their faces were always painted. They carried in their hands pieces of paper called amasmaxtli, and sceptres of palm-wood tipped with a black flower and having in the lower part a ball of black feathers. In dancing they used this sceptre like a staff, and the part by which they grasped it was wrapped round with a paper painted with black lines. The music for the dancers was supplied by a party of unseen musicians, who occupied one of the temple buildings, where they sat, he that played on the drum in the centre, and the performers on the other instruments about him. The men and women danced on till night, but the strictest order and decency were preserved, and any lewd word or look brought down swift punishment from the appointed overseers.

[Sidenote: DEATH OF THE YXTEUCALLI.]

This feast was closed by the death of a youth who had been during the past year dedicated to and taken care of for Huitzilopochtli, resembling in this the victim of Tezcatlipoca, whose companion he had indeed been, but without receiving such high honors. This Huitzilopochtli youth was entitled Yxteucalli, or Tlacabepan, or Teicauhtzin, and was held to be the image and representative of the god. When the day of his death came, the priests decorated him with papers painted over with black circles, and put a mitre of eagles' feathers on his head, in the midst of whose plumes was stuck a flint knife, stained half way up with blood and adorned with red feathers. Tied to his shoulders, by strings passing across the breast, was a piece of very thin cloth about a span square, and over it hung a little bag. Over one of his arms was thrown a wild beast's skin, arranged somewhat like a maniple; bells of gold jingled at his legs as he walked or danced. There were two peculiar things connected with the death of this youth; first he had absolute liberty of choice regarding the hour in which he was to die; and second, he was not extended upon any block or altar, but when he wished he threw himself into the arms of the priests, and had his heart so cut out. His head was then hacked off and spitted alongside of that of the Tezcatlipoca youth, of whom we have spoken already. In this same day the priests made little marks on children, cutting them, with thin stone knives, in the breast, stomach, wrists, and fleshy part of the arms; marks, as the Spanish priests considered, by which the devil should know his own sheep.[IX-85] The ceremonies of the ensuing monthly festivals have already been described at length.[IX-86]

[Sidenote: MISCELLANEOUS FEASTS.]

There were, besides, a number of movable feasts in honor of the higher gods, the celestial bodies, and the patron deities of the various trades and professions. Sahagun gives an account of sixteen movable feasts, many of which, however, contained no religious element.[IX-87] The first was dedicated to the sun, to whom a ghostly deputation of eighteen souls was sent to make known the wants of the people, and implore future favors. The selected victims were ranged in order at the place of sacrifice, and addressed by the priest, who exhorted them to bear in mind the sacred nature of their mission, and the glory which would be theirs upon its proper fulfillment. The music now strikes up; amid the crash and din the victims one after another are stretched upon the altar; a few flashes of the iztli-knife in the practiced hand of the slayer, and the embassy has set out for the presence of the sun.[IX-88]

The sixth, seventh, and eleventh festivals were celebrated to Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca, and Huitzilopochtli respectively. The public and household idols of these gods were at such seasons decorated, and presented with offerings of food, quails, and incense. During the festival of the god of fire, the thirteenth of the movable feasts, various public officials were elected, and a great many grand banquets given. The atamalqualiztli, or 'fast of bread and water,' seems to have been one of the most important of the movable feasts. The people prepared for its celebration, which took place every eight years, by a rigid fast, broken only by a midday meal of water and unsalted bread. Those who offended the gods by neglecting to observe this fast were thought to expose themselves to an attack of leprosy. The people indulged in all sorts of amusements during the holiday season which succeeded the fast. The most interesting feature of the festivities was a bal masqué, which was supposed to be attended by all the gods. The chief honors of the day were, however, rendered to the Tlalocs, and round their effigy, which stood in the midst of a pond alive with frogs and snakes, the dancers whirled continually. It was a part of the ceremonies for a number of men called maxatecaz to devour the reptiles in the pond; this they did by each seizing a snake or a frog in his teeth, and swallowing it gradually as he joined in the dance; the one who first bolted his titbit cried out triumphantly, 'Papa, papa!'

Every fourth year, called teoxihuitl, or 'divine year,' and at the beginning of every period of thirteen years, the feasts were more numerous and on a larger scale, the fasts more severe, and the sacrifices far greater in number than upon ordinary occasions.[IX-89] The entire series of festivals may be said to have closed with the solemn Toxilmolpilia, or 'binding up of the years,' which took place every fifty-two years, and marked the expiration and renewal of the world's lease of existence.[IX-90]

FOOTNOTES:

[IX-1] Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 493.

[IX-2] Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 16, 22, indeed says that Teteionan and Tocitzin are 'certainly different.'

[IX-3] Squier's Serpent Symbol, p. 47. A passage which makes the principal element of the character of Toci or Tocitzin that of Goddess of Discord may be condensed from Acosta, as follows: When the Mexicans, in their wanderings, had settled for a time in the territory of Culhuacan, they were instructed by their god Huitzilopochtli to go forth and make wars, and first to apotheosize, after his directions, a Goddess of Discord. Following these directions, they sent to the king of Culhuacan for his daughter to be their queen. Moved by the honor, the father sent his hapless daughter, gorgeously attired, to be enthroned. But the wiley, superstitious, and ferocious Mexicans slew the girl and flayed her, and clothed a young man in her skin, calling him 'their goddess and mother of their god,' under the name of Toccy, that is 'grand mother.' See also Purchas his Pilgrimes, vol. iv., p. 1004.

[IX-4] Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. i., pp. 16-22; Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis, lam. xii., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 140; Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano, tav. xxx., Ib., p. 180; Humboldt, Essai Politique, tom. i., p. 217; Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. vi., p. 631. The sacrifices to Centeotl, if she be identical with the earth-mother, are illustrated by the statement of Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 81, that the Mexicans painted the earth-goddess as a frog with a bloody mouth in every joint of her body, (which frog we shall meet again by and by in a Centeotl festival) for they said that the earth devoured all things--a proof also, by the by, among others of a like kind which we shall encounter, that not to the Hindoos alone (as Mr J. G. Müller somewhere affirms), but to the Mexicans also, belonged the idea of multiplying the organs of their deities to express great powers in any given direction. The following note from the Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano, in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., pp. 179-80, illustrates the last point noticed, gives another form or relation of the goddess of sustenance, and also the origin of the name applied to the Mexican priests: 'They feign that Mayaguil was a woman with four hundred breasts, and that the gods, on account of her fruitfulness, changed her into the Maguey, which is the vine of that country, from which they make wine. She presided over these thirteen signs; but whoever chanced to be born on the first sign of the Herb, it proved unlucky to him; for they say that it was applied to the Tlamatzatzguex, who were a race of demons dwelling amongst them, who according to their account wandered through the air, from whom the ministers of their temples took their denomination. When this sign arrived, parents enjoined their children not to leave the house, lest any misfortune or unlucky accident should befall them. They believed that those who were born in Two Canes, which is the second sign, would be long lived, for they say that that sign was applied to heaven. They manufacture so many things from this plant called the Maguey, and it is so very useful in that country, that the devil took occasion to induce them to believe that it was a god, and to worship and offer sacrifices to it.'

[IX-5] Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., pp. 5-6; Gallatin, in Amer. Ethnol. Soc., Transact., vol. i., pp. 341, 349-50, condensing from and commenting upon the codices Vaticanus and Tellerianus says: 'Tonacacigua, alias Tuchiquetzal (plucking rose), and Chicomecouatl (seven serpents); wife of Tonacatlecotle; the cause of sterility, famine, and miseries of life.... Amongst Sahagun's superior deities is found Civacoatl, the 'serpent woman,' also called Tonantzin, 'our mother;' and he, sober as he is in Scriptural allusions, calls her Eve, and ascribes to her, as the interpreters [of the codices] to Tonatacinga, all the miseries and adverse things of the world. This analogy is, if I am not mistaken, the only foundation for all the allusions to Eve and her history, before, during, and after the sin, which the interpreters have tried to extract from paintings which indicate nothing of the kind. They were certainly mistaken in saying that their Tonacacinga was also called Chicomecouatl, seven serpents. They should have said Civacoatl, the serpent woman. Chicomecoatl, instead of being the cause of sterility, famine, etc., is, according to Sahagun, the goddess of abundance, that which supplies both eating and drinking: probably the same as Tzinteotl, or Cinteotl, the goddess of maize (from centli, maize), which he does not mention. There is no more foundation for ascribing to Tonacacigua the name of Suchiquetzal.' Gama, Dos Piedras, pt i., p. 39, says in effect: Cihuacounatl, or snake woman, was supposed to have given birth to two children, male and female, whence sprung the human race. It is on this account that twins are called in Mexico cocohua, 'snakes,' or in the singular cohuatl or coatl, now vulgarly pronounced coate.

