Mexican Archæology/Chapter 2

by Thomas Athol Joyce

 

CHAPTER II—MEXICO: THE GODS

THE question of the religion of the Ancient Mexicans is by no means easy to approach. At the time of the Spanish conquest the Mexican pantheon was still in a state of great confusion, and the number of tribal cults of which it was composed had not yet been reduced to a homogeneous whole. Gods whose functions were similar or associated had been invested with the attributes one of the other, and there is reason to suspect that the names of deities whose importance was relatively recent had been incorporated in the earlier myths by a priesthood jealous of the dignity of its own particular god. The history of the valley of Mexico, as far as it can be traced, consists, as we have seen, of the conquest from time to time of the sedentary agricultural population by ruder and more warlike tribes from the hills. The victors, conscious of their cultural inferiority, in adopting to the best of their ability the mode of life of the conquered, were careful also to propitiate the local gods, whom they regarded as responsible for the superior culture of the latter; though they attempted, as far as they dared, to subordinate them to their own chief deity. These hill-tribes of primitive hunters seem to have worshipped each a god of its own, who was regarded as its personal leader, who presided over war and the chase and who appears to have been connected with the stars and occasionally with the sun. This connection with the sun was, I am inclined to think, an afterthought, and not universal, arising from the belief that war was instituted in order to provide the sun with blood-offerings. To this class of deities belong Curicaveri, Tiripemé and Taras, worshipped by the Tarascans, Mixcoatl of the Otomi, Chichimec and Matlatzinca, Camaxtli of Tlaxcala and Uexotzinco, Amimitl and Atlaua of the Chiampanec, and the Mexican Uitzilopochtli (Fig. 3,f). The connection is especially close between Mixcoatl, Camaxtli and Uitzilopochtli, in fact they are occasionally identified. Their attributes consist of a spear-thrower and net bag, or bow and arrows, and the arrows are sometimes shown as tipped with down, in allusion to the fact that they are gods of sacrifice, such being the insignia of prisoners destined for the sacrificial stone; Uitzilopochtli is usually shown in the dress of a humming-bird (Uitzitzilin) in punning allusion to his name, and with him is associated a minor deity, Paynal, believed to be his messenger. According to a widespread legend Uitzilopochtli is said to have been conceived by his mother, Coatlicue, from a ball of down which fell from heaven and which she placed in her bosom; her other sons, the Centzon Uitznaua (Four hundred Southerners, the number meaning "innumerable"), at the instigation of their sister Coyolxauhqui (PL II, i), accused Coatlicue of improper conduct, and attempted to kill her; but Uitzilopochtli, springing from his mother's body, defeated them, decapitating Coyolxauhqui with the xiuhcoatl or "fire-snake" with which he was armed. Coatlicue was an earth-goddess, patron of flower-sellers, and, as her name implies, is distinguished by a skirt woven of snakes (PL III); the brothers are identified with the stars of the southern heaven. Very similar is the legend of Mixcoatl (Fig. 4, a), according to which this god was attacked and killed by the Centzon Mimizcoa (also stellar deities), but was avenged by his son Ce Acatl, who slew the latter with the tezcacoatl ("mirror-snake"). In the person of Mixcoatl we find a direct connection with the Tarascan Curicaveri, whose symbol was a stone knife kept in a box by the priest, since the same legend relates that Mixcoatl always carried with him a stone knife as a fetish. It may also be mentioned in passing that the date of Uitzilopochtli's (and Camaxtli's) movable feast was I. tecpatl (tecpatl being the stone-knife day-sign), and, as will be explained later, gods were often known by calendrical names. Mixcoatl's knife was said to be a symbol of the peculiar female deity Itzpapalotl (" obsidian butterfly"), a star-goddess associated with fire and lightning, and occasionally identified with a mythological two-headed deer called Itzcueye which figures in the legends of Mixcoatl and Camaxtli as the captive and wife of the god. This two-headed deer was again identified at Cuitlauac and Xochimilco with the Colhuacan earth and warrior goddess Ciuacoatl (Tonantzin or Quilaztli), invoked in childbirth, whose symbol was an obsidian knife; but, and here is a good instance of the confused nature of the myths with which we have to deal, Ciuacoatl was regarded as the mother of Mixcoatl (as also the other earth-goddess Coatlicue the mother of Uitzilopochtli), and as sister of the Mimizcoa. The planet Venus was a war-god in Michoacan, and, under the name Urendequa Vecara, was the especial deity of Curinguaro, a town hostile to the votaries of Curicaveri. In Mexico this planet was known as Tlauizcalpantecutli, and was connected in some respects with prisoners destined for sacrifice. Representations of Uitzilopochtli are very rare in Mexican art of pre-Spanish date, but we are told that his facepaint consisted of blue and yellow horizontal stripes. Mixcoatl and Camaxtli are usually shown with black paint around the eye, rather in the form of a highwayman's mask, and Uitzilopochtli also appears with this occasionally. The distinguishing feature of Tlauizcalpantecutli is a series of five dots, arranged quincunx fashion on a dark ground, with the central spot on the nose (Fig. 4, c).

Fig. 3.—Mexican deities from various MSS.

A.	Tlazolteotl.	B.	Tlaloc.
C.	Xiuhtecutli.	D.	Ciuapipiltin.
E.	Tezcatlipoca.	F.	Uitzilopochtli

Fig. 4.—Mexican deities from various MSS.

