Chapter V: Deities of the Earth and Growth Proper (2)

The aspect of the goddess is described. She rests (as do Uitzilopochtli and other gods) under the shade of the cypress trees. The maize is about to be planted, and she bears in her hand the rattle-staff or rain-rattle, carried by all the earth- and rain-gods and their priests, with which she brings down the rain by dint of sympathetic magic and which implement was also symbolic of fruitfulness or sexual union. [197] The worshipper takes the agave thorn in his hand wherewith to pierce his tongue and other members, so that the blood thus obtained may produce rain for the growth of the maize. The broom alluded to is a symbol of the earth-goddesses, and was made of hard, stiff, pointed grass, cut with sickles in the mountainous forests of Popocatepetl and Ajusco (see Tlazolteotl). “Thirteen eagles” is a date in the tonalamatl, the last day of the division ce calli. It was connected with the Ciuateteô, the vengeful women who died in childbed, of whom Tlazolteotl is the prototype. The “spear of the prickly plant” (cactus) is the weapon of Mixcoatl, son of the goddess, and is here probably alluded to as the lightning which accompanies the rainfall in Mexico, for Mixcoatl is the “Cloud-Serpent,” “the lightning-god.” Or the worshipper may complain of weakness from loss of blood shed as an offering by his use of the agave thorn. The warlike nature of Ciuacoatl is next alluded to. She was evidently identified at Cuitlauac, and Xochimilco, with the two-headed deer, an animal frequently connected with the worship of the nomadic Chichimecs, as was Mixcoatl, her son. She is stuck with eagle feathers or down, like the successful warrior who had captured an enemy. The warriors must now depart to seek for further victims. The whole song is eloquent of the connection of the earth-cult with war and human sacrifice.

Ciuacoatl is spoken of by Duran and Sahagun as a warrior goddess who gave the Mexicans victory over their enemies, and by Torquemada [198] as the elder sister of the Mimixcoa, the stellar gods of the steppe. She it was, too, who, according to another myth, pounded the human bones brought by Quetzalcoatl from the Underworld into a paste, from which men were formed—an allusion to the belief current in Mexico that man was made, or at least “built up,” from maize. [199] Sahagun says of her [200] that she dispensed adverse fortune, poverty, abjectness, and misery. She was wont to appear to men in the guise of a richly dressed lady, such as frequented the court. Through the night she wandered, howling and bellowing. Occasionally she was seen carrying a cradle, and when she vanished, examination showed that the resting-place of what was believed to be an infant contained nothing but an obsidian knife, such as was used in human sacrifice. [201] There are also indications that she presided over childbirth.

TEMPLES

Ciuacoatl had a temple called the Tlillan Calmecac, or “Black College,” where dwelt those priests devoted to her service. [202]

NATURE AND STATUS

The circumstance that Ciuacoatl appears with the skull of a dead person leads to the conclusion that, besides being an earth-deity, she had phantom or underworld characteristics—a common connection for a grain-goddess. From her hymn we gather that she has a magical influence over the plantation and growth of the maize. She is, perhaps, a prototype of the Ciuateteô, the disappointed and vengeful women who had died in their first childbed, and the myth of her cradle containing the sacrificial knife is eloquent of the connection of the Earth-goddess with human sacrifice. Her martial character, also, is apparent and is a concomitant of her agricultural and sacrificial significance. From her association with Mixcoatl, the Mimixcoa, the Chichimec gods, as from her name, Quilaztli, and her symbol it is evident that she is connected with the Chichimec or native Indian cult. Her connection with childbed is clear from one of the addresses given by Sahagun, who states that the midwife exhorted the woman in childbed to be strong and valiant as was Ciuacoatl. “Who first bore children,” in allusion to a myth mentioned by Gama (pt. i, p. 39), who says that she gave birth to two children, male and female, whence sprung the human race—a story I have failed to trace elsewhere, except in Clavigero.

COATLICUE = “SERPENT-SKIRT”

Area of Worship: Mexico-Tenochtitlan.

Minor Name: Coatlantonan = “Our Serpent Mother.”

Relationship: Mother of Uitzilopochtli by Mixcoatl; mother of
Coyolxauhqui and the Centzonuitznaua; wife of Tezcatzoncatl or
Izquitecatl.

Festival: Feast of the flower-sellers in the second month,
tlacaxipeuliztli.

Symbol: The eagle’s foot.

ASPECT AND INSIGNIA

Sahagun MS.—The face of the goddess is painted with white infusorial earth of the kind known as tiçitl. She wears a crown of eagle-feathers and a white overdress. Her skirt is formed of serpents, as her name implies. On her feet she wears white sandals and shells. Her shield is inset with eagle-feathers, and she bears a serpent-staff in her hand.

STATUES

Much argument has circled around the colossal statue of Coatlicue (see Introduction) which formerly adorned one of the entrances to the great temple of Mexico, and which was evidently supported by upright stones, so that it formed the key-stone of a gateway where it could be seen by all who passed in and out of the temple. It has been assigned to more than one goddess, and when it was disinterred amongst other relics in the course of making new drains in the Plaza Mayor of Mexico in August 1790, it was placed in the court of the university and there worshipped by the Indians, who decked it with flowers. The Mexican antiquaries, relying on a statement by Boturini [203] in which he states that Uitzilopochtli was accompanied by the goddess “Teoyaomiqui,” regarded the two-faced idol as being bi-sexual and as a composite figure of both gods, and this notion was perpetuated by Gama in his Dos Piedras. Payne, in his History of the New World, appends a long and very “sane” note to his description of it, sneers at the conclusions of the Mexican antiquaries, and states, somewhat dogmatically, that it must be regarded as a representation of Chicomecoatl. But it is undoubtedly Coatlicue. In the first place that goddess had a right to a position in the temple of Uitzilopochtli as his mother, secondly the idol wears the skirt of serpents which is implied in her name. But this notwithstanding, the stone figure has obviously a symbolical meaning as illustrating the whole circumstances of human sacrifice. The head is formed by the junction of the heads of two serpents, which symbolize the two streams of blood welling out from a decapitated body. The flayed skin of the victim is hung in front and is shown knotted behind as in the statue of Xipe found at the Castillo de Teayo. The cups from which octli was drunk are stuck in front of the flayed human skin, and a skull adorns the serpent-skirt before and behind. Through all these attributes, however, the personality of the serpent-woman goddess can be sensed as much as observed. [204]