[IX-6] Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., pp. 3-4; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., pp. 4-7.

[IX-7] Or, according to Bustamante's ed., Aba, Tlavitecqui, and Xoquauchtli.' Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., p. 149.

[IX-8] Lime was much used in the preparation of maize for making various articles of food.

[IX-9] Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., pp. 69-70; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 148-56.

[IX-10] Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., pp. 60-1; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 135-9; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 75; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 269-71.

[IX-11] Chiquiuitl, cesto ó canasta. Molina, Vocabulario.

[IX-12] Chian, ó Chia, cierta semilla de que sacan azeite. Id.

[IX-13] Pinolli, la harina de mayz y chia, antes que la deslian. Id.

[IX-14] Apparently the earth symbolized as a frog (see this vol. p. 351, note 4.) and bearing the fruits thereof on her back.

[IX-15] Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., pp. 43-4; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 97-100; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 67; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 52-3, 60-1, 134, 152-3, 181, 255-6.

[IX-16] Yoalticitl, another name of the mother-goddess, of the mother of the gods, of the mother of us all, of our grandmother or ancestress; more particularly that form of the mother-goddess described, after Sahagun (this vol. p. 353), as being the patroness of medicine and of doctors and of the sweat-baths. Sahagun speaks in another passage of Yoalticitl (Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 453): 'La madre de los Dioses, que és la Diosa de las medicinas y medicos, y és madre de todos nosotros, la cual se llama Yoalticitl, la qual tiene poder y autoridad sobre los Temazcales (sweat-baths) que llaman Xuchicalli, en el qual lugar esta Diosa vé las cosas secretas, y adereza las cosas desconcertadas en los cuerpos de los hombres, y fortifica las cosas tiernas y blandas.'

[IX-17] Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., pp. 5, 35, vol. v., pp. 459-2; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., pp. 8-9, lib. ii., pp. 78-9; tom. ii., lib. vi., pp. 185-191.

[IX-18] Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 16.

[IX-19] Boturini, Idea, pp. 25-6.

[IX-20] 'The stones called chalchiuites by the Mexicans (and written variously chalchibetes, chalchihuis, and calchihuis, by the chroniclers) were esteemed of high value by all the Central American and Mexican nations. They were generally of green quartz, jade, or the stone known as madre de Esmeralda.... The goddess of water, amongst the Mexicans, bore the name of Chalchiuilcuye, the woman of the Chalchiuites, and the name of Chalchiuihapan was often applied to the city of Tlaxcalla, from a beautiful fountain of water found near it, "the color of which," according to Torquemada, "was between blue and green."' Squier in Palacio, Carta, p. 110, note 15. In the same work p. 53, we find mention made by Palacio of an idol apparently representing Chalchihuitlicue: 'Very near here, is a little village called Coatan, in the neighborhood of which is a lake ["This lake is distant two leagues to the southward of the present considerable town of Guatepeque, from which it takes its name, Laguna de Guatepue"--Guatemala], situated on the flank of the volcano. Its water is bad; it is deep, and full of caymans. In its middle there are two small islands. The Indians regard the lake as an oracle of much authority.... I learned that certain negroes and mulattoes of an adjacent estate had been there [on the islands], and had found a great idol of stone, in the form of a woman, and some objects which had been offered in sacrifice. Near by were found some stones called chalchibites.'

[IX-21] Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 47.

[IX-22] Atlacueçonan, ninfa del onenufar, flor de yerna de agua. Molina, Vocabulario. The Abbé Brasseur adds, on what authority I have not been able to find, that this leaf was ornamented with golden flags. Hist. des Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 324. He adds in a note to this passage, what is very true, that, 'suivant Ixtlilxochitl, et après lui Veytia, la déesse des eaux aurait été adorée sous la forme d'une grenouille, faite d'une seule émeraude, et qui, suivant Ixtlilxochitl, existait encore au temps de la conquête de Mexico. La seule déesse adorée sous la forme unique d'une grenouille était la terre.' (See this vol. p. 351, note 4.) Gomara, Hist. Conq. Mex., fol. 326, says that the figure of a frog was held to be the goddess of fishes: 'Entre los ídolos ... estaua el de la rama. A la cual tenian por diosa del pescado.' Motolinia extends this last statement as follows. The Mexicans had idols he says, in Icazbalceta, Col. de Doc., tom. i., p. 34, 'de los pescados grandes y de los lagartos de agua, hasta sapos y ranas, y de otros peces grandes, y estos decian que eran los dioses del pescado. De un pueblo de la laguna de México llevaron unos ídolos de estos peces, que eran unos peces hechos de piedra, grandes; y despues volviendo por allí pidiéronles para comer algunos peces, y respondieron que habian llevado el dios del pescado y que no podian tomar peces.'

[IX-23] Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., pp. 5-6, 36; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., pp. 9-10, lib. ii., p. 81; _Amer. Ethnol. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., pp. 342, 350.

[IX-24] See this vol., p. 58, note 15.

[IX-25] See note 24. 'Entre los Dioses que estos ciegos Mexicanos fingieron tener, y ser maiores, que otros, fueron dos; vno llamado Ometecuhtli, que quiere decir, dos hidalgos, ò cavalleros; y el otro llamaron Omecihuatl, que quiere decir, dos mugeres: los quales, por otros nombres, fueron llamados, Citlalatonac, que quiere decir, Estrella que resplandece, ò resplandeciente; y el otro, Citlalicue, que quiere decir, Faldellin de la Estrella: ... Estos dos Dioses fingidos de esta Gentilidad, creìan ser el vno Hombre, y el otro Muger; y como à dos naturaleças distintas, y de distintos sexos las nombraban, como por los nombres dichos parece. De estos dos Dioses, (o por mejor decir, Demonios) tuvieron creìdo estos naturales, que residian en vna Ciudad gloriosa, asentada sobre los once Cielos, cuio suelo era mas alto, y supremo de ellos; y que en aquella Ciudad goçaban de todos los deleites imaginables y poseìan todas las riqueças de el Mundo; y decian que desde alli arriba regian, y governaban toda esta maquina inferior del Mundo, y todo aquello que es visible, è invisible, influiendo en todas las Animas, que criaban todas las inclinaciones naturales, que vemos aver en todas las criaturas racionales, è irracionales; y que cuidaban de todo, como por naturaleça los convenia, atalaindo desde aquel su asiento las cosas criadas.... De manera, que segun lo dicho, está mui claro de entender, que tenian opinion, que los que regian, y governaban el Mundo, eran dos (conviene á saber) vn Dios, y vna Diosa, de los quales el vno que era el Dios Hombre, obraba en todo el genero de los Varones; y el otro, que era la Diosa, criaba, y obraba en todo el genero de las Mugeres.' Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 37.

[IX-26] Caquantototl, paxaro de pluma amarillo y rica. Molina, Vocabulario. According to Bustamante however, this bird is not one in anyway remarkable for plumage, but is identical with the tzacua described by Clavigero, and is here used as an example of a vigilant and active soldier. Bustamante (in a note to Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., pp. 194-5) writes: Tzacua, of this bird repeated mention has been made in this history, for the Indians used it for a means of comparison or simile in their speeches. It is an early-rising bird (madrugador), and has nothing notable in its plumage or in its voice, but only in its habits. This bird is one of the last to go to rest at night and one of the first to announce the coming sun. An hour before daybreak a bird of this species, having passed the night with many of his fellows on any branch, begins to call them, with a shrill clear note that he keeps repeating in a glad tone till some of them reply. The tzacua is about the size of a sparrow, and very similar in color to the bunting (calandria), but more marvellous in its habits. It is a social bird, each tree is a town of many nests. One tzacua plays the part of chief and guards the rest; his post is in the top of the tree, whence, from time to time, he flies from nest to nest uttering his notes; and while he is visiting a nest all within are silent. If he sees any bird of another species approaching the tree he sallies out upon the invader and with beak and wings compels a retreat. But if he sees a man or any large object advancing, he flies screaming to a neighboring tree, and, meeting other birds of his tribe flying homeward, he obliges them to retire by changing the tone of his note. When the danger is over he returns to his tree and begins his rounds as before, from nest to nest. Tzacuas abound in Michoacan, and to their observations regarding them the Indians are doubtless indebted for many hints and comparisons applied to soldiers diligent in duty. The quechutl, or tlauhquechol, is a large aquatic bird with plumage of a beautiful scarlet color, or a reddish white, except that of the neck, which is black. Its home is on the sea-shore and by the river banks, where it feeds on live fish, never touching dead flesh. See Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. i., pp. 87, 91-3.