A.	Mixcoatl.	B.	Mictlantecutli.
C.	Tlauizcalpantecutli.	D.	Quetzalcoatl as Eecatl.
E.	Tonatiuh.	F.	Ome Tochtli

For the sedentary tribes of the valleys, dependent chiefly upon agriculture and fishing for a livelihood, the deities presiding over vegetation, rain and earth were the most important; and after the Aztec had become settled and devoted themselves to intensive cultivation, they readily adopted these gods and gave them a high place in their pantheon. Most important of all was Tlaloc, the god of rain and thunder (Fig. 3, b); his worship appears to have been extremely widespread, and his images are found in numbers among the remains of pre-Aztec date at Teotihuacan (where he is the only god who can be identified with certainty), in the Huaxtec country, at Teotitlan, at Quiengola in the Zapotec district, and at Quen Santo in Guatemala. It is even related that when the Acolhua first arrived in the valley in the reign of the first Chichimec ruler Xolotl, they discovered on a mountain a figure of this god, which remained an honoured object of worship until it was broken up by order of the first bishop of Mexico. Tlaloc is one of the most easily recognizable of Mexican deities, since he is represented with snakes twined about his eyes (the snake being throughout practically the whole of America the symbol of lightning and rain), with long teeth, and often with a trunk-like nose. According to legend he was one of the first gods created, and lived in a kind of paradise, situated in the east, called Tlalocan, where he presided over the souls of the drowned and those who in life suffered from dropsical affections. He was supposed to be assisted in his duties by a number of subsidiary rain-gods, called Tlaloque, who distributed the rain from magical pitchers and caused the thunder by striking them with rods. In the courtyard of Tlaloc's palace four great jars were supposed to stand, which contained rain of varying quality. In the first was the good rain which produced fertile crops; in the second, rain which gave being to cobwebs and mildew; in the third were stored ice and sleet; and in the fourth, rain after which nothing matured or dried. Thus Tlaloc combined two aspects, a beneficent and a terrible; and this is not unnatural, for rain in Mexico is more often than not accompanied by thunder, and the fertilizer is therefore also the smiter. As the god of fertility maize belonged to him, though not altogether by right, for according to one legend he stole it after it had been discovered by other gods concealed in the heart of a mountain. The great importance of Tlaloc and the Tlaloque in the worship of the Ancient Mexicans may be gathered from the fact that no less than five of the twenty month-festivals were dedicated to them, and that Tlaloc shared with Uitzilopochtli the great pyramid at Tenochtitlan. The most important of the Tlaloque was Opochtli, a fishing and hunting god, the inventor of nets and the bird-spear. Closely connected with Tlaloc was his wife Chalchiuhtlicue (Pl. II, 2), goddess of running water, said also to be sister of the Tlaloque and mother of the Mimizcoa. This goddess, under the name Matlalcue, was especially worshipped at Tlaxcala, and is easily recognized by her tasselled headband and cape, and often by a stepped noseornament. The most important festivals to these deities took place on mountain-tops, for it is there that the rain-clouds gather before they sweep over the plain, and closely associated with them was the worship of mountains represented by small figures called Tepictoton, with hair dressed in two horns, whose sacrificial victims were similarly adorned. The valley-dwellers of Michoacan around Pazcuaro revered a goddess of fertility and rain, named Cueravahperi, casting the hearts of her victims into certain hot springs which were supposed to give birth to the rain-clouds. In connection with her worship we are first brought into contact with a strange and gruesome rite, peculiar to this part of America, and performed exclusively in honour of agricultural deities. The victim was flayed, and the priest performed a ceremonial dance wrapped in the fresh skin. The practice seems to be symbolical of vegetation in the early spring, apparently dead, but containing within the germ of life and fertility, and no doubt was originally intended to assist by imitative magic the process of nature in renewing the food-supply. Corresponding to this goddess, and, like her, regarded as the mother of the gods, was the Mexican Teteoinnan or Tozi, a deity held in especial reverence by the Tlaxcalans and Olmec, and perhaps borrowed from the latter people. She was in particular the goddess of ripe maize and healing herbs, patroness of doctors, midwives and bath attendants (for the steam-bath played an important part in childbirth) and diviners. She too was connected with the flaying-sacrifice, and was sometimes pictured as clad in the victim's skin; otherwise her attributes are the same as those of Tlazoltcotl (sec below) and she carries a broom. The maize-god par excellence was Cinteotl, her son (though occasionally mentioned as a female deity), who appears originally to have been a Totonac god. He is usually shown with a vertical line leading down his cheek, probably representing tears and symbolizing the fertilizing rain. On certain occasions his priest wore a mask made from the skin of the thigh of the victim sacrificed in honour of Teteoinnan. At first sight it is a little surprising to find this god appearing as one of the tutelary deities of the lapidaries of Xochimilco, but no doubt the reason of this is that the ripe maize-cob, nature's mosaic, recalled the incrusted work which formed one of their principal manufactures. Closely associated with all these deities was a maize-goddess, Chicome Coatl, sister of Tlaloc, who presided over agriculture and was honoured with a flaying-sacrifice; while the young maize-ear had an especial protector in the goddess Xilonen, perhaps the same as the Chichimec Xilo worshipped by the inhabitants of the Amantlan district of Mexico. Another