Other statues and paintings of Coatlicue uphold the theory that she is represented by this idol. One found in the Calle de las Escalerillas, and others recovered from the Calle de Coliseo in Mexico City, show her as having the face of a skull. In the latter she wears a peculiar flat headdress with maize-like motifs depending from the back, and her hair recalls the ruffled “night-hair” of Mictlantecutli. Around her body are strange step-motifs which constitute the ends of parallel lines; and from her ears depend large cotton plugs. She wears a girdle of skulls with serpentine noses. Another relief of her found in the Calle de las Escalerillas is, however, much more enlightening than the foregoing. In this spirited work she wears what is evidently a panache of stone knives or malinalli grass, the face is that of a skull, she has the claws of a jaguar, and the skirt of entwined serpents is noticeable. Be all this as it may, however, the insignia of the goddess is by no means a fixed quantity, and considerable research is necessary before anything like certainty can be arrived at.

MYTH

Sahagun (bk. iii, c. i) related of this goddess that near the ancient city of Tulla or Tulan rose the mountain of Coatepec (“Serpent Mountain”), where lived a woman named Coatlicue, mother of certain “Indians” called Cenzonuitznaua. She had a daughter called Coyolxauhqui. Coatlicue, who was a widow and very devout, climbed each day to the mountain of Coatepec to do penance, and on one occasion, as she reached its summit, a little ball of feathers resembling a roll of thread or twine fell upon her. Picking it up, she placed it in her bosom, and later was unable to find it. Shortly afterwards she became enceinte. Her children, observing her condition, were indignant, and Coyolxauhqui advised her brothers to slay their mother for the shame she had put upon them. Her unborn infant whispered to her to be of good cheer. But one day her sons armed themselves and prepared to slay her. One of them, however, called Quauitlicac, whispered to the supernatural child that treason was toward, and at the moment when, headed by Coyolxauhqui, Coatlicue’s children came to dispatch her, Uitzilopochtli was born, fully armed. Falling upon his brothers and sister with his terrible weapon, the xiuhcoatl, or fiery serpent, he speedily dispatched them all. [205]

FESTIVAL

Tlacaxipeuliztli.—Sahagun (bk. ii, c. 22) relates that on the second day of this month the people of the temple quarter of Coatlan offered flowers in the temple and made music during the entire day in honour of Coatlicue. These flowers were the first-fruits of the year, were offered up by the master florists, who had a great devotion to the goddess, and none of the blossoms in their gardens might be smelt until these bouquets had been offered up in the temple of Coatlicue. They made for this feast tamallis called tzatzapaltamalli (“sharp-tasting herb cakes”).

NATURE AND STATUS

Coatlicue is, in one of her aspects, undoubtedly the flower-covered earth of spring, from whom, as it were, the sun (Uitzilopochtli) is reborn. Her serpent-skirt is probably symbolic of the circumstance that, at the season which she represents, the earth is clothed with the rain as with a garment. The myth which makes her a pious widow is obviously of late, and probably of hierophantic, origin. In my view Uitzilopochtli is chiefly her son in his naualli or disguise of a humming-bird. The humming-bird sucks from the breasts of earth as a child from its mother’s. But the myth is highly conglomerate, and, as we possess it, is obviously the result of the fusion of several varying conceptions of the two principal figures. Coatlicue’s appearance as a serpent in her great statue which has been described above, and her name of Coatlantonan, “Our Serpent Mother,” in my view tend to identify her with the earth in its form of dragon, serpent, or cipactli, regarding which hypothesis the reader is referred to my remarks in the Introduction.

It is not improbable that, like Xochiquetzal, Coatlicue is one of those mountain goddesses from whose sacred heights the rain descended upon the parched fields. This seems likely from the name of her abode, Coatepetl (“Serpent Mountain”), the serpents of which her skirt is composed being symbolical, perhaps, of the stream flowing from the tarns or pools situated on its lower acclivities. That such a mountain actually existed in the vicinity of Tollan is proved by the statement of Sahagun. Uitzilopochtli (q.v.) is thus the sun which rises out of the mountain, or is “born” from it, armed with the xiuhcoatl, or fire-snake, the red dawn, with which he slays his sister Coyolxauhqui, whose insignia show her to represent the moon, and puts the stars to flight.

XOCHIQUETZAL = “FLOWER FEATHER”

Area of Worship: Plateau of Anahuac; Tlaxcallan; Tlalhuica.

Minor Names:
Ce atl = “One Water.”
Ce Mazatl (Calendar date) = “One Deer.”
Mazateotl = “Deer Goddess.”

Calendar Place: Ruler of the twentieth day (xochitl) and of the
nineteenth “week” (ce quauhtli).

Compass Direction: West.

Festivals:
Tepeilhuitl (Tlalhuica).
Quecholli (Tlaxcallan).
Chicome xochitl (Mexico).

Relationship: The first woman, and thus companion of Piltzintecutli
(the Sun-god); otherwise, wife of Tlaloc, abducted by Tezcatlipocâ.

