Chapter XXII: Part II: (Works written from 1800–1920)

Alexander, Hartley Burr, Latin-American Mythology. (Boston, 1920.)

Anales del Museo Nacional de Mexico. Tom. i, Mexico, 1877. (In progress.)

Bancroft, Hubert Howe, The Native Races of the Pacific States, 5 vols. (New York and London, 1875–1876.)

This great compilation is admirable as a painstaking précis of the extensive sources relating to Mexican and Mayan history and religion, but its author and his assistants confined themselves to collection and compilation alone, and ventured upon no critical treatment of the subject, for which task, they admit, they were not equipped.

Batres, L., Archæological Explorations in Escalerillas Street, City of Mexico, Year 1900. (Mexico, 1902.)

Beuchat, H., Manuel d’Archéologie Américaine (Amérique Préhistorique—Civilisations disparues). (Paris, 1912.)

A useful if somewhat condensed review of American archæology. Chapitre iv, livre ii, gives a short and not very thorough account of the gods, rites, priesthood, and magic of the ancient Mexicans. Chapitre v deals with the Calendar, and chapitre vi is useful for reference regarding the manuscripts and writing. There is a good bibliography.

Brasseur de Bourbourg, E. C., Histoire des nations civilisées du Mexique et de l’Amérique Centrale durant les siècles antérieurs à Christophe Colomb. 4 vols. (Paris, 1857–1859.)

The Abbé Brasseur’s idea was to explain American mythology as the apotheosis of history. But he unearthed many priceless materials, some of which are included in this work.

Brinton, Daniel Garrison, American Hero Myths (Philadelphia, 1882); “Were the Toltecs an Historic Nationality?” (Proc. Am. Phil. Soc., xxiv, pp. 229–241, 1887); Essays of an Americanist (Philadelphia, 1890); The Myths of the New World (3rd edition, revised) (Philadelphia, 1905).

Brinton’s books are all well written, but his ideas regarding mythology generally are now a little out-of-date. His works, however, will repay perusal. The student must be on his guard against Brinton’s etymologies, as his knowledge of the native languages, though extensive, was not exact.

Charency, H. de, Le Mythe de Votan, étude sur les origines Asiatiques de la Civilisation Américaine. (Alençon, 1871.)

Charnay, Désiré, Les anciennes Villes du nouveau monde. (Paris, 1885.) English translation as Ancient Cities of the New World. (London, 1887.)

Charnay’s acquaintance with Mexican archæology and mythology was elementary.

Chavero, Alfredo, Mexico a traves de los siglos, tom. i; Historia antigua y de la Conquista. (Barcelona, 1884.)

This enthusiastic and painstaking antiquary did much for the elucidation of all subjects relating to ancient Mexico, especially as regards the discovery and criticism of ancient works and manuscripts. But his zeal frequently betrayed him into somewhat fanciful explanations.

Chevalier, M., Le Mexique Ancien et Moderne. (Paris, 1886.)

Congrès international des Américanistes—comptes rendus. (Biennially, 1878 ff.)

Dieseldorff, E. P., “Cuculcan” (Zeit. für Ethnol., xxvii, Verhand., pp. 780–873).

Gamio, Manuel, “Investigaciones Arqueologicas en Mexico, 1914–1915” (Proc. Nineteenth Int. Cong. of Amer., Washington, 1915). (Washington, D.C., 1917.)

Haebler, K., Die Religion der Mittleren Amerika. (Münster, 1899.)

Hamy, Galerie Américaine du Musée d’ethnographie au Trocadéro. (Paris, 1897.)

Humboldt, Alexander von, Vues des Cordillères. (Paris, 1816.) English translation by Helen Williams, 1815.

Joyce, Thomas Athol, Mexican Archæology: an Introduction to the Archæology of the Mexican and Mayan Civilizations of pre-Spanish America. (London, 1914.)

Chapters ii, iii, and iv give a useful summary of Mexican Mythology, the Calendar and Calendrical Feasts, and Writing, Priesthood, Medicine, and Burial.

Journal de la Société des Américanistes de Paris (passim), tom. i. (Paris, 1896.) (In progress.)

Müller, J. G., Geschichte der Amerikanischen Urreligion. (Berlin, 1867.)

An industrious compilation, which must be used with caution. Its quotations are nearly all at second-hand and its hypotheses are not a little strained.

Nadaillac, Marquis de, Prehistoric America (trans.). (London, 1885.)

Very much in the nature of a popular presentation of the subject.

Nuttall, Zelia, The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations. (Papers, Peabody Mus., ii, 1901.)