MEXICO

1, 2. Stone mask representing Xipe; the reverse shows the entire figure of the god. (?) Tezcoco (Scale: 1/3rd)}}

goddess who seems to be connected with maize was llama tecutli, also called Cozcamiauh (maize-necklace), though she appears to have been a star-goddess as well. She, Teteoinnan and Xilonen were associated in a peculiar form of sacrifice in which the victim was decapitated, and which perhaps represented the reaping of the maize-ear. The sacrifice by decapitation seems to be particularly connected with the earth-goddesses, who are sometimes shown in the MSS. with head almost severed from the body, and with two snakes, perhaps representing streams of blood, issuing from the trunk. Of such a representation the colossal figure in the Mexican Museum (sec PL III) is an example. This deity is either Chicome Coatl or Coatlicue, probably the latter, to judge from the skirt of serpents which she wears. In this case the two snakes which spring from her decapitated body are placed snout to snout, and from the two profiles is compounded a grotesque face, or rather two such faces, one in front and one behind. It is worthy of note that the mask of the goddess Ilamatecutli, apparently another fertility goddess, is said to have been double-faced. The god who above all others was connected with the flaying-sacrifice is Xipe, who is invariably depicted as clad in the victim's skin (PL IV). He was believed to have been borrowed from the Oaxaca tribes, was worshipped in Jalisco, and finds a parallel in the sea-god of the Tarascans. Both Xipe and the latter are characterized by red and white paint (though Xipe's skin dress is yellow), and the victims of both were forced to fight for their lives in a gladiatorial combat. At the great feast of Xipe those warriors who had taken captives in war offered them to the god, and wore their skins during the ensuing month. He was a god of sowing, but being connected with the warrior's death by sacrifice was also a war-god, and his livery, including a drum as back-device, was worn in battle by the Mexican kings. In invocations his ceremonial name was "night-drinker," and he was prayed to give moisture to the crops. "Put on your golden garment; why does it not rain? It might be that I perished, I, the young maize-plant." In this connection another form of sacrifice was practised in his honour; a captive was tied to a scaffold and shot with darts so that his blood streamed down upon the ground (Fig. 5, a). This proceeding may be regarded in the light of imitative magic, to secure fertilizing rain for the earth. It was first performed, so the legend says, in honour of the earth-deities, and occurred also in South America among the tribes of Colombia. In the illustration, the victim is shown wearing the peculiar form of head-dress associated with Xipe. A particular emblem carried by the water and fertility deities is the chicauaztli, or rattle-staff (see PL IV, i), often seen in the hands of Xipe, Chicome Coatl and Cinteotl, and associated in invocations with Tlaloc. This instrument, like the rattlestaves of West Africa, may almost certainly be regarded as a charm to bring rain by imitating its sound. Besides the functions already mentioned, Xipe also exercised that of protector of goldsmiths, since the yellow skin in which he was clad was supposed to typify an overlay of gold foil. Among the fertility gods must be mentioned the goddess of flowers, love and pregnancy, Xochiquetzal (PI. IX, 6; p. 8 2), especially worshipped by the Tlalhuica (also at Tlaxcala), and mentioned as the wife of Cinteotl, though one legend makes her the first wife of Tlaloc, stolen by Tezcatlipoca, the Mexican Jupiter. Her distinguishing insignia are two large feather plumes upon her head, and she seems to be akin to the Tarascan goddess of Tzintzuntzan, Xaratanga, who was associated with Curicaveri as his wife. The functions of this deity however were rather more extended, since she was also regarded as an earth-and maize-goddess, and was

Fig. 5.—Mexican methods of Sacrifice.

A.	Arrow sacrifice.
B.	Gladiatorial sacrifice.
C.	Ordinary sacrifice.

(Zuche MS., British Museum)

connected with the game tlaxtli. Xochiquetzal was the especial patroness of weaving and embroidery, of which arts she was the supposed inventor. The male equivalent to this goddess was Xochipilli, god of flowers, dance, song and games (PL V, i). He is figured with the high crest of the coxcoxtli bird on his head, a white butterfly painted on his mouth, and occasionally with the tear face-paint. He appears to have been introduced from the Xelhua district on the Oaxaca border, and in one of his manifestations was known by the calendrical name of Macuil Xochitl (Five Flower), in which case he bears a hand painted across his mouth (a constant feature of gods into whose name the number five enters). He was further regarded as identical with, or as the son of, Pilzintecutli, a sun-god, who again was thought to be the son of Mictlantecutli, the lord of the underworld. During recent excavations in Mexico city, a stone figure of Xochipilli was found with a large number of miniature musical instruments in stone and pottery. Among the gods of fertility must be reckoned those who presided over octli (Fig. 4, f), the intoxicating drink obtained from the maguey (the American aloe, Agave americana). These deities were connected with the harvest, and also bore a relation to the moon; they were regarded as innumerable, a fact explained by an early chronicler as typifying the countless forms of drunkenness, and were spoken of collectively as Centzon Totochtin or the "Four hundred (i.e. innumerable) Rabbits." Many names of these guds have come down to us; they were all regarded as brothers, and it is possible that each one represents a section of the Mexican population, especially as their names seem taken from the names of places. If so their number would point to an early date for the discovery of octli. Tezcatzoncatl is said by some to be the chief, by others Izquitecatl, or again Ome Tochtli, (Two Rabbit, a calendrical name taken from the date of