ASPECT AND INSIGNIA

Codex Borgia.—Sheet 9: Here the goddess is represented as wearing an upper garment of diversified pattern, finished with a variegated edging. Her shawl is painted in the chalchihuitl colours, and from it depend two strings or ribbons of a dark shade, completed with a flower. Her nose-plate is blue and is formed rather after the fashion of the butterfly design, while her helmet-mask represents a quetzal-bird. In sheet 58 she is vis-à-vis with the Death-god and is garbed like an earth-deity with a many-coloured robe. Her hair is dressed like that of the Zapotec women, that is, two tresses are twisted up like horns and secured with parti-coloured bands. On the same sheet (next picture) she confronts one of her servitors or priests (tlamacazque), and her garments in this place are very similar to those already described. In the next illustration the only addition to her costume is a wreath of flowers, but under her arm she holds a quetzal-bird and sits opposite a red Tezcatlipocâ. On sheet 59 she is represented in the first place opposite the tlamacazque, and in the following picture confronts a naked prostitute. Between these figures is her servitor, surprised in the act of pressing the courtesan’s breasts. This female is characterized by her wearing of Xochiquetzal’s shawl, hair-dressing, and the hieroglyph of the warrior caste (shield and spears) shown above her head. In the lowest row of the same sheet the goddess is seen opposite the Vulture-god, Tlacacozcaquauhtli. In the following sheets of the codex her aspect and garb are practically similar to those described above, with the exception of sheet 60, where she appears in the act of parturition, with the double head and certain of the insignia of Quaxolotl, being delivered by Quetzalcoatl in the character of Xolotl. In the region of her mouth is an angular line of red.

Codex Vaticanus B.—Sheet 42: Here Xochiquetzal is adorned by a wreath of flowers and faces her servant. On sheet 41 we observe that her cheek is painted with a round red spot, like that of the Sun-god, whilst her head is adorned with quetzal-feathers, and the quetzal-bird is held under her arm. She is ensconced on a jaguar skin, and on her head is the wreath of flowers with two feather tufts, which is especially characteristic of her. On her face is depicted a red, angular line. Opposite is the figure of her priest, and between them is a headless woman, whose head is replaced by a flowering tree. On sheet 39 she is shown as wearing a quetzal-bird mask and a blue, step-shaped nose-plate, while her face-paint is elaborately executed. In this picture is seen issuing from her body a quetzal-feather ornament, symbolic of a newly-born child. In one hand she holds a jewelled ornament, and in the other an ear of maize, and she wears the opossum wristlets applied to women in travail. Her new-born twins are seated beside her. In another part of this codex she is represented as facing various male deities in characteristic positions, which are evidently more typical of her personality than any insignia.

Codex Laud.—Sheet 38: She is here represented facing the tlamacazque in a kneeling attitude, with her hair dressed in a peculiar manner. Sheet 35 shows her similarly represented to her picture in Codex Vaticanus B, sheet 39. Her twins are seated one on the instep curve of each foot.

Pottery Figures.—Various pottery figures of the goddess found in the Valley of Mexico are to be seen in the Uhde Collection, Berlin. In one of these she is represented holding an infant, and her general attire agrees with the manuscript representations of her. Her hair is dressed in the Zapotec style, rising up in two horns and secured with plaited bands. The shawl or tippet with a V-shape in front is a constant factor, and in one example is scalloped, in another plain, while in the third it ends in the chalchihuitl ornament and a bead or ball-fringing. In the Seler collection is a curious little statuette from Cholula, in which the goddess is again represented as carrying a child. She wears a flat cap, almost like that of a cook or chef, the precise significance of which escapes me, unless it be a local headdress, as some other examples in the same collection would seem to prove. In a relief found at Zanja de la Piedra Labrada, near Castillo de Teayo, she is represented opposite Tlaloc, as if to show her connection with rain. Her headdress in this place would seem to be a compromise between the Zapotec hairdressing and a motif representative of florescence. She wears the same V-shaped tippet, which is here adorned with three tassels, and she has the stepped nose-ornament. In her right hand she carries a sceptre of water-rushes, the same as that held by Tlaloc, and in her left the staff commonly seen in the representation of gods in the Sahagun MS. (Biblioteca del Palacio), and which seems to me to be a development of the chicaunaztli, or rain-rattle.

MYTHS

Perhaps the most important of these is that found in the Sahagun collection of songs or hymns (the ninth item):

Out of the land of the rain and the mist
I, Xochiquetzal, come.
Out of Tamoanchan.
The pious Piltzintecutli weeps;
He seeks Xochiquetzal.
To the land of corruption I must go.

The goddess here declares that, like other fertility goddesses, she comes from the fruitful supernatural country of Tamaonchan, the home of the maize. Piltzintecutli, the Sun-god, seeks her, but, like Ishtar in Babylonian myth, she must betake herself to the Underworld, until it is once more time to resume her growth-assisting labours. We have here good grounds for positing the existence of a popular myth which would seem to have recounted how the divine lovers dwelt happily in Tamoanchan until Xochiquetzal was forced to quit the blest abode or was carried off, and was sought for by the Sun-god, a myth like that of Proserpine or Orpheus. It may refer to the sun seeking the flower, or may have a bearing upon the myth of Ixnextli, a variant of Xochiquetzal, who was expelled from Paradise, and of whom the interpreter of Codex Vaticanus A says: “Ixnextli, who is the same as Eve, is always weeping, her eyes dim with ashes, a rose in her hand, emblematical of her grief, being in consequence of her having gathered it. And accordingly they celebrate a fast every eight years on account of this calamitous event; the fast was on bread and water. They fasted on the eight signs preceding the entrance of the rose, and when that sign arrived, they prepared themselves for the celebration of the festival. They affirm that every series of five days comprised in this calendar was dedicated to this fall, because on such a day Eve sinned. They were accordingly enjoined to bathe themselves on this night in order to escape disease.” Regarding this myth the interpreter of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis says: “They represented her as Eve always weeping and looking at her husband, Adam. She is called Ysnextli, which signifies ‘eyes blind with ashes’; and this refers to the time subsequent to her sinning by plucking the roses. They accordingly declare that they are still unable to look up to heaven, and in recollection of the happy state which she lost, they fasted every eight years on account of this fall.” It is significant that the goddess pictured beside this statement is called “Suchiquezal.”