Orozco y Berra, Historia antigua y de la Conquista de Mexico. 4 vols. (Mexico, 1880.)

Payne, Edward James, History of the New World called America. (London, 1892–1899.)

This exhaustive work, which deals with the evolution of culture on the American continent, is admirably conceived, and is obviously the result of much thought and research. As regards mythology, however, the author, although well versed in the early writings relating to Mexico, seems to have been unacquainted with those of modern specialists on the subject, and this, of course, limits his outlook. Nor does he display any acquaintance with the Mexican native codices.

Peñafiel, A., Monumentos del arte Mexicano antiguo, 3 vols. (Berlin, 1890.) Destruccion del templo mayor de Mexico y los monumentos encontrados en la ciudad en la excavaciones de 1897 y 1902. (Mexico, 1910.)

Prescott, W. H., History of the Conquest of Mexico. (New York, 1843.)

The few pages in which Prescott describes the religion of ancient Mexico are now quite useless for the purposes of the serious student.

Réville, A., Les Religions du Mexique, de l’Amérique Centrale et du Pérou. (Paris, 1885.) English translation as Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Native Religions of Mexico and Peru (Hibbert Lectures), 1884.

A sketchy and inaccurate account, showing only a second-hand acquaintance with the subject.

Robelo, C. A., Diccionario de mitologia Nahoa in Annals of the Mexican Museum, vols. ii–v, Second Series. (Mexico, 1905.)

Saville, M. H., “The Plumed Serpent in Northern Mexico.” (The Archæologist, vol. ii, pp. 291–293.)

Seler, Eduard, Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur Amerikanischen Sprach- und Altertumskunde, 5 vols. (Berlin, 1902–1915.)

This monumental work, comprising almost the entire output of its learned author, is indispensable for the study of Mexican archæology and religion.

Spence, Lewis, The Civilization of Ancient Mexico (Cambridge Manuals of Science and Letters). (London, 1911.) The Myths of Mexico and Peru. (London, 1913.)

The former work is a digest of the strictly verifiable material of Mexican history and religion; the latter a sketch of the subject on popular lines.

Spinden, Herbert J., A Study of Maya Art (Memoirs of the Peabody Museum, Harvard, vol. vi). (Cambridge, Mass., 1913.)

This admirable work, which is chiefly concerned with the subject-matter and development of Maya art, touches in places upon the forms and insignia of the Mexican deities.

Strebel, H., Alt-Mexico, Archäologische Beiträge, 2 vols. (Hamburg and Leipzig.)

Tylor, E. B., Anahuac or Mexico and the Mexicans. (London, 1861.)

Veytia, M., Historia antigua de Mexico. (Mexico, 1836.)

Wesselhoeft, Selma, and Parker, A. M., Mexican and Central American Antiquities, Calendar Systems and History. Twenty-four papers by Eduard Seler, E. Förstemann, Paul Schellhas, Carl Sapper, and E. P. Dieseldorff, translated from the German, under the supervision of Charles P. Bowditch. Bulletin 28 of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, 1904.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE CODICES RELATING TO MEXICAN MYTHOLOGY

I. INTERPRETATIVE CODICES

Codex Vaticanus A (3738) or Codex Rios.

(A) Reproduced in vol. ii of Kingsborough’s Antiquities of Mexico, 1830. Translation of the Interpretation in vol. vi, pp. 155–420.

(B) Reproduced by the Duc de Loubat. (Rome, 1900.)

Codex Telleriano-Remensis.

(A) Reproduced in Kingsborough’s Antiquities, vol. i. Translation of the Interpretation in vol. vi, pp. 95–153.

(B) Reproduced by the Duc de Loubat (Paris, 1899), with commentary by E. T. Hamy.

Codex Magliabecchiano.

(A) Reproduced by the Duc de Loubat. (Rome, 1904.)

(B) Reproduced by Zelia Nuttall as The Book of the Life of the Ancient Mexicans. (Berkeley, California, 1903.)

(This codex is accompanied by a contemporary gloss in Spanish.)

II. THE CODEX BORGIA GROUP

Codex Borgia.

(A) Reproduced in Kingsborough’s Antiquities, vol. iii.

(B) Reproduced by the Duc de Loubat. (Rome, 1908.)

(C) Commentary in German by Dr. E. Seler, Eine altmexikanische Bilderschrift, with plan. (Berlin, 1904.)

(D) Reproduced in the Anales del Museo Nacional de Mexico, vol. v, pp. 1–260, with Spanish translation of Seler’s essay by T. Lares.