MEXICO

1. Stone figure of Xochipilli (the characteristic high crest of his head-dress is missing)
2. Stone figure of a Xiuhcoatl (fire-snake in relief
(Scale: 1, 1/8th: 2, 1/9th)

the principal feast). The two former are Chichimec gods, and Coatlicue was assigned to both as wife. Tepoztecatl was the octli god of the Chichimec inhabitants of the Amantlan quarter, while Patecatl was connected with the Huaxtec, a people popularly supposed to be especially given to drunkenness. Indeed one legend makes the tribal father of this people the first drunkard. In invocations the Totochtin were related to Colhuacan. Their principal insignia consisted of red and black face-paint, and a semi-lunar noseornament which appears also on their shields, while Tepoztecatl, the god to whom most probably the temple at Tepoztlan was erected, carries an axe. As sister of the Totochtin we have Mayauel, the agave goddess, wife of Patecatl, who, like the Ephesian Diana, was supposed to have four hundred breasts. An interesting myth attaches to Tezcatzoncatl, who was fabled to have been killed and revived by Tezcatlipoca, by which action the sleep of the drunken, so similar to death, became harmless for men. No doubt it was this awakening after heavy sleep, as much as anything else, which connected the octli gods with the waxing and waning of vegetation and the moon. The 'Tarascans of Cumachan also worshipped an octli god, who was believed to be lame, since he disgraced himself by becoming intoxicated in heaven, and was thrown thence to the carth. The supremacy which Tlaloc was supposed to exercise over the deities of fertility is well seen in the fact that at the great feast to the mountains four women and a man were sacrificed to him, named after five of these divinities, Matlalcue, Mayauel, 'T'epexoch, Xochitecatl (the two latter connected with flowers), and the male god of snakes, Milnauatl. One other goddess connected with the food-supply deserves mention here, namely Uixtociuatl, the deity of salt, who bore a certain relation to Chalchiuhtlicue.

The earth-goddesses Teteoinnan and (to a less degree) Chicome Coatl have already been mentioned, but another most important female divinity, an earthgoddess, but not associated with vegetation, was Tlazolteotl (Fig. 3, a). This deity seems originally to have come from the Olmec, and was identified with the Huaxtec Ixcuina. She is at times identified also with Teteoinnan, and was occasionally honoured with a flaying-sacrifice, but her chief province was the superintendence of carnal sin, confession and penitence. She is shown with a black mouth and chin, a semi-lunar nose-ornament, and a cotton headband in which are stuck two spindles. The cult of this goddess was practised by the Huaxtec, Olmec and Mixtec, but not by the Chichimec or Tarascans.

We must now consider one of the most interesting and important gods of the Mexican pantheon, Tezcatlipoca (Fig. 3, e). It is difficult to give a short, and at the same time clear, account of his manifold functions and manifestations, since there were few departments of native life with which he was not intimately connected. In the first place he was the all-powerful god of the Nahua speaking tribes, worshipped by them in common; as such he was superior to the tribal war- and hunting gods such as Mixcoatl and Uitzilopochtli, and in actual practice he seems to have been regarded with even greater awe. In typical form he appears with face banded with yellow and black, a shell ring breast-ornament, and a mirror from which a spire of smoke issues. This smoking mirror is his especial sign, and constitutes the rebus of his name; in it he was supposed to see all that was occurring on earth, for one of his main functions was the distribution of rewards and punishments. He bears this mirror on his head, or very often in place of one of his feet, a peculiarity explained by the idea that in his capacity of god of the setting sun he lost his foot owing to the premature closing of the doors of the underworld. Sometimes the missing foot is replaced by a stone knife, and in this manifestation he was known as Itztli, the knife-god. He is thus brought into intimate relation with the hunting deities, of whom this weapon was a symbol. Besides this, attempts seem to have been made by the various tribes to dignify their respective gods by actual identification with the supreme deity. One legend states that he became Mixcoatl, and in this personality invented the production of fire from flint. Or again, he appears under two forms, a red and a black Tezcatlipoca, and the latter is identified with Camaxtli and Uitzilopochtli. This distinction of colour recalls the yellow and black Tiripemes of the Tarascans, of whom the former was identified with Curicavert. One of the many names of Tezcatlipoca was Yoalli Eecatl, the night-wind, and he was supposed to wander through the streets after dark in search of evildoers. Seats were placed for him at crossroads, and a cross-road is often shown as one of his attributes in the manuscripts. When portrayed with bandaged eyes he bore the name of Itztlacoliuhqui, and presided over sin and cold.

As the god of divine punishment he was also a god of confession, and as such was associated with Tlazolteotl, while his connection with war is seen in the fact that he was regarded as the especial patron of the warrior school, or Telpochcalli. In his dual capacity as a night and warrior-god he was supposed to appear in all sorts of grisly shapes in order to test the courage of those he might meet. To flee from one of these phantoms was fatal, but the brave man who seized the apparition and wrestled with it until it gave him one or more spines of the maguey, was rewarded with a similar number of prisoners in his next battle. One of the forms which the god assumed on such occasions was a headless body with two doors in its chest which opened and shut, making a noise like the sound of an axe upon a tree. At the same time this deity possessed a lighter side; as Omacatl (a calendrical name, "Two Reed") he was the god of banquets and festive entertainments, and as Tlamatzincatl he was regarded as endowed with perpetual youth. His relation to the produce-goddesses is seen in the fact that the four women given as wives to the victim, identified with the god himself, who was destined to be sacrificed at his principal feast, bore the ceremonial names of Xilonen, Xochiquetzal, Uixtociuatl and Atlatonan, the last-named being a goddess associated with Teteoinnan and honoured with a flaying-sacrifice.