Diego Muñoz Camargo, in his Historia de Tlaxcala, equates Xochiquetzal with Venus and states that: “She dwells above the nine heavens in a very pleasant and delectable place, accompanied and guarded by many people and waited on by other women of the rank of goddesses, where are many delights of fountains, brooks, flower-gardens, and without her wanting for anything, and that where she sojourned she was guarded and sheltered from the gaze of the people, and that in her retinue she had a great many dwarfs and hunchbacks, jesters, and buffoons, who entertained her with music and dancing and whom she sent as her confidants and messengers to the other gods, and that their chief occupation was the spinning and weaving of sumptuous artistic fabrics, and that they were painted so beautifully and elegantly that nothing finer could be found amongst mortals. But the place where she dwelt was called Tamohuanichan Xochitl ihcacan, Chicuhnauh-nepaniuhcan, Itzehecaya, that is, ‘the house of the descent or of birth, the place where are the flowers, the ninefold enchained, the place of the fresh, cool winds.’ And every year she was honoured with a great feast, to which many people from all parts were gathered in her temple.” He continues: “They say that she had formerly been the spouse of the Rain-god, Tlaloc, but that Tezcatlipocâ had abducted her, and brought her to the nine heavens, and made her the goddess of love. And then there was another goddess, Matlalcuêyê, the goddess to whom were attributed witchcraft and soothsaying. Her Tlaloc had made his consort after Tezcatlipocâ had carried off his wife Xochiquetzal.” [206]

Another myth, given by Boturini, recounts her temptation of the holy ascetic Yappan, who dwelt in a desert place in order to lead a continent and solitary life, so that he might win the favour of the gods. He took up his abode on a rock called Tehuehuetl, but the gods conceived a doubt of his piety, and sent an enemy of his, Yaotl (enemy), to watch his movements. Even this bitter foe found nothing to cavil at in his conduct, and women sent by the gods to lead him from the paths of rectitude were sternly repulsed. The divine beings were about to consider his apotheosis, when Xochiquetzal, feeling that her reputation as a tempter of men was at stake, angrily assured them that she was able to effect his seduction. Descending to earth, she sought out the hermit, whom she assured of her admiration and esteem, and asked by what path she might ascend to his rocky seat. All unsuspicious of her intent, Yappan descended from his place on the rock and assisted her to climb the rugged eminence. Yappan forgot his vow of chastity, and when the goddess had departed, found himself deserted by the angry gods to the mercies of his enemy, Yaotl, who slew him out of hand. The gods transformed the slain man into a scorpion, and Yaotl having also slain Yappan’s wife, Tlahuitzin, whom he had abandoned for the life ascetic, she was transformed into an animal of the same species, and crawling under a stone, found her husband there. But the gods, wrathful at Yaotl’s excessive cruelty, changed him into a locust. [207]

FESTIVALS

Chicomexochitl (“Seven Flower”).—In the sign ce ocelotl, on the day chicomexochitl, the artists united to hold festival to the goddess, and the laundresses, says Sahagun, [208] fasted forty days. “They joined together, twenty or more, to obtain a better quality of pictures and weaves and to this end offered up quails and incense.” This was one of the movable feasts.

In an illuminating passage in his disquisition upon the Aubin tonalamatl (p. 123) Seler says: “As I have remarked at the opening of the section, the goddess Xochiquetzal is properly the expression of the day-sign xochitl. But owing to the transference of the series of rulers of the day-signs to the weeks in the peculiar way affected by the calendar-makers, that is, by a general shifting of one member, [209] Xochiquetzal has been brought into association with the sign ce quauhtli (one eagle). But in Telleriano-Remensis at this week the hand-mark [210] which indicates the feast-day proper of the ruler of the week stands at the first day itself—the sign ce quauhtli, that induced the calendar-makers to effect the above-described dislocation in the second half of the list of rulers. For more than one reason the day ce quauhtli must really have seemed to the priestly savants specially appropriate to the goddess Xochiquetzal, and above all, because this day was one of the five which fell at the beginning or western quarter of the tonalamatl disposed in columns of five members. Hence these five days were collectively regarded as dedicated to the earth-goddesses, and as the days in which the ghostly women dwelling in the west, the Ciuateteô, swooped down upon earth, striking the children with epilepsy and beguiling the men to lust and sin.” These Ciuateteô were stregæ, witches, succubi, and their characteristics, which are touched upon in the section dealing with Tlazolteotl, will be more fully outlined elsewhere.

Quecholli.—The people of Tlaxcallan held a festival to Xochiquetzal in the month quecholli, when the Mexicans celebrated the feast of Mixcoatl. At the Tlaxcaltec feast numbers of young women were sacrificed to the goddess, “to the honour of love,” and the prostitutes were also in the habit of offering themselves for immolation, we are informed by Torquemada, [211] first haling the “honest” women through the mire and subjecting them to the foulest abuse. The Tlalhuica, who lived in the hot lands south of Mexico, themselves, like the Tlaxcaltecs, a people of Nahua race, held a festival in honour of Xochiquetzal in the month tepeilhuitl, which the Mexicans dedicated to the Tlaloque, gods of rain, as is related by the interpreter of the Codex Magliabecchiano. Torquemada, too, [212] states that the Tlaxcaltecs sacrificed many children to Xochiquetzal and to the mountain-gods (Tlaloque) evidently at this season. Xochiquetzal was also connected with the festival of the atamalqualiztli, celebrated every eight years. In the picture of that feast in the Sahagun MS. we observe her seated at a loom. From these considerations it is manifest that the verdurous and “watery” attributes of the goddess connected her with the Tlaloque, but that she was not actually of their company.