Codex Fejérváry-Mayer.

(A) Reproduced in Kingsborough’s Antiquities, vol. iii.

(B) Reproduced by the Duc de Loubat. (Rome, 1901.)

(C) Commentary (Der Codex Fejérváry-Mayer) by Dr. E. Seler, with plan. (Berlin, 1901.)

(D) English translation of above by A. H. Keane. (Berlin and London, 1901–1902.)

Codex Bologna or Cospi.

(A) Reproduction in Kingsborough’s Antiquities, vol. ii.

(B) Reproduced by the Duc de Loubat. (Rome, 1899.)

(C) Commentary by Seler (Die Mexikanischen Bildenhandschrift von Bologna) in his Gesammelte Abhandlungen, vol. i, pp. 341–351.

Codex Vaticanus B.

(A) Reproduced in Kingsborough’s Antiquities, vol. iii.

(B) Reproduced by the Duc de Loubat (Rome, 1896), with commentary by Señor F. Paso y Troncoso.

(C) Commentary in German (Der Codex Vaticanus B) by Dr. E. Seler, with plan. (Berlin, 1902.)

(D) English translation of above by A. H. Keane. (Berlin and London, 1902–1903.)

Codex Laud.

Reproduction in Kingsborough’s Antiquities, vol. ii.

III. UNCLASSIFIED CODICES

The Aubin-Goupil Tonalamatl.

(A) Reproduced by the Duc de Loubat, with commentary by E. Seler. (Paris, 1900.)

(B) English translation of above by A. H. Keane, with reproduction. (Berlin and London, 1901.)

Codex Vienna, Vindobonensis, or Indiæ Meridionalis.

(A) First reproduced in part by Olaus Wormius, Museum Wormianum. (Leyden, 1655, p. 383.)

(B) Reproduced in Kingsborough’s Antiquities, vol. ii.

(C) Commentary in E. Seler’s Gesammelte Abhandlungen.

Codex Zouche or Nuttall.

Reproduced with commentary by Zelia Nuttall. (Peabody Museum publication.) (Cambridge, Mass., 1902.)

Codex Borbonicus.

Reproduced by the Duc de Loubat, with commentary by E. T. Hamy. (Paris, 1899.)

See also on the subject of the codices generally:

Aubin, Mémoire sur la peinture didactique des anciens Mexicains (Revue Orientale et Américaine). (Paris, 1860, pp. 224–255.)

Boban, Catalogue raisonné de la Collection Aubin-Goupil. (Paris, 1889.) (With an atlas in which many MSS. are reproduced in phototype.)

Lehmann, W., “Les peintures Mixteco-zapotèques” (Journ. Soc. Amer. de Paris, N.S., tom. ii). (Paris, 1905, pp. 241–280.)

Antigüedades mexicanas, publicadas por la junta Colombina de Mexico. (Mexico, 1892.) Atlas with plates.

Paso y Troncoso, Catalogo de Mexico en la Exposicion de Madrid. (Mexico, 1892.)

Peñafiel, Monumentos del arte mexicana antigua. (Berlin, 1890.)

Chavero, Pinturas jeroglificas, 2 parts. (Mexico, 1900–1901.)

GLOSSARY

For the convenience of readers a glossary of the Mexican words most frequently employed in this work is appended:

anauatl Ring of white mussel-shell. areyto Sacred dance; a word of Antillean origin, introduced by the Spanish conquerors of Mexico. atlatl Spear-thrower. aztaxelli Forked heron-feather plume. calpulli Augmentative of calli, house, signifying “quarter,” “district.” chalchihuitl Green stone—jadeite, turquoise, emerald—and precious or semi-precious stones of a green colour. chicauaztli The rattle-staff, associated with the water and fertility deities. cueitl Skirt, petticoat. maxtli Loin-cloth. naualli Disguise, magical form or shape. nequen Robe. octli The fermented juice of the Agave americana. The modern term is pulque, a word of Argentine origin. piloechmilli “Face-painting of children.” quauhxicalli “Cup of eagles”; stone vase in which the hearts of sacrificed victims were placed. quetzalli Feather-plumes of the quetzaltototl or Trogon pavoninus, a bird indigenous to Mexico, the plumes of which were greatly prized by the natives. tamalli Maize-cake (same as Spanish corrupted form tamale). tecutli Noble, lord, person of quality. teocalli Pyramid-temple. teopan Temple precinct. teotl God. telpochcalli House of the youths, the place of instruction for boys in training for the priesthood. teueuelli Shield with eagle’s-down feathers. tilmatli Mantle or cloak. tlachtli A ball-game, a kind of hockey. tlachinolli Fire-and-water symbol. tonalamatl Book of Days: an arrangement of signs indicating lucky and unlucky days, adapted to the calendar. toualli Four balls or beads as a shield device. ulli Indiarubber. xiuhcoatl Fire-snake.