Another important deity, whose relations are peculiarly difficult to unravel, was Quetzalcoatl (PI.VI,z). He was the especial god of the Toltec, inventor and patron of the arts and crafts, and originator of the calendar and priestly ritual. In studying the extremely confused legends concerned with this divinity it is important to remember two facts which have probably given rise to much misunderstanding. First that the high-priest of the god bore his name, secondly that the last Toltec king, in whose reign occurred the fall of Tulan and the scattering of the Toltec, was called Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl. The relation of this god to the Maya deity Kukulkan, whose name is an exact equivalent (quetzal=kukul, the quetzal bird; coatl= kan, snake), is discussed below (p. 226). It is said that after giving laws to the people he departed eastward, and on reaching the sea put off his feather dress and turquoise snake-mask and immolated himself upon a funeral pyre, his soul becoming the morning star; or, according to another account, he sailed away eastward, promising to return in a year of similar date. Asa god of the morning star he bore the calendrical name of Ce Acatl ("One Reed"), one of the dates marking the periodical appearances of Venus. It will be remembered that we have seen a deity named Ce Acatl as a warrior-god, slaying the Mimizcoa who had killed his father Mixcoatl. But this deity is certainly not to be identified with Ce Acatl Quetzalcoatl, who was essentially a god of peace, averse to human sacrifice. Among the hunting peoples, as can be seen especially from a study of the Tarascan tribes, the morning star was a war-god, while the association of Quetzalcoatl with this planet was due to the fact that it was the regulator of the solar calendar as explained subsequently. In the second legend the promise of the god to return in a year ce acatl had very far-reaching effects. Quetzalcoatl was regarded as white and bearded, and the arrival of the Spaniards in a year bearing this date seemed to the Mexicans to possess a religious sanction which proved of inestimable service to the invaders. Indeed, but for this legend it is more than doubtful whether the almost incredible exploit of Cortés would have been successful. Quetzalcoatl is usually shown with black paint, the priestly colour, and wearing a pointed head-dress of the form associated with the Huaxtec, and hook-shaped ear pendants. As Eecatl the wind-god he bears a mask with a long snout, and a spirally marked shell breast-ornament, typifying the eddies of the wind (Fig. 4, d). In this capacity he was associated with the rain-gods, for whom he was said to sweep the road, and in one place he is given the same title as Tezcatlipoca, Yoalli Eecatl, the night-wind. As a god of ceremonial purification he is generally shown with the bone implement for piercing the ears, sometimes stuck in his head-dress, and, as a patron of education, children were presented to him at the public school or Calmecac. His legendary connection with Tezcatlipoca is interesting. In one myth the two are mentioned as creating-gods, who raised the heavens after they had fallen upon the earth at the end of the last mythical period. In another they are shown as foes, and it is Tezcatlipoca who by his machinations drives Quetzalcoatl from Tulan. The latter story probably represents the retirement of the Toltec before the advancing waves of Nahua migration. As might be expected, Quetzalcoatl is closely associated with the peoples of the eastern coast, he wears Huaxtec dress, and the Olmec are mentioned as his children; further, he was worshipped at Tlaxcala and Uexotzinco, and especially at Cholula, cities in which the Toltec at their dispersal had settled in numbers. Cholula was in fact the centre of his worship in later times, and his great pyramid there, greater even than that of Uitzilopochtli in Mexico, was regarded with particular veneration by the surrounding peoples, even by the Aztec conquerors. One legend makes Quetzalcoatl the chief agent in the final creation of man. According to this story he goes to the underworld to fetch bones; as he returns he falls, the bones drop to earth and quails gnaw them. Finally Ciuacoatl pounds them up and makes a paste from which men are formed. The same myth shows him as the discoverer of maize, which was concealed in the mountain Tonacatepetl. All the gods were searching for it, but the way was known to the ants alone. Quetzalcoatl turns himself into a black ant, and a red ant guides him thither, but the mountain is too heavy to lift, so the god Xolotl (in his manifestation as Nanauatzin) splits it open. This god Xolotl, who will be mentioned later, is closely associated in dress and attributes with Quetzalcoatl, as also are the octli-gods, and he is sometimes given as the hero of the creation-myth quoted above. But the maize was not destined to remain the possession of Quetzalcoatl, for it was stolen by Tlaloc, to whom since that time it belongs. In many of the invocations given by Sahagun, Quetzalcoatl is mentioned as a creator-god. A peculiar point in connection with this deity is seen in the practice of professional thieves, who were accustomed to make an image of Quetzalcoatl which they carried with them when they set out to rob a house. The explanation may be sought in the fact that the wind-god was naturally typical of mutability, and so was patron of sorcery and might be supposed to aid the magical precautions taken by robbers to cast sleep upon the inmates of the house which they wished to attack, as related below. A peculiar legend accounts for the feather-work garments and mask worn by Quetzalcoatl; from two sources we learn that this god was extremely ugly, and one of them adds that when Tezcatlipoca showed him his reflection in his mirror, Quetzalcoatl was so ashamed that he adopted these aids to concealment. 'The other states that his image was always kept covered.