TEMPLES

In Tlalhuica, not far from Cuernavaca or Quauhnauac, stands the pyramid of Xochicalco, one of the most perfect specimens extant of Nahua architectural skill. There is reason to believe that Xochiquetzal was originally the local deity of one of these mountains the waters from which irrigate the fields below, [213] and it seems probable that the teocalli of Xochicalco typified this eminence. We know that the teotlalpan, or “Place of Divine Earth,” in the sacred precinct at Mexico, was sacred to Mixcoatl, a deity who was perhaps of Otomi origin, and that it was probably symbolic of a mountain in the Otomi country of which he was the presiding deity, so that the probability is borne out by analogy. In the country of the Tlaxcaltecs stood the heights of Xochtecatl, “Goddess of the Flowery Land,” a mountain, according to Torquemada, about six miles in circumference, which was the nucleus of a settlement, and was surrounded by graves hewn out of the solid rock. This, perhaps, provides a fuller illustration of the theory advanced above.

NATURE AND STATUS

The original home of Xochiquetzal seems to have been among the Tlalhuica and Tlaxcaltecs. But as the latter were closely connected with the Mexicans racially, there is good reason to believe that she was also an original member of their pantheon. In any case she had a place in the metropolitan calendar, and the contention of the compilers of both interpretative codices, as well as of the native author of the picture writings in the Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas, that she is to be equated with Tonacaciuatl, the female member of the creative pair, seems to have been a later development.

But Xochiquetzal is more especially the goddess of flowers, the female counterpart of Xochipilli-Macuilxochitl. As has been mentioned, she was probably at first the goddess who presided over some lofty mountain whose streams watered the sun-dried plains beneath and clothed them in abundant florescence, perhaps that very mountain of Xochtecatl to which allusion has been made, and which stood in Tlaxcaltec territory. As the “feminine” of Xochipilli, however, she certainly partook of his festive and frivolous character, and thus presided over the song, the dance, and all sportive amusements. By a further slight effort of imagination she came to be regarded as the goddess of illicit love, or of the sensuous side of intercourse between the sexes, not so much a goddess of degraded animal passion, like Tlazolteotl, as a figure bearing a close resemblance to the Apsarasas of Hindu myth, lovely and voluptuous, and, like them, addicted to the game of throwing the dice (patolli). A further step established her as the patron goddess of the prostitutes who existed for the pleasure of the unmarried warriors and who resided with them in the great common house of the bachelors. From this circumstance arose the obscene character of the feast of Quecholli among the Tlaxcaltecs and the Tepeilhuitl festival among the Tlalhuica.

Xochiquetzal was also in some measure the patroness of pregnant women, according to the interpreter of Codex Vaticanus A, and these worshipped and sacrificed to her in order that they should not give birth to girls. She is herself figured in Codex Borgia as the great parturient, and in Codex Vaticanus B (sheet 39) as has been indicated above.

She had also, like Xochipilli, an artistic significance, as the patroness of weavers and artists. She was revered by the women who practised the former art, the invention of spinning and weaving was attributed to her, and many kinds of craftsmen paid her honours. She had, moreover, a magical side to her character; in the Aubin tonalamatl she is seated opposite the dancing wizard, and she is furthermore one of the Tzitzimimê, or deities of the darksome night, among whom she is symbolized by the spider.

MACUILXOCHITL = “FIVE FLOWER,” OR XOCHIPILLI = “FLOWER PRINCE”

Area of Worship: Tehuacan, Cozcatlan, Teotitlan del Camino, Oaxaca,
Mexico.

Minor Names:
Auia teotl = “God of Pleasure.”
Mazatl = “Deer.”
Auiatl = “The Jovial.”

Symbol: The sign five-flower.

Calendar Place:
Ruler of the eleventh day-sign, ozomatli.
Seventh of the thirteen day-lords.
Ruler of the twentieth day-count, xochitl.

Festival: The Xochilhuitl (“Feast of Flowers”), one of the movable
feasts.

Compass Directions: South; West.

Relationship: Brother of Ixlilton; son of Piltzintecutli.

ASPECT AND INSIGNIA (as Macuilxochitl)

Codex Borgia.—Sheet 15: In this place the god wears as breast-ornament a human lower jaw, which, combined with the green band to which it is tied up, may possibly express the day-count malinalli. He has a large feather nape-ornament. The upper part of his face is white, with a dark band over the nose and cheek, and white painting over the mouth, in the semblance of an outspread hand. He wears a cap with vertically projecting bands painted in the colours of the green jewel chalchihuitl.

Sahagun MS.—Here he is represented with a white hand painted on his mouth and a feather crown surmounted by a crest.

General.—Like the other gods of dance and sport, Macuilxochitl wears the four balls of the toualli emblem on his shield and sometimes carries the staff with the heart. Like Ixtlilton, he had probably once a bird’s-head mask, which in the course of his evolution degenerated into a feather crest and a wing on his back. The deterioration of this feature can be observed in the stone effigies of his counterpart Xochipilli.

STATUES

A stone figure of Macuilxochitl found in Cuernavaca represents the god seated in a squatting attitude, and it is evidently intended to show him as an onlooker at the ball-game. He wears a pointed headdress or mitre, on the top of what would seem to be a cotton head-covering. A head of the god in stone is included in the collection of the Natural History Museum at Vienna. In this the nose-plug is prominent and he wears round earrings. The wing-ornament stands well out behind the head and the face seems to look out of a bird helmet-mask, on both sides of which are large, circular holes, through which feathers or cotton ear-plugs fall. The difficulty of working in stone has evidently restrained the sculptor from representing the upper and lower portions of the bird’s beak, and the helmet-mask bears a strong resemblance to that of Xochipilli in the Codex Magliabecchiano, if the beak in that representation were removed. A statue of the god found in the Calle de las Escalerillas in Mexico City on December 13, 1900, is almost identical with the first of those two statues, and agrees with the second in that here we have the circular holes at the side of the headdress with the dependent feathers or cotton plug. The best known of the representations of this god, however, is the clay model found by Seler at Teotitlan del Camino. It represents Macuilxochitl in a sitting position and is brilliantly coloured. The face of the god looks out of a bird helmet-mask, highly conventionalized, and which has practically lost all its birdlike characteristics. The two circular holes below the ear are, however, still represented. The upper part of the face is painted yellow, but under each eye is an oblong patch painted in variegated colours, such as appears on the faces of the gods of grain. Around the mouth is a large white patch, in which we may see the white hand motif conventionalized. The body-paint is red and the garment white, except that portion at the neck, which is blue. Small golden bells adorn the necklace and wristlets. In this statuette we have evidently a very late and highly developed figure of the deity, showing a considerable departure from the earlier drawings and statues of him. In the Anthropological Museum at Berlin is a stone statue of Macuilxochitl, also in a squatting attitude, in which the circular motif above the ear, with its accompanying plug, is strongly in evidence. A number of stone statuettes of the god were found at Tepeaca in the state of Puebla and are now housed in the Natural History Museum at Vienna. These do not differ from the examples already described, save that in one of them the Greek fret-pattern takes the place of the circular ear-plug motif. A stone figure of the god was found amid the ruins of the Castillo de Teayo, a teocalli, or pyramid, in Vera Cruz. In this, which is also a squatting figure, the god is covered by a mantle which is surmounted by the bird’s comb, as seen in Magliabecchiano and elsewhere. Around the head are three of the circular holes above mentioned, one above each ear and one at the back of the head, from which depend a double strip of cotton or other textile.