NOTES

[1] See Bibliography for description of this and all other works alluded to throughout the work.

[2] Motecuhzoma described his faith to Cortéz in almost precisely similar terms. See Bernal Diaz, True History of the Conquest of Mexico, Maudslay’s translation. London, 1908.

[3] Especially in The Civilization of Ancient Mexico, 1911.

[4] See Seler, Gesammelte Abhandlungen, passim.

[5] See Appendix, The Tonalamatl and the Solar Calendar.

[6] A Study of Maya Art, 1913, p. 225.

[7] See his commentaries on the several codices, passim.

[8] See Torquemada, bk. vi, c. 24.

[9] Sahagun, III, c. 4; Anales de Quauhtitlan.

[10] On Quetzalcoatl generally see Sahagun, passim; Torquemada, vol. i, p. 254; Motolinia, tom. i, pp. 10–11; and Mendieta, passim.

[11] Consult bibliography to chapter ix of H. B. Alexander’s North American Mythology. Boston, 1916.

[12] Sahagun, bk. vi, c. viii.

[13] See appendix on Tonalamatl.

[14] See chapter on Cosmogony.

[15] Seler, Codex Vaticanus B, 1902–3, p. 174.

[16] In many cosmogonies—Hindu, Babylonian, Chinese, Scandinavian, for example—the earth is formed from the remains of a slain monster or living being.

[17] See section on Tlaloc.

[18] Payne in his History of the New World called America, vol. i, 1892, pp. 424 ff., was the first to indicate the “fetishtic” nature of this statue, which he identifies as that of Chicomecoatl. He pours the vials of scorn upon “the Italian dilettante Boturini” for his identification of the block as Uitzilopochtli-Teoyaomiqui. He further states that it “has no limbs,” but its large, scaly dragon-legs are at least as obvious as his lack of success in giving the sculpture its proper name.

[19] See my article “Cherokees” in Hastings’ Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, vol. iii, p. 504.

[20] See Brinton, Nagualism.

[21] Anales de Quauhtitlan (Brasseur, Hist. Nat. Civ. de Mex., vol. i, pp. 400 ff.).

[22] Codex Vaticanus, 1902–3, p. 75.

[23] For much Mexican star-lore of value see Seler’s Venus Period in the Picture-Writings of the Borgia Codex Group, translated into English in Bulletin 28 of the Bureau of American Ethnology, pp. 355 ff. For the myth see section on Cosmogony.

[24] Bk. ii, c. 4.

[25] See Appendix on Tonalamatl.

[26] Sahagun, bk. ii, Appendix.

[27] Clavigero, Storia del Messico, vol. i, bk. vi, p. 257 (English translation).

[28] The native name for Mexico, signifying “Place upon the water.”

[29] Monarq. Ind., tom. ii, p. 525.

[30] Hist. Mex., tom. i, pp. 291–2.

[31] See the section on Tlaloc.

[32] Notes on the Shushwap People of British Columbia, “Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada,” 1891, vol. ix, sect. ii. Montreal, 1892.

[33] Sahagun, Hist. Gen., bk. ii, c. xiv.

[34] Hist. de Tlaxcallan, c. v.

[35] See Section on Itzpapalotl.

[36] See chapter on Cosmogony.

[37] See Sahagun, bk. i, c. 6.

[38] See chapter on Cosmogony.

[39] Torquemada, bk. viii, c. 13.

[40] Although some of the old authors, Bernal Diaz for instance, say explicitly that the gods of one city were not recognized in another, in effect they were, only under other names.

[41] Translation in Kingsborough, vol. vi, p. 198.

[42] Op. cit., p. 207.

[43] L. Spence, The Popol Vuh (1908), description of bk. i; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Le Vuh Popol, Paris, 1861.

[44] An important work republished with a Latin translation by Dr. W. Lehmann under the title of Traditions des anciens Mexicains (Jour. Soc. Amer. Paris, n.s., vol. iii. Paris, 1906. pp. 239–298).

[45] Kingsborough’s translation, vol. vi, p. 171.

[46] Chavero’s edition, Mexico, 1892, p. 21.

[47] See the Popol Vuh, bk. i., for a Quiche analogy to this tale of human degradation.