[IX-27] Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., pp. 479-483, vol. vii., pp. 151-2; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., pp. 215-221. According to some authors, and I think Boturini for one, this baptism was supplemented by passing the child through fire. There was such a ceremony; however, it was not connected with that of baptism, but it took place on the last night of every fourth year, before the five unlucky days. On the last night of every fourth year, parents chose god-parents for their children born during the three preceding years, and these god-fathers and god-mothers passed the children over, or near to, or about the flame of a prepared fire (rodearlos por las llamas del fuego que tenian aparejado para esto, que en el latin se dice lustrare). They also bored the children's ears, which caused no small uproar (Habia gran voceria de muchachos y muchachas por el ahugeramiento de las orejas) as may well be imagined. They clasped the children by the temples and lifted them up 'to make them grow;' wherefore they called the feast izcalli, 'growing.' They finished by giving the little things pulque in tiny cups, and for this the feast was called the 'drunkenness of children.' Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 189-192. In the Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano (Vaticano), tav. xxxi., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 181, there is given a description of the water baptism differing somewhat from that given in the text. It runs as follows: 'They took some ficitle; and having a large vessel of water near them, they made the leaves of the ficitle into a bunch, and dipped it into the water, with which they sprinkled the child; and after fumigating it with incense, they gave it a name, taken from the sign on which it was born; and they put into its hand a shield and arrow, if it was a boy, which is what the figure of Xiuatlatl denotes, who here represents the god of war; they also uttered over the child certain prayers in the manner of deprecations, that he might become a brave, intrepid, and courageous man. The offering which his parents carried to the temple the elder priests took and divided with the other children who were in the temple, who ran with it through the whole city.' Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 107, again describes this rite, in substance as follows: 'They had a sort of baptism: thus when the child was a few days old, an old woman was called in, who took the child out into the court of the house where it was born, and washed it a certain number of times with the wine of the country, and as many times again with water; then she put a name on it, and performed certain ceremonies with the umbilical cord. These names were taken from the idols, or from the feasts that fell about that time, or from a beast or bird.' See further Esplicacion de la Coleccion de Mendoza, pt iii., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., pp. 90-1; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 445, 449-458; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 85-9; Humboldt, Vues des Cordillères, tom. ii., pp. 311, 318; Gama, Dos Piedras, pt ii., pp. 39-41; Prescott's Mex., vol. iii., p. 385; Brinton's Myths, pp. 122, 130; Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 652; Biart, La Terre Tempéreé, p. 274. Mr Tylor, speaking of Mexico, in his Anahuac, p. 279, says: 'Children were sprinkled with water when their names were given to them. This is certainly true, though the statement that they believed that the process purified them from original sin is probably a monkish fiction.' Farther reading, however, has shown Mr Tylor the injustice of this judgment, and in his masterly latest and greatest work (see Primitive Culture, vol. ii., pp. 429-36), he writes as follows: 'The last group of rites whose course through religious history is to be outlined here, takes in the varied dramatic acts of ceremonial purification or lustration. With all the obscurity and intricacy due to age-long modification, the primitive thought which underlies these ceremonies is still open to view. It is the transition from practical to symbolic cleansing, from removal of bodily impurity to deliverance from invisible, spiritual, and at last moral evil. (See this vol. p. 119).... In old Mexico, the first act of ceremonial lustration took place at birth. The nurse washed the infant in the name of the water-goddess, to remove the impurity of its birth, to cleanse its heart and give it a good and perfect life; then blowing on water in her right hand she washed it again, warning it of forthcoming trials and miseries and labors, and praying the invisible Deity to descend upon the water, to cleanse the child from sin and foulness, and to deliver it from misfortune. The second act took place some four days later, unless the astrologers postponed it. At a festive gathering, amid fires kept alight from the first ceremony, the nurse undressed the child sent by the gods into this sad and doleful world, bade it to receive the life-giving water, and washed it, driving out evil from each limb and offering to the deities appointed prayers for virtue and blessing. It was then that the toy instruments of war or craft or household labor were placed in the boy's or girl's hand (a custom singularly corresponding with one usual in China), and the other children, instructed by their parents, gave the new-comer its child-name, here again to be replaced by another at manhood or womanhood. There is nothing unlikely in the statement that the child was also passed four times through the fire, but the authority this is given on is not sufficient. The religious character of ablution is well shown in Mexico by its forming part of the daily service of the priests. Aztec life ended as it had begun, with the ceremonial lustration; it was one of the funeral ceremonies to sprinkle the head of the corpse with the lustral water of this life.'

[IX-28] Camargo, in Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, 1843, tom. xcix., pp. 132-3. 'On célébrait chaque année une fête solennelle en l'honneur de cette déesse Xochiquetzal, et une foule de peuple se réunissait dans son temple. On disait qu'elle était la femme de Tlaloc le dieu des eaux, et que Texcatlipuca la lui avait enlevée et l'avait transportée au neuvième ciel. Metlacueycati était la déesse des magiciennes. Tlaloc l'épousa quand Xochiquetzal lui eut été enlevée.'

[IX-29] Boturini, Idea, pp. 15, 63-8: 'Pero, no menos indignados los Dioses del pecado de Yàppan, que de la inobediencia, y atrevimiento de Yàotl, le convirtieron en Langosta, que llaman los Indios Ahuacachapùllin, mandando se llamasse en adelante Tzontecomàma, que quiere dicir, Carga Cabeza, y en efecto este animal parece que lleva cargo consigo, propiedad de los Malsines, que siempre cargan las honras, que han quitado à sus Proximos.'

[IX-30] See this vol. pp. 220-5.

[IX-31] See this vol., pp. 212, 226.

[IX-32] Other descriptions of this rite are given with additional details: 'Usaban una ceremonia generalmente en toda esta tierra, hombres y mugeres, niños y niñas, que quando entraban en algun lugar donde habia imagenes de las idolos, una ó muchas, luego tocaban en la tierra con el dedo, y luego le llegaban á la boca ó á la lengua: á esto llamaban comer tierra, haciendolo en reverencia de sus Dioses, y todos los que salian de sus casas, aunque no saliesen del pueblo, volviendo á su casa hacian lo mismo, y por los caminos quando pasaban delante algun Cu ú oratorio hacian lo mismo, y en lugar de juramento usaban esto mismo, que para afirmar quien decia verdad hacian esta ceremonia, y los que se querian satisfacer del que hablaba si decia verdad, demandabanle hiciese esta ceremonia, luego le creian como juramento.... Tenian tambien costumbre de hacer juramento de cumplir alguna cosa á que se obligaban, y aquel á quien se obligaban les demandaba que hiciesen juramento para estar seguro de su palabra y el juramento que hacian era en esta forma: Por vida del Sol y de nuestra señora la tierra que no falte en lo que tengo dicho, y para mayor seguridad como esta tierra; y luego tocaba con los dedos en la tierra, llegabalos á la boca y lamialos; y asi comia tierra haciendo juramento.' Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., pp. 95-6, 101; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. i., ap., pp. 212, 226; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 25.

[IX-33] Quite different versions of this sentence are given by Kingsborough's and Bustamante's editions respectively. That of Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., p. 7, reads: 'Quando decienden á la tierra las Diosas Ixcuiname, luego de mañana ó en amaneciendo, para que hagas la penitencia convenible por tus pecados.' That of Bustamante, Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., p. 13, reads: 'Cuando descienden á la tierra las diosas llamadas Civapipilti, ó cuando se hace la fiesta de las diosas de la carnalidad que se llaman Yxtuiname, ayunarás cuatro dias afligiendo tu estómago y tu boca, y llegado el dia de la fiesta de estas diosas Yxtuiname, luego de mañana ó en amaneciendo para que hagas la penitencia convenible por tus pecados.'