ASPECT AND INSIGNIA (as Xochipilli)

Codex Vaticanus B.—Sheet 26: In this MS. the god is painted a light yellow colour. His light hair is bound with a jewelled strap ornamented on the frontal side with a conventional bird’s head. Round his head he also wears the fillet of the Sun-god, ornamented with a feather tuft. As a breast ornament he has a large gold disk suspended from a broad gold chain, hung with bells. His right hand clasps a bundle of grass, and in his left he bears a staff embellished with turquoise mosaic and flowers, probably intended for a rattle-stick. Above the twilight symbol of the west in the water are instruments of mortification. On sheet 32 he is represented as of a blue colour with a jewelled chain in front of his mouth.

Codex Fejérváry-Mayer.—The description of the god in this MS. is similar to that just given. In his hand he supports a dish with ornaments, a bangle for the upper arm, a feather tuft and a neck-chain.

Codex Borgia.—Sheet 13: In this codex he is seen seated on a royal throne. His body and the lower part of his face are coloured red, the upper facial region is painted yellow, but contains a small, rectangular field, half-red and half-white, while round the mouth is executed a butterfly design, after the manner of Tonacatecutli and the maize-gods. His blue ear-plug has a jewelled thong dependent from it, and his nose-plug is reproduced in the colours of the chalchihuitl jewel. On his head he wears the strap decorated by two large jewelled disks. On the frontal side is the stereotyped bird-ornament, while from the whole, four ends branch off. Surmounting this representation is the symbol of the night-sky, the dusk-enveloped eye. His nape-ornament consists of red and white feathers blended together. On his breast is a large disk of gold, secured by strings of greenstone beads. His loin-cloth is adorned with jewelled disks, and to the back-bow is fastened a coxcoxtli bird’s head, which serves as a “mirror-tail,” or back-mirror. A portion of the ends of his loin-cloth is coloured like the chalchihuitl jewel. In front of his mouth is a flower from which two jewelled thongs project.

Codex Magliabecchiano.—The mantles worn by Xochipilli are alluded to in the MS. which accompanies the paintings in this codex as “mantas de un selo señor o de Cinco Rosas y manta de Cinco Rosas” (see sheets 5 and 6). There is also a picture of him on sheet 47. The figure on the red quemitl which he wears is similar to that worn on sheet 20 of Codex Borbonicus by the god Cinteotl, and is, perhaps, a butterfly motif.

STATUES

Stone effigies of Xochipilli were set up in the tlachtli courts. In the Museo Naçional at Mexico there is a stone statue of the god which represents him as sitting cross-legged, as if watching the ball-game. He wears the mask of a player or dancer. By the aid of such statues of Xochipilli, which are found in considerable numbers all over the eastern Mexican slope, the transition from the bird-helmet to the rudimentary crest may be studied. [214]

MYTH

The only mythical matter of importance concerning Macuilxochitl or Xochipilli is the nineteenth song in the Sahagun collection, which is as follows [215]:

SONG OF THE GOD OF MUSIC AND GAMES

Out of the place of flowers I come,
Priest of the Sunset, Lord of the Twilight.

I come even now, my granddam,
Thou of the thigh-skin face-painting,
Lady of the Sunset,
I, priest of the Sunset, Lord of the Twilight.

The god of evil omens,
The lord Tezcatlipocâ,
Shall answer to me, the Maize-god.

In the temple of the octli-god
The rabbit has come to life again.
It runs about.
By my god was it created.
I will bring down the fire-drill, fire will I twirl
On the mountain of Mixcoatl in Culhuacan.

Raising my voice, I strike the little mirror;
The little mirror has grown weak
In the temple of the octli-god.
The white hair grows moist,
Ripe has the octli become.

I will endeavour to elucidate the above strophes, the obscurity of which is apparent. The god declares that he comes from Tamoanchan, the mythical paradise of flowers and vegetation in the west, and that he is the priest of the sunset and lord of the twilight, both of which are characteristic of that region. He invokes his mother, or grandmother, Tlazolteotl, by names with which her worshippers were familiar. He warns Tezcatlipocâ that he has the power to avert his evil omens, probably by means of merriment and carousing. The rabbit was the Mexican symbol of intoxication by octli. This strophe regarding it comes, as it were, from the worshipper, who states that his god Macuilxochitl or Xochipilli has created or re-created the rabbit, or spirit of the octli beverage. Sahagun calls Xochipilli a god of fire, and we know that he was associated with the sacrificial fire-drill, which was also the symbol of sexual union and licence. Seler thinks that this song shows “the relation which exists between the pulque (octli) gatherings, the deity of feasts and the fire-drill.” [216]

