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