[IX-34] 'De esto bien se arguye que aunque habian hecho muchos pecados en tiempo de su juventud, no se confesaban de ellos hasta la vejez, por no se obligar á cesar de pecar antes de la vejez, por la opinion que tenian, que el que tornaba á reincidir en los pecados, al que se confesaba una vez no tenia remedio.' Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., pp. 6-8; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., pp. 10-16. Prescott writes, Mex., vol. i., p. 68: 'It is remarkable that they administered the rites of confession and absolution. The secrets of the confessional were held inviolable, and penances were imposed of much the same kind as those enjoined in the Roman Catholic Church. There were two remarkable peculiarities in the Aztec ceremony. The first was, that, as the repetition of an offence, once atoned for, was deemed inexpiable, confession was made but once in a man's life, and was usually deferred to a late period of it, when the penitent unburdened his conscience, and settled, at once, the long arrears of iniquity. Another peculiarity was, that priestly absolution was received in place of the legal punishment of offences, and authorized an acquittal in case of arrest.' Mention of Tlazolteotl will be found in Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 309; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 62, 79; Herrera, Hist. Gen., tom. i., dec. ii., lib. vi., cap. xv.; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 21. They say that Yxcuina, who was the goddess of shame, protected adulterers. She was the goddess of salt, of dirt, and of immodesty, and the cause of all sins. They painted her with two faces, or with two different colors on the face. She was the wife of Mizuitlantecutli, the god of hell. She was also the goddess of prostitutes; and she presided over these thirteen signs, which were all unlucky, and thus they held that those who were born in these signs would be rogues or prostitutes. Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano, (Vaticano), tav. xxxix., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 184; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Quatre Lettres, pp. 291-2, 301.

[IX-35] See this vol., pp. 212, 226.

[IX-36] 'Il Jauhtli è una pianta, il cui fusto e lungo un cubito, le foglie somiglianti a quelle del Salcio, ma dentate, i fiori gialli, e la radice sottile. Così i fiori, come l'altre parti della pianta, hanno lo stesso odore e sapore dell' Anice. È assai utile per la Medicina, ed i Medica Messicani l'adoperavano contro parecchie malattie; ma servivansi ancora d'essa per alcuni usi superstiziosi.' This is the note given by Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 77, in describing this festival, and the incense used for stupefying the victims; see a different note however, in this vol., p. 339, in which Molina describes yiauhtli as 'black maize.' In some cases, according to Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 100, there was given to the condemned a certain drink that put them beside themselves, so that they went to the sacrifice with a ghastly drunken merriment.

[IX-37] 'Cuexpalli, cabello largo que dexan a los muchachos en el cogote, quando los tresquilan.' Molina, Vocabulario.

[IX-38] Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., pp. 8-9, 28, 63-6; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., pp. 16-19, lib. ii., pp. 62-4, 141-8; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 16, 76; Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano, (Vaticano), tav. lvi., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 190.

[IX-39] 'Esta estatua asi adornada no lejos de un lugar que estaba delante de ella, á la media noche sacaban fuego nuevo para que ardiese en aquel lugar, y sacabanlo con unos palos, uno puesto abajo, y sobre él barrenaban con otro palo, como torciendole entre las manos con gran prisa, y con aquel movimiento y calor se encendia el fuego, y alli lo tomaban con yesca y encendian en el hogar.' Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., p. 84; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., p. 184.

[IX-40] Or tapachtli as Bustamante spells it. 'Tapachtli, cral, concha o venera.' Molina, Vocabulario.

[IX-41] See this vol., p. 376, note 27.

[IX-42] Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., pp. 33, 83-7; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 74-5, 183-92; Boturini, Idea, p. 138; Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano, (Vaticano), tav. lxxiv., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., pp. 196-7; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 82.

[IX-43] Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., p. 96; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., ap., p. 213.

[IX-44] Or Izitzimites as on p. 327 of this vol.

[IX-45] Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., pp. 157, 191-3; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iv., ap., pp. 346-7, tom. ii., lib. vii., pp. 260-4; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 292-5; Boturini, Idea, pp. 18-21; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 62, 84-5; Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 101; Acosta, Hist. de las Yndias, pp. 398-9. Leon y Gama, Dos Piedras, pt i., pp. 51-55, differs somewhat from the text; he was unfortunate in never having seen the works of Sahagun.

[IX-46] This vol. p. 59. The interpretations of the codices represent this god as peculiarly honored in their paintings: They place Michitlatecotle opposite to the sun, to see if he can rescue any of those seized upon by the lords of the dead, for Michitla signifies the dead below. These nations painted only two of their gods with the crown called Altoutcatecoatle, viz., the God of heaven and of abundance and this lord of the dead, which kind of crown I have seen upon the captains in the war of Coatle. Explicacion del Codex Telleriano Remensis, pt ii., lam. xv., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 140. Miquitlantecotli signifies the great lord of the dead fellow in hell who alone after Tonacatecotle was painted with a crown, which kind of a crown was used in war even after the arrival of the Christians in those countries, and was seen in the war of Coatlan, as the person who copied these paintings relates, who was a brother of the Order of Saint Dominic, named Pedro de los Rios. They painted this demon near the sun; for in the same way as they believed that the one conducted souls to heaven, so they supposed that the other carried them to hell. He is here represented with his hands open and stretched toward the sun, to seize on any soul which might escape from him. Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano (Vaticano), tav. xxxiv., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 182. The Vatican Codex says further--that these were four gods or principal demons in the Mexican hell. Miquitlamtecotl or Zitzimitl; Yzpunteque, the lame demon, who appeared in the streets with the feet of a cock; Nextepelma, scatterer of ashes; and Contemoque, he who descends head-foremost. These four have goddesses, not as wives, but as companions, which was the simple relation in which all the Mexican god and goddesses stood to one another, there having been--according to most authorities--in their olympus neither marrying nor giving in marriage. Picking our way as well as possible across the frightful spelling of the interpreter, the males and females seem paired as follows: To Miquitlamtecotl or Tzitzimitl, was joined as goddess, Miquitecacigua; to Yzpunteque, Nexoxocho; to Nextepelma, Micapetlacoli; and to Contemoque, Chalmecaciuatl. Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano (Vaticano), tav. iii., iv., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., pp. 162-3; Boturini, Idea, pp. 30-1; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., ap. pp. 260-3; Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., pp. 116-17, says that this god was known by the further name of Tzontemoc and Aculnaoacatl. Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 6, 17. Gallatin, Amer. Ethnol. Soc., Transact., vol. i., pp. 350-1, says that 'Mictlanteuctli is specially distinguished by the interpreters as one of the crowned gods. His representation is found under the basis of the statue of Teoyaomiqui, and Gama has published the copy. According to him, the name of that god means the god of the place of the dead. He presided over the funeral of those who died of diseases. The souls of all those killed in battle were led by Teoyaomiqui to the dwelling of the sun. The others fell under the dominion of Mictanteuctli.' Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i., pp. 77, 148, 447, tom. ii., p. 428. Brasseur de Bourbourg mentions this god and his wife, bringing up several interesting points, for which, however, he must bear the sole responsibility: S'il Existe des Sources de l'Hist. Prim., pp. 98-9. 'Du fond des eaux qui couvraient le monde, ajoute un autre document mexicain (Cod. Mex. Tell.-Rem., fol. 4, v.), le dieu des régions d'en bas. Mictlan-Teuctli fait surgir un monstre marin nommé Cipactli ou Capactli (Motolinia, Hist. Antig. de los Indios, part. MS. Dans ce document, au lieu de cipactli il y a capactli, qui n'est peut-être qu'une erreur du copiste, mais qui, peut-être aussi est le souvenir d'une langue perdue et qui se rattacherait au capac ou Manco-Capac du Pérou.): de ce monstre, qui a la forme d'un caïman, il crée la terre (Motolinia, Ibid.). Ne serait-ce pas là le crocodile, image du temps, chez les Égyptiens, et ainsi que l'indique Champollion (Dans Herapollon, i., 69 et 70, le crocodile est le symbole du couchant et des ténèbres) symbole également de la Région du Couchant, de l'Amenti? Dans l'Orcus mexicain, le prince des Morts, Mictlan-Teuctli, a pour compagne Mictecacihuatl, celle qui étend les morts. On l'appelle Ixcuina, ou la déesse au visage peint ou au double visage, parce qu'elle avait le visage de deux couleurs, rouge avec le contour de la bouche et du nez peint en noir (Cod. Mex. Tell.-Rem., fol. 18, v.). On lui donnait aussi le nom de Tlaçolteotl, la déesse de l'ordure, ou Tlaçolquani, la mangeuse d'ordure, parce qu'elle présidait aux amours et aux plaisirs lubriques avec ses trois sœurs. On la trouve personifiée encore avec Chantico, quelquefois représentée comme un chien, soit à cause de sa lubricité, soit à cause du nom de Chiucnauh-Itzcuintli ou les Neuf-Chiens, qu'on lui donnait également (Cod. Mex. Tell.-Rem., fol. 21, v.). C'est ainsi que dans l'Italie anté-pélasgique, dans la Sicile et dans l'île de Samothrace, antérieurement aux Thraces et aux Pélasges, on adorait une Zérinthia, une Hécate, déesse Chienne qui nourrissait ses trois fils, ses trois chiens, sur le même autel, dans la demeure souterraine; l'une et l'autre rappelaient ainsi le souvenir de ces hétaires qui veillaient au pied des pyramides, où elles se prostituaient aux marins, aux marchands et aux voyageurs, pour ramasser l'argent nécessaire à l'érection des tombeaux des rois. "Tout un calcul des temps, dit Eckstein (Sur les sources de la Cosmogonie de Sanchoniathon, pp. 101, 197), se rattache à l'adoration solaire de cette déesse et de ses fils. Le Chien, le Sirius, règne dans l'astre de ce nom, au zénith de l'année, durant les jours de la canicule. On connaît le cycle ou la période que préside l'astre du chien: on sait qu'il ne se rattache pas seulement aux institutions de la vieille Égypte, mais encore à celles de la haute Asie." En Amérique le nom de la déesse Ixcuina se rattache également à la constellation du sud, où on la personnifie encore avec Ixtlacoliuhqui, autre divinité des ivrognes et des amours obscènes: les astrologues lui attribuaient un grand pouvoir sur les événements de la guerre, et, dans les derniers temps, on en faisait dépendre le châtiment des adultères et des incestueux (Cod. Mex. Tell.-Rem., fol. 16, v.).' See also, Brinton's Myths, pp. 130-7; Leon y Gama, Dos Piedras, pt i., p. 12, pt ii., pp. 65-6.