FESTIVALS

Xochilhuitl.—Of the feast of flowers over which this god presided Sahagun says: “The great folk made a feast, dancing and singing in honour of this sign, decorating themselves with their feathers and all their grandeur for the areyto. At this feast the king bestowed honours upon warriors, musicians, and courtiers.” He states (Lib. II, Appendix c, xix): “They made each year in his honour a feast called xochilhuitl.... During the four days which preceded this feast all those who were to take part in it, men as well as women, observed a rigorous fast; and if during that period a man had commerce with a woman or a woman with a man, they held that the fast was soiled; that the god held it for a high offence, and that he would visit the offenders with maladies in their privy parts.... Before the feast everyone deprived himself of the use of chilli pepper. They fed upon a kind of broth called tlalcuilolatolli, which is to say, ‘broth decorated with a flower in the middle.’... Those who fasted without the use of chilli or other savoury things, ate only once a day at midday.” Those who did not fast ate fermented bread. The people ornamented themselves with the symbols of the gods “as if they aspired to represent their images,” and danced and sang to the sound of the drum.

At midday they beheaded a great number of quails and made offerings of their blood before the image of the god. They also pierced their ears in his presence. Others pierced the tongue with the spines of the maguey, and passed through it a great number of osier reeds. Another ceremony consisted of making five tamalli (cakes) of maize, which they called “fasting bread.” These were placed beneath an arrow called xochimitl (“flower-dart”) and were offered to the idol as from the whole community. Those who wished to make a separate offering gave the god five tamalli upon a wooden platter, and chilmolli soup in a vase. Maize in all shapes and forms was also offered up. On the same day all the great folk in Mexico who lived near the frontiers of an enemy brought the slaves whom they had captured to the capital for sacrifice.

NATURE AND STATUS

This god appears to have had a highly developed cult among the peoples of Tehuacan, Cozcatlan, and Teotitlan del Camino. He is primarily a god of flowers and food, that is of abundance, and as such he equates with the god Cinteotl, with whom some of the sacred hymns even seem to confound him. But there are strong reasons why he should not be wholly identified with Cinteotl, as Seler attempts to do, and as the Mexicans certainly did not do, unless in later times. (See Cinteotl.) It may be, however, that he was originally a god of vegetation, who later became more especially a god of flowers, the cult of which was one particularly favoured by the people of Mexico. However this may be, there is no doubt that the joyous and sportive side of the god developed at the expense of all others, and we find Sahagun speaking of him under his two names as “the god of those who served for the amusement or pastime of the great.” [217] He is, indeed, the god of merriment, of dance and sport, of the ball-game, the jester or buffoon, and moreover presides over the gambling game of patolli, which he is seen patronizing in the Magliabecchiano MS. According to Jacinto de la Serna, he is the god of the great gamblers who frittered away their substance. As the god of sport he is frequently represented by the ape, the beast of mimicry and diversion.

But he had also a more worthy side, for to artists of all kinds, painters, weavers, and musicians in especial, he stood as the patron of all artistic effort, and those engaged in it celebrated their worship of him at the xochilhuitl festival. Several of the mantle designs in the Codex Magliabecchiano indicate that as a flower-god he was not forgotten by the weavers’ caste.

He has associations with several other gods besides Cinteotl, especially with Ixtlilton (q.v.), who is spoken of as his brother, and with the Ciuateteô, or deceased warrior women, probably because as a food-god he was supposed to come from the west, the place of plenty, where they resided, or, more likely, because of the hunger for earthly excitement displayed by these pleasure-starved dead women, debarred from the sensuous delights of earth. His connection with the octli-gods as the god of merriment and abundance of victuals and festive good things is plain; and he is very naturally the male counterpart of the goddess Xochiquetzal (q.v.). As hailing from a locality where planetary mythology was in an advanced condition, and where the worship of the morning star was practised, he may have had an astronomic significance, but what this was precisely is by no means clear. We probably assess his nature correctly if we allude to him as a god of pleasure, feast, and frivolity.

XIPE TOTEC = “OUR LORD THE FLAYED”

Area of Worship: Plateau of Anahuac, Zapotecs, Yopis.

Minor Names:
Tlaltecutli = “Lord of the Earth.”
Anauatl yteuc = “Lord of the Seaboard.”
Tlatauhqui Tezcatlipocâ = “The Red Tezcatlipocâ.”
Itztapaltotec = “Our Lord of the Flat Stone.”
Youallauan = “Night Drinker.”

Symbol: In Codex Borgia a quail with its head torn off seems
symbolical of this god.

Calendar Place: Lord of the fifteenth day, quauhtli, and of the
fourteenth week, ce itzcuintli; with the Fire-god, lord of the
twentieth tonalamatl division, ce tochtli.

Festival: Tlacaxipeuliztli.

Compass Direction: West.

ASPECT AND INSIGNIA

Codex Vaticanus B.—Sheet 92: Xipe is depicted in this codex as clothed in the flayed skin of the sacrificed human victim, which, after the dreadful rite, was drawn over the priest’s body and worn for a number of days. The slit eyes of the mask he wears shows that this also is composed of human skin. He wears a nasal rod and plate having the general appearance of the peculiar peaked cap with which he is sometimes represented. The ends of his loin-cloth are slit and coloured white and red. Sheet 62. As ruler of the fourteenth tonalamatl division and god of the fifteenth day-count, Xipe is represented on this sheet as a red Tezcatlipocâ. The limbless body is red, the costume of the same colour, but with a face-mask of yellow, tinted to represent dead human flesh, with the chapfallen jaw of the dead, narrow slit eyes, as on sheet 92, and a red streak running over the eye, the full length of the face, indicative, perhaps, of the place where the operation of flaying was commenced. Here the nose-cap is also reminiscent of Xipe’s peculiar peaked cap, its ends especially resembling those of that headdress. Two red and white bands, the colours of the roseate spoonbill, depend from the ear. The hair is bound by a fillet on which are twin ornaments of dull gold, and above this rise two rows of quetzal feathers.