[48] Chavero’s edition, Mexico, 1891, pp. ii ff.

[49] Hist. de Tlaxcala, in Ternaux-Compan’s Voyages, tom. lxxxvi, p. 5; also edition by A. Chavero, Mexico, 1892.

[50] Hist. Antigua de Mexico, bk. i, c. 4.

[51] First Relacion.

[52] Historia Eccles.

[53] A variant myth makes Quetzalcoatl the god who seeks bones in the underworld from which to make the human race. As he returns, the bones drop to earth and quails gnaw them. Ciuacoatl pounds them into a paste from which men are formed. The Anales de Quauhtitlan makes the gods create man from the cinders of the worlds destroyed in the four epochs.

[54] Probably because of his status as god of twins and of duplicates of all kinds.

[55] Obviously this sacred bundle is in the same category with the “medicine-bundle” of the North American Indian tribes, and it would seem that from such a form certain of the Mexican gods were evolved.

[56] Bk. vii, c. 2.

[57] For further information regarding this incident see Boturini, Idea, section iii, 14, “Tlatocaocelotl.”

[58] These metamorphoses, or at least the first two, are obviously founded upon Xolotl’s dual characteristic as a twin. The resemblance between his name and that of the little amphibious animal axolotl is due to the monstrous character of both.

[59] Hist. du Tlaxcallan in Ternaux-Compan’s Nouvelles Annales des Voyages (tom. xcix, p. 129).

[60] Hist. Antig. de Mexico, tom. i, p. 7.

[61] Storia Antica del Messico, tom. ii, p. 7.

[62] Hist. Eccles, p. 81.

[63] Curtin, Creation Myths of Primitive America, Intro., p. 35.

[64] Relaciones (Chavero’s edition; Mexico, 1891), p. 11. Hist. Chichimeca (Chavero’s edition; Mexico, 1892), p. 21.

[65] Among the American races the soul was thought of as residing in the bones. See Brinton, Myths of the New World, pp. 295 ff., 299, 321.

[66] Anales de Quauhtitlan.

[67] Translation of interpretation in Kingsborough, vol. vi, p. 127.

[68] P. 120.

[69] See Rady y Delgado’s reproduction of this Codex, Madrid, 1892.

[70] The colours associated with the points of the compass were: East, yellow; north, red; west, blue; south, white.

[71] For the further relation of the gods to time and space see the appendix on the tonalamatl.

[72] See myth of the creation of the four supporters, supra.

[73] Humming-birds. The warriors seem to have been metamorphosed into the naualli or bird-disguise of Uitzilopochtli, the humming-bird god of war.

[74] Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas. I believe these different heavens to have resulted from the clashing and mingling of rival cults.

[75] As it has been found impossible to include every illustration from the codices which is mentioned in the text, those pictures not supplied may be consulted in the reproductions of the codices themselves. A full bibliography of the codices will be found at the end. When the letter K appears with reference to a codex, its reproduction in Kingsborough’s “Mexican” antiquities is implied.

[76] This stellar mask is so called from being worn by the stellar deities. It is usually connected with the red-and-white striped painting of the body. The Sahagun Aztec MS. calls it “face-cage marking” and “face-star marking which is called darkness,” the former referring to stripes over the face, the latter to the mask design, which seems to me to symbolize night surrounded by the “eyes” of the stars.

[77] Hist. Nat. Ind., pp. 352 ff., English translation in Purchas his Pilgrimes, bk. v, c. 9. Maclehoses’ edition.

[78] Hist. Conq. Mex., tom. i, pp. 396–398.

[79] Gage’s trans. of Herrera, in New Survey, pp. 116–117; for Spanish text, see Hist. Gen., tom. i, dec. ii, bk. vii, c. xvii.

[80] Monarq. Ind., tom. i, p. 293.

[81] Quarter, district.

[82] House of the youths, where the acolytes or junior priests resided.

[83] Governors.

[84] Vassals, burghers.

[85] Dance.

[86] This custom was in vogue among certain prehistoric races, and is still practised on the death of a relative by African bushmen, who first remove a finger-joint.

[87] More correctly quauhxicalli, a stone vase for the reception of the hearts of victims, from quauh (tli) “eagle,” and xicalli, “cup.”

[88] Monarq. Ind., tom. ii, p. 73.

[89] Hist. Mex., English translation by C. Cullen (London, 1787), vol. i, bk. vi.

[90] Idea de una Hist., pp. 60–61.

[91] Bk. i, c. i.