[IX-47] Amer. Ethnol. Soc., Transact., vol. i., pp. 338-9.

[IX-48] Speaking of the great image in the Mexican museum of antiquities supposed by some to be this Mexican goddess of war, or of death, Teoyaomique, Mr Tylor says, Anahuac, pp. 222-3: 'The stone known as the statue of the war-goddess is a huge block of basalt covered with sculptures. The antiquaries think that the figures on it stand for different personages, and that it is three gods--Huitzilopochtli the god of war, Teoyaomiqui his wife, and Mictlanteuctli the god of hell. It has necklaces of alternate hearts and dead men's hands, with death's head for a central ornament. At the bottom of the block is a strange sprawling figure, which one cannot see now, for it is the base which rests on the ground; but there are two shoulders projecting from the idol, which show plainly that it did not stand on the ground, but was supported aloft on the tops of two pillars. The figure carved upon the bottom represents a monster holding a skull in each hand, while others hang from his knees and elbows. His mouth is a mere oval ring, a common feature of Mexican idols, and four tusks project just above it. The new moon laid down like a bridge forms his forehead, and a star is placed on each side of it. This is thought to have been the conventional representation of Mictlanteuctli (Lord of the land of the dead), the god of hell, which was a place of utter and eternal darkness. Probably each victim as he was led to the altar could look up between the two pillars and see the hideous god of hell staring down upon him from above.'

[IX-49] Leon y Gama, Dos Piedras, pt i., pp. 41-4.

[IX-50] The tenth month, so named by the Tlascaltecs and others. See Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 298. 'Al decimo Mes del Kalendario Indiano llamaban sus Satrapas, Xocotlhuetzi, que quiere decir: Quando se cae, y acaba la Fruta, y debia de ser, por esta raçon, de que por aquel Tiempo se acababa, que cae en nuestro Agosto, è ià en todo este Mes se pasan las Frutas en tierra fria. Pero los Tlaxcaltecas, y otros lo llamaban Hueymiccailhuitl. que quiere decir: La Fiesta maior de los Difuntos; y llamavanla asi, porque este Mes solemniçaban la memoria de los Difuntos, con grandes clamores, y llantos, y doblados lutos, que la primera, y se teñian los cuerpos de color negro, y se tiznaban toda la cara; y asi, las ceremonias, que se hacian de Dia, y de Noche, en todos los Templos, y fuera de ellos, eran de mucha tristeça, segun que cada vno podia hacer su sentimiento; y en este Mes daban nombre de Divinos, à sus Reies difuntos, y à todas aquellas Personas señaladas, que havian muerto haçañosamente en las Guerras, y en poder de sus enemigos, y les hacian sus Idolos, y los colocaban, con sus Dioses, diciendo, que avian ido al lugar de sus deleites, y pasatiempos, en compañia de los otros Dioses.'

[IX-51] As the whole description becomes a little puzzling here, I give the original, Leon y Gama, Dos Piedras, p. 42: 'Enfrente de esta figura está Teoyaomique desnuda, y cubierta con solo un cendal, parada sobre una basa, ó porcion de pilastra; la cabeza separada del cuerpo, arriba del cuello, con los ojos vendados, y en su lugar dos viboras ó culebras, que nacen del mismo cuello. Entre estas dos figuras está un árbol de flores partido por medio, al cual se junta un madero con varios atravesaños, y encima de él una ave, cuya cabeza está tambien dividida del cuerpo. Se vé tambien otra cabeza de ave dentro de una jicara, otra de sierpe, una olla con la boca para abajo, saliendo de ella la materia que contenia dentro, cuya figura parece ser la que usaban para representar el agua; y finalmente ocupan el resto del cuadro [of the representation of the constellation above mentioned in the text] otros geroglíficos y figuras diferentes.'

[IX-52] Boturini, Idea, pp. 27-8, mentions the goddess Teoyaomique; on pp. 30-1, he notices the respect with which Mictlantecutli and the dead were regarded: 'Me resta solo tratar de la decima tercia, y ultima Deidad esto es, el Dios del Infierno, Geroglifico, que explica el piadoso acto de sepultar los muertos, y el gran respeto, que estos antiguos Indios tenian à los sepulcros, creyendo, à imitacion de otras Naciones, no solo que alli asistian las almas de los Difuntos, ... sino que tambien dichos Parientes eran sus Dioses Indigetes, ita dicti, quasi inde geniti, cuyos huessos, y cenizas daban alli indubitables, y ciertas señales de el dominio, que tuvieron en aquella misma tierra, donde se hallaban sepultados, la que havian domado con los sudores de la Agricultura, y aun defendian con los respetos, y eloquencia muda, de sus cadaveres.... Nuestros Indios en la segunda Edad dedicaron dos meses de el año llamados Micaylhuitl, y Hueymicaylhuitl à la Commemoracion de los Difuntos, y en la tercera exercitaron varios actos de piedad en su memoria, prueba constante de que confessaron la immortalidad de el alma.' See further Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 529-30. Of the compound idol discussed above, Humboldt, Vues des Cordillères, tom. ii., pp. 153-7, speaks at some length. He says: 'On distingue, à la partie supérieure, les têtes de deux monstres accolés et l'on trouve, à chaque face, deux yeux et une large gueule armée de quatre dents. Ces figures monstrueuses n'indiquent peut-être que des masques: car, chez les Mexicains, on étoit dans l'usage de masquer les idoles à l'époque de la maladie d'un roi, et dans toute autre calamité publique. Les bras et les pieds sont cachés sous une draperie entourée d'énormes serpens, et que les Mexicains designoient sous le nom de cohuatlicuye, vêtement de serpent. Tous ces accessoires, surtout les franges en forme de plumes, sont sculptés avec le plus grand soin. M. Gama, dans un mémoire particulier, a rendu très-probable que cette idole représente le dieu de la guerre, Huitzilopochtli, ou Tlacahuepancuexcotzin, et sa femme, appelée Teoyamiqui (de miqui, mourir, et de teoyao, guerre divine), parcequ'elle conduisoit les ames des guerriers morts pour la défense des dieux, à la maison du Soleil, le paradis des Mexicains, où elle les transformoit en colibris. Les têtes de morts et les mains coupées, dont quatre entourent le sein de la déesse, rappellent les horribles sacrifices (teoquauhquetzoliztli) célébrés dans la quinzième période de treize jours, après le solstice d'été, à l'honneur du dieu de la guerre et de sa compagne Teoyamiqui. Les mains coupées alternent avec la figure de certains vases dans lesquels on brûloit l'encens. Ces vases étoient appelés top-xicalli sacs en forme de calebasse (de toptli, bourse tissue de fil de pite, et de xicali, calebasse). Cette idole étant sculptée sur toutes ses faces, même par dessous (fig. 5), où l'on voit représenté Mictlanteuhtli, le seigneur du lieu des morts, on ne sauroit douter qu'elle étoit soutenue en l'air au moyen de deux colonnes sur lesquelles reposoient les parties marquées A et B, dans les figures 1 et 3. D'après cette disposition bizarre, la tête de l'idole se trouvoit vraisemblablement élevée de cinq à six mètres au-dessus du pavé du temple, de manière que les prêtres (Teopixqui) traînoient les malheureuses victimes à l'autel, en les faisant passer au-dessous de la figure de Mictlanteuhtli.'