Codex Vaticanus A.—Plate xiv, Duc de Loubat’s reproduction: As a back-device he wears the three banners which are also shown of him in the picture in Duran’s collection. As god of the fourteenth tonalamatl division, he holds a shield, banner, and a bundle of spears, while half of his shield is painted in dark and light red rings.

Codex Borgia.—Sheet 49: In the Codex Borgia, Xipe is shown in his character of the patron god of the warrior’s death by combat, or the stone of sacrifice. He wears a wig made from the downy feathers of the eagle, which, however, does not altogether conceal his flame-coloured hair, two forelocks of which recall the hairdressing of Tlauizcalpantecutli, the god of the planet Venus. Underneath is shown his small petticoat or apron of green zapote leaves. From his mouth protrudes a double-jewelled string, which, perhaps, signifies the fertilizing rain, for as god of human sacrifice he has a connection with the gods of fertility. He is similarly represented on sheet 25, where he is also shown as ruler of the fourteenth tonalamatl division, and the picture indeed bears a close resemblance to that in Codex Vaticanus B, except that his breast-ornament, carved from a snail-shell, is attached to his variegated feather necklace. In this place he also wears a feather wig with a red crest made of the plumes of the roseate spoonbill, alternating with chalchihuitls on leather and the heads of rattle-sticks.

Image of Xipe found at Castillo de Teayo, showing him dressed in the skin of the sacrificed victim.

Codex Borgia Group Generally.—In this group generally Xipe stands as the representative of the sign of the day quauhtli. His insignia are the same as those of the red Tezcatlipocâ, with striped face-painting, but executed in red and yellow without the human skin, or other special characteristics, and decorated only with the warrior’s headdress and Tezcatlipocâ’s ring-shaped breast-ornament. The head and neck are covered with cloth, on which are stuck downy feather-balls. He holds in some places a severed arm, which he appears to be smelling or about to devour.

Codex Borbonicus.—In this codex Xipe is represented as Tezcatlipocâ, and has the face-painting of the red phase of that god, with the smoking mirror at his temple, the characteristic white ring, and the peculiar form of feather back-ornament, which is to be seen in some other Tezcatlipocâ pictures of this codex. But he wears on his head-fillet, instead of jewelled disks, an ornament of beaten gold, the crown of roseate spoonbill feathers, the ends of the bands shaped in swallow-tailed fashion, and other insignia pertaining to his own regular dress. The quetzalcomitl on his back carries a banner painted in light and dark red, his especial colours, and he also bears a shield painted in light and dark red concentric circles. In this codex he holds a fire-pan, painted with large patches of rubber gum, in which is inserted the rattle-stick with Xipe’s bands and loops coloured red and white, or light red and dark red with bifurcated ends.

Vienna Codex.—Xipe is represented here in the flayed human skin and designated by the date “Seven Rain.”

Codex Nuttall (Zouche).—Sheet 83: In this codex there is a good representation of the god, especially as regards his headdress. He is depicted as the warrior secured to the stone of combat, whose eye sheds tears at the thought of approaching death, and he bears in his hands the bâtons with which the military victims defended themselves against their adversaries (see Festival).

Sahagun MS.—This describes him as having a brown face covered with the feathers of the quail, and with open lips (chapfallen jaw?). His crown has parted ends, and he wears a wig of curled feathers. He has golden ear-plugs. Round the hips he has a woman’s short skirt of zapote leaves, and shells decorate his feet. His shield is red, with concentric circles, and he carries a rattle-staff.

MASKS, VASES, ETC.

The well-known mask of Xipe in the British Museum represents the mask of the sacrificed victim. On the back or inside, the carving of the god shows him wearing his full insignia, with the peculiar headdress and rattle-staff. Another mask of Xipe in the Bauer collection is of a most individual character. It was found near Tezcuco, and bears both wind and serpent symbols. On a stone at Cuernavaca is incised a good representation of the shield, darts, and flag of Xipe, with date ce ocelotl (“one ocelot”). On a cup in the Aldana collection Xipe is seen wearing the flayed skin, with a necklace, evidently of intestines. His hair is dressed in a manner resembling that affected by the warrior caste, and he carries the rattle-staff.

STATUES

Representations of Xipe in statuary are considerably numerous. Several found in the Valley of Mexico are housed in the Uhde collection, Berlin. Two of these represent the god as wearing the victim’s flayed skin and one of them is pitted with marks, evidently indicative of blood-spots. The crown with feathers of the roseate spoonbill is well exemplified in one of these, but in the other a mitre-like headdress superimposed upon a circular crown, from which depend large ribbons or paper ornaments, is noticeable. In another of these figures the headdress is a sort of barret-cap with knobs or studs. Still another figure of the same class shows the god with a very large stepped nose-ornament. All carry a rattle-staff and three bear a shield. A most striking statue of Xipe was discovered at the Castillo de Teayo site, at Vera Cruz. The head, which is round and bullet-shaped, bears an extraordinary resemblance to that of the well-known Egyptian figure of the Sheik-el-Beled in the Boulaq Museum. In this statue the god wears the skin of the victim, and the manner in which it was tied on to the priest is well illustrated by the knotting at the back. The faces, of course, are masks of the sacrificed victim.

ELEMENTS OF XIPE’S INSIGNIA

Although Xipe is so frequently portrayed as possessing the outward characteristics of a red Tezcatlipocâ, few of the Mexican deities possess insignia so individual, or so rich in manifold elements. The Xipe dress was a favourite one with Mexican kings and military chieftains, and, in the Codex Vaticanus A, King Motecuhzoma II is represented as wearing the costume on the occasion of his victory over Toluca. Tezozomoc also states that Axayacatl wore this dress, [218] and on the eve of a fierce engagement Tlacauepan, brother of Motecuhzoma, donned it at the latter’s special request. The elements of Xipe’s costume are as follows [219]:

(1) The painted crown of feathers of the roseate spoonbill, with bifurcated ends.

(2) The gilded timbrel.