[92] So Uitzilopochtli addresses his half-brother. “Uncle” among the ancient Mexicans was an honorific title.

[93] Bk. iii, c, i, par. i.

[94] Monarq. Ind., tom. i, p. 294.

[95] See chapter on Cosmogony.

[96] Sahagun, Appendix to bk. iii, c. ix.

[97] Hist. Nat. Ind. in Purchas his Pilgrimes, bk. v, c. xiii. See also Manuel Gamio, Proc. 19th Cong. Amer., Washington, 1915, for account of discoveries when the foundations of this temple were partly laid bare in 1913.

[98] C. i.

[99] Sahagun, bk. ii, c. xxxiv; Uitzilopochtli himself, as we shall see, was oracular. In this case I take it that the octli distilled from the plant conferred the boon of oracular speech.

[100] The first pulque or octli, which was called uitztli, was offered at this festival as first-fruits to Uitzilopochtli. The spirit distilled from the pulque is still known as mexcal or mescal, and is probably identical with the fiery fluid given to the braves in the service of the god before going into battle.

[101] Bull. of U.S. Bureau of Ethnology, No. 28, p. 210.

[102] Monarq. Ind., tom. ii, p. 41.

[103] The Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas calls Uitzilopochtli omitecilt. I think this should be read ome tecitl, “twice-wizard,” but it may read ome tecutli, “twice-lord.” But the latter is certainly a title of Tonacatecutli, the creative deity.

[104] Bk. i, c. i.

[105] Sahagun, bk. ii, c. xxiv.

[106] As does an Egyptian sun-god.

[107] The Centzonuitznaua appear to be the same as the Tzitzimimê, whom Tezozomoc calls the “gods of the air who bring the rains, floods, thunderclaps, and thunders and lightnings and had to be placed round Uitzilopochtli” in order to complete the construction of the great teocalli of Mexico. These “gods of the signs and planets,” in other words the stars, were regarded as demons of darkness, thinks Seler, “only because during a solar eclipse the stars became visible in the day sky.” I think it much more probable that they were looked upon as demons of darkness because they peopled the darkness every night. “These,” says the interpreter of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, “are the sons of Citlalicue.” Now, Citlalicue means “Starry-skirt,” and I think that here we are not very far from Coatlicue, “Serpent-skirt.” We know, too, that Citlalicue, like Coatlicue, was connected with the cipactli, the earth-beast, and with Chicomecoatl (“Seven Serpents”). The later fusion of Citlalicue with her husband Citlaltonac or Tonacatecutli, lord of the heavenly vault, as has been shown in the remarks on these gods, would give her stellar attributes; hence the seeming discrepancy between her and Coatlicue.

[108] Appendix to bk. ii.

[109] Hist. de los Indios de la Nueva España, tom. ii, p. 240.

[110] See Rendel Harris, The Ascent of Olympus, passim. In his Ascent of Olympus Dr. Rendel Harris has shown that the sacred oak of Zeus was regarded as “the animistic repository of the thunder, and in that sense the dwelling-place of Zeus ... that the woodpecker who nested in it ... was none other than Zeus himself, and it may turn out that Athena, who sprang from the head of the thunder-oak, was the owl that lived in one of its hollows” (p. 57).

In the same way, it may be that the maguey plant may have been regarded by the Mexicans as a repository of thunder and the heavenly fire. Octli, its sap, was connected with fire (see octli gods, “Nature and Status”), and Uitzilopochtli was the humming-bird who dwelt among its leaves. He springs from his mother’s body fully armed, as does Athena from the head of Zeus. A similar train of thought appears to be present in both ideas.

[111] Manuel de Ministros, p. 35.

[112] Commentary on Codex Vaticanus B, p. 91.

[113] Maguey is an Antillean word imported into Mexico by the Spaniards, but the use of a post-Columbian word does not exclude the possibility of a synonymous pre-Columbian form.

[114] Manuel de Ministros, p. 37.

[115] Myths of the New World, pp. 129 ff.

[116] Hist. Nat. Ind., c. ix, bk. v (English translation from Purchas his Pilgrimes).

[117] Obviously an error for tlachialoni.

[118] More probably like a jaguar, one of the forms of the god.

[119] See précis in chapter on Cosmogony.

[120] The Morelosia huañita of the family Styraciñes.

[121] Inga circinalis.

[122] Paper hand.

[123] Face of the temple.

[124] Young brother.

[125] Hist. Gen., bk. i. c. iii.

[126] Hist. Nat. y Moral, c. ix.

[127] Hist. Mex., English translation, vol. i, bk. vi, p. 243.