Besides Tezcatlipoca, there were also other high gods, whose functions related to creation and generation, but, like many high gods among primitive peoples, the amount of active worship paid them was relatively small. Such were Tonacatecutli and his wife Tonacaciuatl, dwellers in the highest heaven, who were said to be Toltec deities, and were identified with Ometecutli and Omeciuatl, alsoassociated with Tulan. The creation once over, they received little direct worship, save that appeals were made to them in invocations relative to pregnancy and birth. Tonacatecutli was also identified with Chicome Xochitl ("Seven Flower," a calendrical name), in which manifestation he appeared as a fertility god, and Tonacaciuatl was at times likewise identified with Xochiquetzal and Chicome Coatl. Attention has already been called to the manner in which the Aztec tried to add to the dignity of their tribal god by transferring to him the functions of other deities, and it is not therefore surprising to find in one passage that Uitzilopochtli is identified with Tonacatecutli. Connected with the creator-deities are two interesting personalities, Oxomoco (male) and Cipactonal (female). These were the prototypes of all magicians, patrons of the magical arts, assistants in the creation of men and in the discovery of maize, and general advisers in the migration of the Nahua tribes. The material attributes of these personages are not clear, and it is difficult to find a pictorial representation which can be said with certainty to portray either of them. As regards Mictlantecutli, the god of the underworld, the case is quite otherwise; he is very frequently shown, and nearly always takes the form of a skeleton, often with a stone knife in place of his nose (Fig. 4, b). Skulls and bones are his inevitable accompaniments, the owl is his bird, and his feminine partner was named Mictlanciuatl. Other elemental divinities, of rather nebulous attributes, were the sky-gods Citlalicue and Citlaltonac, who were associated with the creator-gods, the sun and the morning star; and also Yoaltecutli and Yoalticitl, night-deities, of whom the former seems to be identified with the sun and the constellation Gemini, and the latter with Teteoinnan.

We now come to a deity of great importance, the sun, called by the name of Tonatiuh, and the calendrical name of Naui Olin ("Four Movement," Fig. 4, e). This god is easily recognizable by the sun-disc, set about with divergent rays, which he carries, and by his nose-ornament and long quetzal-feathers. Mexican legend recognizes no less than four previous suns, each marking a world period, and each terminating in a convulsion of nature which resulted in a universal destruction. Accounts differ as regards the order of these suns, but the authentic version is probably that which is supported by the so-called "calendar-stone" figured on PL VIII, i, and Fig. 8. According to this version, when all was dark, Tezcatlipoca transformed himself into the sun to give light to men. This sun, known by the calendrical name of Naui Ocelotl (Four Ocelot), terminated in the destruction of mankind, including a race of giants, by jaguars. Quetzalcoatl became the second sun, called Naui Eecatl ("Four Wind"), and the age terminated in a terrible hurricane, during which mankind was transformed into

MEXICO

1. Sculptured stone vase
2. Stone figure of Quetzalcoatl
(Scale: 1/4th)

monkeys. The third sun,Naui Quiauitl ("Four Rain"), was Tlaloc, and the destruction came by means of a rain of fire. The fourth was Chalchiutlicue, Naui Atl ("Four Water "), and mankind was finally destroyed by a deluge, during which they became fishes. The present sun, Naui Olin ("Four Movement") is destined to conclude with an earthquake.

A fuller account of the birth of the historical sun runs as follows. All the gods were assembled at Teotihuacan, waiting for the appearance of the planet and performing penance. A great fire was prepared, into which, after some hesitation, the syphilitic god Nanauatzin (a manifestation of the dog-headed sun-and lightning-deity, the patron of twins, Xolotl) leaped, reappearing later as the sun. Fired by his example, Tecociztecatl leaped after him, but he failed to spring into the glowing heart of the fire and he reappeared as the moon, the surface of which is clouded with the black ashes of the pyre. A variant myth makes Quetzalcoatl cast his son into the fire to become the sun, while Tlaloc throws his son in later and he becomes the moon. The sun once created, some nourishment had to be found for him, and various gods sacrificed themselves so that he might obtain sustenance from their blood and hearts. A variant legend narrates the special creation of the Centzon Mimizcoa who by fighting might provide the sun with the necessary blood-offerings. The connection of the sun with the war-gods is therefore very close, for war in Mexico was in the main of a ceremonial nature, undertaken with the express purpose of obtaining prisoners for sacrifice, and not necessarily with the intention of inflicting mortal hurt upon the foe. It is in this sense that in a ceremonial invocation to Uitzilopochtli, the warrior-god, the deity is made to exclaim "Through me has the sun risen." From this point of view the sun is closely connected with the souls of warriors perishing in war or on the sacrificial stone, who escorted the orb from the eastern horizon to the zenith; and also with the souls of women dying in child-birth, the female counterparts of the warriors, who accompanied it from the zenith to its setting. These female souls were deified under the name of Ciuapipiltin or Ciuateteo, and were supposed to descend to the earth on certain dates and inflict maladies on children (Fig. 3, d). They are included under the general term of Tzitzimime, lightning demons, of whom Itzpapalotl was one, and whose advent to destroy the world was greatly feared during eclipses and at the end of each fifty-two-year period. Associated with the sun as escort was Xolotl, the dog-headed god of twins and monstrosities, and, in invocations, the earth-god Tlaltecutli, Fig. 6.
(Borgia MS., Rome) who, like him, was supposed to be nourished with the blood of warriors killed in fight and sacrifice. The creation of the moon, Meztli,in the person of Tecociztecatl has already been mentioned, but other deities were connected with it, especially those associated with vegetation. The waxing moon, and waning of the moon was supposed to typify the process of nature, and the moon was supposed to exercise an influence over vegetable growth; it is even possible that the phases of this satellite may have possessed a calendrical significance before the invention of the solar year. Consequently we find the earth-goddess Tlazolteotl associated with Meztli, and also the harvest-gods, the Totochtin. Probably the connection with the Totochtin was emphasized by the fact that the Mexicans, instead of the "man in the moon," saw the figure of a rabbit (tochtli) in the disc (Fig. 6). Both Tlazolteotl and the Totochtin wear semi-lunar nose-ornaments, exactly similar to the outline of the moon as shown in manuscripts, which often portray it as a curved bone filled with water. A more or less constant emblem of the moon-god is a spiral sea-shell, which he bears partly in his capacity as a god of birth.