[IX-53] According to Brasseur de Bourbourg, in Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, 1858, tom. clx., pp. 267-8: 'Les héros et demi-deux qui, sous le nom générique de Chichemèques-Mixcohuas, jouent un si grand rôle dans la mythologie mexicaine, et qui du vii^e au ix^e siècle de notre ère, obtinrent la prépondérance sur le plateau aztèque.... Les plus célèbres de ces héros sont Mixcohuatl-Mazatzin (le Serpent Nébuleux et le Daim), fondateur de la royauté à Tollan (aujourd'hui Tula), Tetzcatlipoca, spécialement adoré à Tetzeuco, et son frère Mixcohuatl le jeune, dit Camaxtli, en particulier adoré à Tlaxcallan, l'un et l'autre mentionnés, sous d'autres noms, parmi les rois de Culhuacan et considérés, ainsi que le premier, comme les principaux fondateurs de la monarchie toltèque. On ignore où ils reçurent le jour. Un manuscrit mexicain, [Codex Chimalpopoca], en les donnant pour fils d'Iztac-Mixcohuatl ou le Serpent Blanc Nébuleux et d'Iztac-Chalchiuhlicué ou la Blanche Dame azurée, fait allégoriquement allusion aux pays nébuleux et aquatiques où ils ont pris naissance; le même document ajoute qu'ils vinrent par eau et qu'ils demeurèrent un certain temps en barque. Peut-être que le nom d'Iztac ou Blanc, également donné à Mixcohuatl, désigne aussi une race différente de celle des Indiens et plus en rapport avec la nôtre.'

[IX-54] Brinton's Myths, p. 158.

[IX-55] Cañas de humo. Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., p. 75; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., p. 166.

[IX-56] Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., pp. 73-6; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 162-7; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 148-9, 151-2, 280-1; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 79; Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, pp. 483, 486, and elsewhere. Brasseur, as his custom is, euhemerizes this god, detailing the events of his reign, and theorizing on his policy, as soberly and believingly as if it were a question of the reign of a Louis XIV., or a Napoleon I.; see Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 227-35. Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 88, and others, make Camaxtle, the principal god of Tlascala, identical with Mixcoatl. The Chichimecs 'had only one god called Mixcoatl and they kept this image or statue. They held to another god, invisible, without image, called Iooalliehecatl--that is to say, god invisible and impalpable, favoring, sheltering, all-powerful, by whose power all live, etc.' Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 64.

[IX-57] This deity must not, it would seem, be confounded with another mentioned by Sahagun, viz., Coatlyace, or Coatlyate, or Coatlantonan, a goddess of whom we know little save the fact, incidentally mentioned, that she was regarded with great devotion by the dealers in flowers. See Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., p. 42, and Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., p. 95.

[IX-58] Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., pp. 10-11, 136; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., pp. 19-22, lib. iv., p. 305. Boturini, Idea de una Hist., pp. 14-15, speaks of a goddess called Macuilxochiquetzalli; by a comparison of the passage with note 28 of this chapter, it will I think be evident that the chevalier's Macuilxochiquetzalli is identical not with Macuilxochitl, but with Xochiquetzal, the Aztec Venus. See further, on the relations of this goddess, Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., pp. 490-1: 'Matlalcuéyé, qui donnait son nom au versant de la montagne du côté de Tlaxcallan, était regardée comme la protectrice spéciale des magiciennes. La légende disait qu'elle était devenue l'épouse de Tlaloc, après que Xochiquetzal eut été enlevée à ce dieu [see this vol. p. 378]. Celle-ci, dont elle n'était, après tout, qu'une personnification différente, était appelée aussi Chalchiuhlycué, ou le Jupon semé d'émeraudes, en sa qualité de déesse des eaux. Le symbole sous lequel on la représente, comme déesse des amours honnêtes, est celui d'un éventail composé de cinq fleurs, ce que rend encore le nom qu'on lui donnait "Macuil-Xochiquetzalli."' Brasseur, it is to be remembered, distinguishes between Xochiquetzal as the goddess of honest love, and Tlazolteotl as the goddess of lubricity.

[IX-59] The fire-god Xiuhtecutli used an instrument of this kind; see this vol. p. 385.

[IX-60] Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., pp. 11-12; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., pp. 22-3; Torquemada, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 58, 240-1; Clavigero, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 22; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., p. 492.

[IX-61] This god, who was also known by the title of Tlaltecuin, is the third Mexican god connected with medicine. There is first that unnamed goddess described on p. 353 of this vol.; and there is then a certain Tzaputlatena, described by Sahagun--Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., p. 4; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., pp. 7-8--as the goddess of turpentine (see Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., p. 494), or of some such substance, used to cure the itch in the head, irruptions on the skin, sore throats, chapped feet or lips, and other such things: 'Tzaputlatena fué una muger, segun su nombre, nacida en el pueblo de Tzaputla, y por esto se llama la Madre de Tzaputla, porque fué la primera que inventó la resina que se llama uxitl, y es un aceyte sacado por artificio de la resina del pino, que aprovecha para sanar muchas enfermedades, y primeramente aprovecha contra una manera de bubas, ó sarna, que nace en la cabeza, que se llama Quaxococivistli; y tambien contra otra enfermedad es provechosa asi mismo, que nace en la cabeza, que es como bubas, que se llama Chaguachicioiztli, y tambien para la sarna de la cabeza. Aprovecha tambien contra la ronguera de la garganta. Aprovecha tambien contra las grietas de las pies y de los labios. Es tambien contra los empeines que nacen en la cara ó en las manos. Es tambien contra el usagre; contra muchas otras enfermedades es bueno. Y como esta muger debió ser la primera que halló este aceyte, contaronla entre las Diosas, y hacianla fiesta y sacrificios aquellos que venden y hacen este aceyte que se llama Uxitl.'

[IX-62] Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., pp. 12-13; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., pp. 24-5; Clavigero, Hist. Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 21.

[IX-63] 'Tenia en la mano izquierda una rodela teñida de colorado, y en el medio de este campo una flor blanca con quatro ojas á manera de cruz, y de los espacios de las ojas salian quatro puntas que eran tambien ojas de la misma flor. Tenia un cetro en la mano derecha como un caliz, y de lo alto de él salia como un casquillo de saetas.' Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., p. 13; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., pp. 26-7; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 20; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 60-1. 'La pêche avait, toutefois, son génie particulier: c'était Opochtli, le Gaucher, personnification de Huitzilopochtli.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. des Nat. Civ., tom. iii., p. 494.