[128] Hist. Gen., bk. iii, c. vi–ix.

[129] These both mean the same thing, “shield of precious stones.”

[130] Diccionario Universal, Appendix, s.v.

[131] See ante, Aspect and Insignia.

[132] Commentary C. Fejérváry-Mayer, p. 34.

[133] See the Stone of Tizoc for examples of this practice.

[134] This figure conventionally represents the turkey and strikingly exhibits the large red wattles and lobe of that bird. In most of the MSS. it wears Tezcatlipocâ’s smoking mirror at the temple, the warrior’s headdress of heron-feathers, and in Codex Borbonicus it appears as a naualli or disguise of the god, having his crown painted with stars and his anauatl or ring of mussel-shell. On sheet 6 of Codex Fejérváry-Mayer the bird appears as an image of Tezcatlipocâ and is represented along with the signs of mortification and blood-letting, as it is on sheet 17 of the Aubin tonalamatl, where it wears the bone-piercer in its ears and a red robe edged with blue and brown. Indeed, it represents the blood-offering connected with the worship of Tezcatlipocâ. The turkey-cock’s foot, too, is sometimes symbolic of the god, and the interpretative codices tell us that “of the demons we often see nothing more than a cock’s or eagle’s foot.” The turkey-cock is to be conceived as representative of rain, which was believed by the Nahua to be nothing else than the magically altered blood he shed in penitence or sacrifice. It may be that the red wattles and lobe of the turkey suggested the idea of blood, and that the shades in his plumage were equally suggestive of water. Thus it would come to be regarded as the blood shed by the stone knife of sacrifice. It is also obvious that Tezcatlipocâ’s patronage of slaves, who were strictly regarded as his property, arose out of the idea that those unfortunates, whenever used for the purposes of sacrificial ritual, constituted the “food” of the obsidian knife.

[135] Bk. xi, c. 8, § 5.

[136] Bernal Diaz also states that the eyes of Tezcatlipocâ’s idol were “mirrors.” See ante, “Aspect and Insignia.”

[137] In the myth which recounts his discomfiture of the Toltecs it will be recalled that he rained stones upon them. See also Introduction for identification of obsidian with wind and breath.

[138] Gomme, Ethnology in Folklore.

[139] Myth, Ritual, and Religion, vol. i, p. 266.

[140] See Itzlacoliuhqui, pp. 341 ff.

[141] See my article on “Cherokee Religion” in vol. iii, Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics.

[142] Brinton, Myths of the New World.

[143] Sahagun, bk. xii, c. iv.

[144] Bk. iii, c. ii.

[145] Bk. xi, c. xlvii.

[146] Bk. v, c. ix.

[147] Seler, The Wall-paintings of Mitla, Bull. 28, Bureau of American Ethnology.

[148] “The swift ones who serrate the teeth.”

[149] “Mount of the crier.”

[150] Sahagun’s statement that the draught would make Quetzalcoatl remember those evils is obviously a slip which even his copyist Torquemada is capable of avoiding.

[151] Bk. iii, c. 3 and 4.

[152] The names throughout the myth merely describe the incident which took place at the locality alluded to.

[153] Sahagun, bk. iii, c. xii, xiii, xiv.

[154] Monarq. Ind., tom. ii, pp. 48–52.

[155] Monarq. Ind., tom. i, pp. 254–256.

[156] Hist. de los Indios.

[157] Hist. Ecles., pp. 82, 86, 92–93, 97–98.

[158] Hist. Ecles., p. 82.

[159] A Lacandone Indian tribe near Palenque.

[160] Land of Chivim.

[161] The myths relating to him under the name of Tohil appear to me to identify Tohil more with Tezcatlipocâ. See Brassuer, Le Vuh Popol, passim.

[162] The circumstance that the two high-priests of Mexico, the pontiffs of the cults of Uitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, had the name Quetzalcoatl prefixed to their official descriptions merely indicates that it had passed into a sacerdotal title. They were in no special sense attached to the worship of the god.

[163] He was, of course, all of these, but as regards the two latter, in a subsidiary sense only.

[164] Spanish, hurican; French, ouragan; English, hurricane.

[165] Sahagun reverses the process by calling Quetzalcoatl “a man who became a god,” bk. i, c. v.

[166] See my article on these books in vol. iii of Hastings’ Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics.

[167] This, too, accounts for his identification with the planet Venus, which also had a calendric connection, and therefore as the herald of the dawn, and the child of the virgin goddess Chimalman or Chalchihuitlicue in her guise as Moon-goddess.