Another elemental god of great importance in domestic as well as public worship was the fire-god, known to the Aztec under the name of Xiuhtecutli (Fig. 3,c). His worship probably dated from a very early period, and he also bore the name of Ueueteotl, "the old-old god." Among the Tarascans, this deity was the centre of the domestic cult, and the Tepanec and Otomi worshipped him under the name of Otontecutli. Under this name he was invoked in historic times by the inhabitants of the Tepanec cities of Azcapotzalco and Tlacopan and of Colhuacan. At Xochimilco the fire-deity appears as a goddess, under the name of Chantico or Quaxolotl. Xiuhtecutli is generally shown with a horizontally banded face (in this respect the illustration in Fig. 3, c, is not typical), and his prevailing colour is yellow. On his back he bears the fire-snake, xluhcoatl (see Pl. V, 2), and a butterfly, papalotl, frequently appears in his hair. It may be mentioned that in general horizontal face-paint seems to be characteristic of the gods of the immigrant hunter tribes, the vertical of the agricultural gods of the sedentary tribes of the valley. 'The butterfly is closely connected with fire, since the fluttering flight of this insect was supposed to resemble the flicker of a flame. Mexican mythology is full of poetical imagery of this sort, which constitutes a welcome relief to the gruesomeness of many of their rites. The fire-god was connected with perhaps the most horrible of their sacrifices; at his most important feast the victims were cast living into a huge brazier, and dragged thence with hooks before death brought a welcome relief, to have their hearts torn from their bodies in the customary manner. An unexpected feature of this god is exemplified in the belief that he was supposed to dwell in the water. As mentioned above, Tezcatlipoca is connected with fire, in so far as he is supposed first to have produced it from flint, after assuming the form of Mixcoatl.

Besides the gods mentioned above there were a number with special functions, a few of whom may now be mentioned. Gods connected with, or invoked during, pregnancy and at birth, besides Chalchiuhtlicue, Ciuacoatl, Teteoinnan, Xochiquetzal and the creating deities, were Chalchiuhtlatonac, associated with Chalchiuhtlicue, and Ayopechtli, the goddess of birth proper, who, like Mayauel, is usually represented as seated on a tortoise. To Ixtlilton, the black god, brother of Macuil xochitl, a sacrifice was made when the child first spoke, and he was regarded as the medical god for children. Other gods, already mentioned, with medical functions were Amimitl (dysentery), Macuilxochitl, Xochiquetzal and Nanauatzin (genital affections), Tlaloc (dropsy), Xipe (skin-diseases), Cinteotl (leprosy), Tezcatlipoca and Tlauizcalpantecutli (senders of sickness), Teteoinnan (goddess of healing herbs), and Tzapotlatenan (who discovered the healing properties of turpentine). The various guilds in Mexico, constituted by members of particular trades, held special rites in honour of those gods who were supposed to preside over their daily activities. Space forbids the inclusion of a complete list, since most can be identified from the details given One god however deserves especial mention, Yacatecutli, the god of the Pochteca or travelling merchants who formed a guild of enormous political importance as will be shown later. Every night while on a journey the merchants, who travelled in companies, burnt incense before their staves which, fastened in a bundle, represented his image, and elaborate rites were held in his honour before their departure and on their return. He was associated in worship with Coyotlinauatl, the god of the guild of feather-workers who inhabited the quarter of Amantlan, which was conterminous with the quarter of the Pochteca. Finally a peculiar god, whose function, other than calendrical, is indeterminate, may be mentioned; the bear-headed Tepeyollotl, the "heart of the mountain," a cave-god. He is often shown with Tezcatlipoca's mirror, and may be a manifestation of that omnipresent deity. Such were the principal gods worshipped in the Mexican valley at the time of the conquest; there were many minor deities also, but sufficient has been said to give some idea of the Mexican pantheon, and to indicate its composite nature. Most of the gods were supposed to dwell in supernatural regions such as Tlalocan, the eastern paradise and home of Tlaloc which has already been mentioned, and Mictlan, the underworld and home of Mictlantecutli, which consisted of nine spheres in the lowest of which was a ninefold stream. Above were thirteen heavens, in the first of which were certain planets, in the second the Tzitzimimé, in the third the Centzon Mimizcoa, in the fourth birds, in the fifth fire-snakes (comets) created by the fire-god, in the sixth winds, in the seventh dust, in the eighth the gods. The rest were reserved for Tonacatecutli and his consort, whose especial home was the thirteenth and highest heaven.