[IX-64] Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 22. This is evidently a blunder, however; Boturini explains Totec to mean 'god our lord,' and Xipe (or Oxipe, as he writes it) to signify 'god of the flaying.' 'Tlaxipehualiztli, Symbolo del primer Mes, quiere decir Deshollamiento de Gentes, porque en su primer dia se deshollaban unos Hombres vivos dedicados al Dios Totéuc, esto es, Dios Señor nuestro, ò al Dios Oxipe, Dios de el Deshollamiento, syncope de Tloxipeùca.' Boturini, Idea de una Hist., p. 51. Sahagun says that the name means 'the flayed one.' 'Xipetotec, que quiere decir desollado.' Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., p. 14; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., p. 27. While Torquemada affirms that it means 'the bald,' or 'the blackened one.' 'Tenian los Plateros otro Dios, que se llamaba Xippe, y Totec.... Este Demonio Xippe, que quiere decir, Calvo, ó Ateçado.' Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 58. Brasseur, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., p. 503, partially accepts all these derivations: 'Xipe, le chauve ou l'écorché, autrement dit encore Totec ou notre seigneur.' This god was further surnamed, according to the interpreter of the Vatican Codex, 'the mournful combatant,' or, as Gallatin gives it, 'the disconsolate;' see Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano (Vaticano), tav. xliii., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 186; and Amer. Ethnol. Soc., Transact., vol. i., pp. 345, 350.

[IX-65] Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., p. 14; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., pp. 27-8; Boturini, Idea de Nueva Hist., p. 51.

[IX-66] These human sacrifices were begun, according to Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. i., pp. 165-7, by the Mexicans, before the foundation of their city, while yet slaves of the Culhuas. These Mexicans had done good service to their rulers in a battle against the Xochimilcas. The masters were expected to furnish their serfs with a thank-offering for the war god. They sent a filthy rag and a rotten fowl. The Mexicans received and were silent. The day of festival came; and with it the Culhua nobles to see the sport--the Helots and their vile sacrifice. But the filth did not appear, only a coarse altar, wreathed with a fragrant herb, bearing a great flake of keen-ground obsidian. The dance began, the frenzy mounted up, the priests advanced to the altar, and with them they dragged four Xochimilca prisoners. There is a quick struggle, and over a prisoner bruised, doubled back supine on the altar-block gleams and falls the itzli, driven with a two-handed blow. The blood spurts like a recoil into the bent face of the high priest, who grabbles, grasps, tears out and flings the heart to the god. Another, another, another, and there are four hearts beating in the lap of the grim image. There are more dances but there is no more sport for the Culhuas: with lips considerably whitened they return to their place. After this there could be no more mastership, nor thought of mastership over such a people; there was too much of the wild beast in them; they had already tasted blood. And the Mexicans were allowed to leave the land of their bondage, and journey north toward the future Tenochtitlan.

[IX-67] See this vol., p. 415.

[IX-68] Further notice of this stone appears in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., p. 94, or Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., ap., pp. 207-8: 'El sesenta y dos edificio se llamaba Temalacatl. Era una piedra como muela de molino grande, y estaba agujereada en el medio como muela de molino. Sobre esta piedra ponian los esclavos y acuchillabanse con ellos: estaban atados por medio de tal manera que podian llegar hasta la circumferencia de la piedra, y dabanles armas con que peleasen. Era este un espectaculo muy frequente, y donde concurria gente de todas las comarcas á verle. Un satrapa vestido de un pellejo de oso ó Cuetlachtli, era alli el padrino de los captivos que alli mataban, que los llevaba á la piedra y los ataba alli, y los daba las armas, y los lloraba entre tanto que peleaban, y quando caian los entregaba al que les habia de sacar el corazon, que era otro satrapa vestido con otro pellejo que se llamaba Tooallaoan. Esta relacion queda escrita en la fiesta de Tlacaxipeoaliztli.'

[IX-69] Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., pp. 23, 37-43; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 51-3, 86-97; Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis, pt. i., lam. iii., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 133; Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano (Vaticano), tav. lxiii., in Id., vol. v., p. 191; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 154, 252-4; Leon y Gama, Dos Piedras, pt. ii., pp. 50-4; Prescott's Mex., vol. i., p. 78, note; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 481. We learn from Clavigero, Ibid., tom. i., pp. 281-2, that this great gladiatorial block was sometimes to an extraordinary extent a 'stone of sacrifice' to the executioners as well as to the doomed victim. In the last year of the reign of the last Montezuma, a famous Tlascaltec general, Tlahuicol, was captured by the merest accident. His strength of arm was such that few men could lift his maquahuil, or sword of the Mexican type, from the ground. Montezuma, too proud to use such an inglorious triumph, or perhaps moved by a sincere admiration of the terrible and dignified warrior, offered him his liberty, either to return to Tlascala, or to accept high office in Mexico. But the honor of the chief was at stake, as he understood it; and not even a favor would he accept from the hated Mexican; the death, the death! he said, and, if you dare, by battle on the gladiatorial stone. So they tied him, (by the foot says Clavigero), upon the temalacatl, armed with a great staff only, and chose out champions to kill him from the most renowned of the warriors; but the grim Tlascaltec dashed out the brains of eight with his club, and hurt twenty more, before he fell, dying like himself. They tore out his heart, as of wont, and a costlier heart to Mexico never smoked before the sun.

[IX-70] This last name means, Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 57, being followed, 'the hook-nosed;' and it is curious enough that this type of face, so generally connected with the Hebrew race and through them with particular astuteness in trade, should be the characteristic of the Mexican god of trade: 'Los mercaderes tuvieron Dios particular, al qual llamaron Iyacatecuhtli, y por otro nombre se llamò Yacacoliuhqui, que quiere decir: El que tiene la nariz aguileña, que propriamente representa persona que tiene viveça, ò habilidad, para mofar graciosamente, ò engañar, y es sabio, y sagàz (que es propia condicion de mercaderes.)'

[IX-71] Without laying any particular stress on this lighting a fire before Yiacatecutli--perhaps here necessary as a camp-fire and probably, at any rate, a thing done before many other gods--it may be noticed that the fire god seems to be particularly connected with the merchant god and indeed with the merchants themselves. Describing a certain coming down or arrival of the gods among men, believed to take place in the twelfth Mexican month, Sahagun--after describing the coming, first of Tezcatlipoca, who, 'being a youth, and light and strong, walked fastest,' and then the coming of all the rest (their arrival being known to the priests by the marks of their feet on a little heap of maize flour, specially prepared for the purpose)--says that a day after all the rest of the gods, came the god of fire and the god of the merchants, together; they being old and unable to walk as fast as their younger divine brethren: 'El dia siguiente llegaba el dios de los Mercaderes llamado Yiaiacapitzaoac, ó Yiacatecutli, y otro Dios llamado Hiscocauzqui (Yxcocauhqui), ó Xiveteuctli (Xiuhtecutli), que és el Dios del fuego á quien los mercaderes tienen grande devocion. Estos dos llegaban á la postre un dia despues de los otros, porque decian que eran viejos y no andaban tanto como los otros:' Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., p. 71, or Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., p. 158. See also, for the connection of the fire god Xiuhtecutli with business, this vol. p. 226; and for the high position of the merchants themselves besides Tezcatlipoca see this vol., p. 228.

[IX-72] Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., pp. 14-16; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., pp. 29-33; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 20. The Nahuihehecatli, or Nauiehecatl, mentioned by the interpreters of the codices, as a god honored by the merchants, is either some air god like Quetzalcoatl, or, as Sahagun gives it, merely the name of a sign; see Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano (Vaticano), tav. xxvii., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 179; also, pp. 139-40; Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis, lam. xii.; also, Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iv., pp. 304-5, and Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., pp. 135-6.

[IX-73] Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., pp. 16-17; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., pp. 33-5; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 59-60; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 22.

[IX-74] Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., pp. 7, 19, 90, 93; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., pp. 14, 39-40, lib. ii., pp. 200, 205; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 58, 152, 184, 416; Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano (Vaticano), tav. xxxv., and Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis, lam. xvi., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., pp. 141, 182; Gallatin, in Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact., vol. i., pp. 344, 350; Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 87, 315; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 21. 'Otros tenian figuras de hombres; tenian estos en la cabeza un mortero en lugar de mitra, y allí les echaban vino, por ser el dios del vino.' Motolinia, Hist. Indios, in Icazbalceta, Col. de Doc., tom. i., p. 33. 'Otros con un mortero en la cabeza, y este parece que era el dios del vino, y así le echaban vino en aquel como mortero.' Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 88. 'Papaztla ó Papaztac.... Este era uno de los tres pueblos de donde se sacaban los esclavos para el sacrificio que se hacia de dia, al idolo Centzentotochtin, Dios del vino en el mes nombrado Hueipachtli, ó tepeilhuitl en su templo propio que es el cuadragesimo cuarto edificio de los que se contenian en la area del mayor, como dice el Dr. Hernandez: "Templum erat dicatum vini deo, in cujus honorem tres captivos interdiu tamen, et nonnoctu jugulabant, quorum primum Tepuztecatl nuncupabant secundum toltecatl, tertium vero Papaztac quod fiebat quotanni circa festum Tepeilhuiltl." Apud P. Nieremberg, pag. 144.' Leon y Gama, Dos Piedras, pt ii., p. 35. 'Les buveurs et les ivrognes avaient cependant, parmi les Aztèques, plusieurs divinités particulières: la principale était Izquitecatl; mais le plus connu devait être Tezcatzoncatl, appelé aussi Tequechmecaniani, ou le Pendeur.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., p. 493.

[IX-75] Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 64; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 23. These were what the Spaniards called 'oratorios' in the houses of the Mexicans. In or before these oratories the people offered cooked food to such images of the gods as they had there. Every morning the good-wife of the house woke up the members of her family and took care that they made the proper offering, as above, to these deities. Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., p. 95; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., ap. p. 211.

[IX-76] It is obviously of little consequence to mythology whether the Mexicans called the month Atlcahualco the first or the third month (or, as Boturini has it, the eighteenth,) so long as we know, with some accuracy, to what month and day of the month it corresponds in our own Gregorian calendar. For the complete discussion of this question of the calendar we refer readers to the preceding volume of this series. Gama was unfortunately unacquainted with the writings of Sahagun, and Bustamante (who edited the works both of Gama and Sahagun) remarks in a note to the writings of the astronomer: 'Muchas veces he deplorado, que el sábio Sr. D. Antonio Leon y Gama no hubiese tenido á la vista para formar esta preciosa obra los manuscritos del P. Sahagun, que he publicado en los años de 1829 y 30 en la oficina de D. Alejandro Valdés, y solo hubiese leído la obra del P. Torquemada, discípulo de D. Antonio Valeriano, que lo fué de dicho P. Sahagun; pues la lectura del texto de éste, que acaso truncó, ó no entendió bien, podrian haberle dejado dudas en hechos muy interesantes á esta historia.' See Leon y Gama, Dos Piedras, pt i., pp. 45-89; Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., pp. 20-34, or Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 49-76; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 251-86; Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., p. 397; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 58-84; Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis, pt i., and Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano (Vaticano), tav. lvii-lxxiv, in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., pp. 129-34, 190-7; Boturini, Idea de una Hist., pp. 47-53; Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 294; Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, pp. 646-8; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., pp. 502-37; Gallatin, in Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact., vol. i., pp. 57-114.

[IX-77] See this vol., pp. 332-4.

[IX-78] It is also surnamed Cohuailhuitl, 'feast of the snake:' see above.

[IX-79] There seems to be some confusion with regard to whether or not there were gladiatorial sacrifices in each of the first two months. Sahagun, however, appears to describe sacrifices of this kind, as occurring in both periods; those of the first month being in honor of the Tlalocs and those of the second in honor of Xipe. For a description of these rites see this vol. pp. 414-5.

[IX-80] See this vol., pp. 360-2.

[IX-81] 'Le Tzohualli était un composé de graines légumineuses particulières au Mexique, qu'on mangeait de diverses manières.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 513.

[IX-82] The name 'Tepopochuiliztli' signifies 'smoke or vapor.' As to the meaning of 'Toxcatl' writers are divided, Boturini interpreting it to mean 'effort,' and Torquemada 'a slippery place.' Acosta, Sahagun, and Gama agree, however, in accepting it as an epithet applied to a string of parched or toasted maize used in ceremonies to be immediately described, and Acosta further gives as its root signification 'a dried thing.' Consult, in addition to the references given in the note at the beginning of these descriptions of the feasts, Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., p. 383; Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., pp. 45-9; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 100-11.

[IX-83] With three of these goddesses we are tolerably familiar, knowing them to be intimately connected with each other and concerned in the production, preservation, or support of life and of life-giving food. Of Atlatonan little is known, but she seems to belong to the same class, being generally mentioned in connection with Cinteotl. Her name means, according to Torquemada, 'she that shines in the water.' 'Otra Capilla, ò Templo avia, que se llamaba Xiuhcalco, dedicado al Dios Cinteutl, en cuia fiesta sacrificaban dos Varones Esclavos, y una Muger, à los quales ponian el nombre de su Dios. Al vno llamaban Iztaccinteutl, Dios Tlatlauhquicinteutl, Dios de las Mieses encendidas, ò coloradas; y à la Muger Atlantona, que quiere decir, que resplandece en el Agua, à la qual desollaban, cuio pellejo, y cuero, se vestia vn Sacerdote, luego que acababa el Sacrificio, que era de noche.' Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 155; see also, Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., p. 94; or Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., ap. p. 209.

[IX-84] Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., pp. 382-3, gives an account of various other ceremonies which took place ten days before the great feast day, which account has been followed by Torquemada, Clavigero, and later writers, and which we reproduce from the quaint but in this case at least full and accurate translation of E. G.--a translation which, however, makes this chapter the 29th of the fifth book instead of the 28th as in the original: 'Then came forth one of the chiefe of the temple, attired like to the idoll, carrying flowers in his hand, and a flute of earth, having a very sharpe sound, and turning towards the east, he sounded it, and then looking to the west, north and south he did the like. And after he had thus sounded towards the foure parts of the world (shewing that both they that were present and absent did heare him) hee put his finger into the aire, and then gathered vp earth, which he put in his mouth, and did eate it in signe of adoration. The like did all they that were present, and weeping, they fell flat to the ground, invocating the darknesse of the night, and the windes, intreating them not to leave them, nor to forget them, or else to take away their lives, and free them from the labors they indured therein. Theeves, adulterers, and murtherers, and all others offendors had great feare and heavinesse, whilest this flute sounded; so as some could not dissemble nor hide their offences. By this meanes they all demanded no other thing of their god, but to have their offences concealed, powring foorth many teares, with great repentaunce and sorrow, offering great store of incense to appease their gods. The couragious and valiant men, and all the olde souldiers, that followed the Arte of Warre, hearing this flute, demaunded with great devotion of God the Creator, of the Lorde for whome wee live, of the sunne, and of other their gods, that they would give them victorie against their ennemies, and strength to take many captives, therewith so honour their sacrifices. This ceremonie was doone ten dayes before the feast: During which tenne dayes the Priest did sound this flute, to the end that all might do this worship in eating of earth, and demaund of their idol what they pleased: they every day made their praiers, with their eyes lift vp to heaven, and with sighs and groanings, as men that were grieved for their sinnes and offences.'

[IX-85] Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 100-11; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 263-6; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 70-3.

[IX-86] For the month Etzalqualiztli, see this volume, pp. 334-43; for the months Tecuilhuitzintli, Hueytecuilhuitl, and Tlaxochimaco, see vol. ii. of this work, pp. 225-8; for Xocotlhuetzin and Ochpaniztli, this volume, pp. 385-9, 354-9; for Teotleco, vol. ii., pp. 332-4; for Tepeilhuitl, Quecholli, Panquetzaliztli, and Atemoztli, this volume, pp. 343-6, 404-6, 297-300, 323-4, 346-8; for Tititl, vol. ii., pp. 337-8; for Itzcalli, this volume, pp. 390-3.

[IX-87] Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 194-7, 216. There are other scattered notices of these movable feasts, which will be referred to as they appear.

[IX-88] Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. clxxvi.

[IX-89] Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 84; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 77-8, 195-218. The last five days of the year were, according to Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 331, devoted to religious ceremonies, as drawing of blood, sacrifices, and dances, but most other authors state that they were passed in quiet retirement.

[IX-90] See this volume, pp. 393-6.