The elements of Mexican religion then are twofold, and consist of three classes of supernatural being, each bearing a direct relation to the mode of life of their especial worshippers. These consist of the rain-and fertility-deities of the agricultural peoples; the stellar war-and hunting-gods of the nomadic tribes who were regarded in the light of personal leaders; and the omnipotent creating-gods, such as Tonacatecutli and Tezcatlipoca, common to both. The tribal gods of the nomadic peoples seem to partake of the nature of fetishes in their original forms, and to have been evolved from the "medicine bundles" familiar to the student of North American ethnography. The more cultured section of the first immigrants, who separated from the main body and departed eastwards, are represented as taking with them their god and leader, whose image was kept veiled in cloth; and allusion has already been made to the statement that Quetzalcoatl's image was in early days kept similarly covered. Moreover a legend dealing with the Aztec migration states that at an early stage of their wanderings two bundles appeared miraculously in their camp, each of which was appropriated by a section of the migrants. In one was found a jewel, and its possessors finally became the inhabitants of Tlaltelolco, while the other contained fire-sticks (continually associated with hunting and stellar deities), and fell to the eventual inhabitants of Tenochtitlan. Further evidence of the fetish nature of such gods is seen in the stories which tell of struggles between different tribes for the possession of a certain god. Thus we have the story of the capture of the god of the immigrant hill-hunters by the sedentary population around lake Pazcuaro in Michoacan; and the seizure by the Chichimec of the two-headed deer of Camaxtli which was his war-fetish. The same idea survived in the provision by the Mexicans within the temple precincts of a prison-house where the idols of conquered tribes were kept in durance; and it was no doubt based upon the belief that once a people was deprived of the god who was its personal leader, its prestige and power must necessarily vanish.

The worship of so many deities involved a cult of no little elaboration, and it must be remembered that apart from the festivals which were observed universally, each tribe, each province, each quarter in Mexico, each guild (often the remains of a former tribe), and each family were punctual in the observance of various domestic and private rites; and though most of the literature which has come down to us is concerned with the national worship, yet no doubt the domestic cults, for the most part unchronicled, were regarded by the individual as of greater importance, from the point of view that they had a more direct bearing upon his personal prosperity.

Naturally the worship paid to the divine powers varied very greatly in nature according to the mental and cultural status of the worshippers. Many of the myths are extremely crude, and evidently the product of a very low stage of civilization; but on the other hand, many of the prayers given by Sahagun show a high degree of spirituality. The existence of a professional priesthood carefully trained in astronomy and letters, together with the natural bent of the American mind towards poetic imagery, fostered the evolution of beliefs among the more educated which no doubt differed as much in quality from the superstitions of the populace as those of the higher classes in Peru or in India. Rites which in appearance were crude and savage possessed for the adept a symbolic and esoteric meaning which transformed, even if it did not entirely excuse, their barbarity. Symbolism is the keynote of American ritual, and it is this symbolism which makes the religious manuscripts so difficult of interpretation.

Though practically all the supernatural powers were personified in human form, yet traces are found of more direct worship of nature in Tlaxcala, where, according to Motolinia, altars were erected to trees, and four altars might be found arranged round a spring. Indications of tree-worship were also found among the Mixtec who were said to make offerings to the shadows of lofty trees. In Oaxaca, among the Mixtec and Zapotec, traces of a different kind of religion make their appearance. It is true that here too (in parts of the Mixtec territory) we have immigration legends, pointing to the supposition that a portion of the population came from the north; but other, and probably older, myths exist which narrate the birth of the human race from trees, rocks and wild beasts. Myths of this nature are far more typical of Peru as a whole than of Mexico and Central America. Another peculiarity of Mixtec and Zapotec worship is the great number of cave-temples, many of them so holy that they became centres of pilgrimage. Some of these shrines were oracular, and one of them, at Achiutla, held such a high reputation that Montecuzoma sent an embassy to consult it at the coming of the Spaniards. Human sacrifice was practised by both these tribes, though to a far less extent than by the Mexicans, the heart of the victim being held to the lips of the idol of stone or wood. Traces of lake-worship also occur, another point in common with Peru and Colombia, in so far as at Tecomastlahuaca (immediately S.E. of Cuicatlan) was a sacred lake into which the bodies of victims were thrown; and at Teotitlan was a celebrated idol which was said to have descended from heaven in the form of a bird in the midst of a luminous constellation, a myth which would seem to have certain Maya affinities, as will be seen later. At rs in the Zapotec country was current a creation legend not unlike some of the Mexican ztiological myths. According to this the creator and his progeny bore calendrical names, and these semi-deities built their palaces on a huge rock on the summit of which was a copper axe, with the edge upwards, supporting the heavens. This preliminary age was terminated by a great deluge, after which the creator repeopled the world with the human race.

 

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