[168] Votan was likewise a builder of subterranean houses and was worshipped in caves. The god of the rain-cult is, indeed, regarded as master of the streams which flow under the earth. See Brinton, Nagualism, p. 41.

[169] A generic name for green precious or semi-precious stones—turquoise, jadeite, nephrite, emerald, etc.

[170] In Kingsborough, Antiquities of Mexico, vol. vi.

[171] On this identification see also Torquemada, bk. vi, c. xix.

[172] Codex Telleriano-Remensis.

[173] Seler, Codex Vaticanus B, p. 132.

[174] Spence, Popol Vuh. London, 1908.

[175] Tonalamatl of the Aubin-Goupil Collection, 1900–1901.

[176] This circular patch with the centre punched out is worn by the women of more than one Asiatic country.

[177] Sahagun, Bks. viii and x.

[178] By Seler, in Commentary on Aubin Tonalamatl, p. 93.

[179] Sahagun, bk. i, c. xii.

[180] As regards these translations of hymns throughout the work, some have been translated by me from the Mexican originals, others have been translated from the German of Seler. Like that authority I have not received any enlightenment from Brinton’s “translations” in his Sacred Chants of the Ancient Mexicans.

[181] Bk. ii, c. xxx; see also Torquemada, bk. x, c. xxxv.

[182] Pyramid temple.

[183] Seler, Commentary on Vaticanus B, p. 262, believes the ceremony to refer to the parturition of the goddess, who gives birth to Cinteotl, although he at first elucidated the ceremony as here indicated. Seler confounds the postures of sexual intercourse and parturition.

[184] See picture in Codex Borbonicus.

[185] As do Aphrodite, and other goddesses of love.

[186] It is equally the symbol of the fertility-pot.

[187] Bk. ii, c. xxiii.

[188] Lib. x, c. xiii.

[189] A species of wild laurel.

[190] The custom of wearing a mask of the deity worshipped (in this case the slain woman represented the goddess) is widespread.

[191] Sahagun, bk. ii.

[192] Appendix to bk. ii.

[193] Who, like several of the older Spanish authorities, regarded Cinteotl as a goddess, a belief now exploded. See vol. i, bk. vi (English translation).

[194] It might be quoted against this view that the lewd life of pleasure of which Xochipilli and Macuilxochitl are the representatives results in that death which is the child of sin, and that these gods are therefore “brothers” to Cinteotl in this especial connection. Seler, Comm. Codex Fej.-Mayer, p. 66; Comm. Codex Vat. B, pp. 207–208.

[195] Sahagun, bk. ix, c. xvii.

[196] Sahagun MS.

[197] At the festival of Demeter, with whose worship the serpent was connected, the earth was struck with rods by the priest who called upon the goddess. This is also done during the act of divination among the Zulus, when they call upon spirits. See Callaway, Izinyanga Zokubula, p. 362.

[198] Lib. ii, c. ii.

[199] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ. du Mex. (quoting a Cakchiquel MS.), vol. i, p. 248.

[200] Bk. i, c. vi.

[201] Sahagun, bk. i, c. vi.

[202] Idem, bk. 2, Appendix.

[203] Idea, p. 27; vol. i, pp. 419 ff.

[204] See Introduction, pp. 14, 16.

[205] See Uitzilopochtli, pp. 73 ff.

[206] Bk. i, c. xix.

[207] Idea, pp. 63–66. This myth seems to me to show vestiges of a belief in the theory of the transmigration of souls, and to indicate that the ascetic, almost on the borders of what is known in Buddhistic belief as “arahatship,” or promotion to a higher life, was condemned for his lapse to recommence existence once more under a low form of life.

[208] Bk. i, c. xix, appendix.

[209] See Appendix in the Tonalamatl, “Day-signs.”

[210] A diacritical point.

[211] Bk. x, c. xxxv.

[212] Bk. x, c. xxxi.

[213] Seler, Commentary on Aubin Tonalamatl, p. 119.

[214] Seler, Commentary on Codex Vaticanus B, p. 161.

[215] But see the song to Cinteotl in the portion dealing with that god, which in a manner refers to Xochipilli.

[216] Commentary on Aubin Tonalamatl, p. 87.

[217] Bk. i, c. xiv.

[218] Cronica Mexicana. See picture of Axayacatl in Boban’s catalogue of the Goupil collection, Paris, 1891, pp. 14, 15.

[219] The best authority on Xipe’s costume is Sahagun (Mexican MS.).

[220] Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, pp. 417 ff.

[221] Sahagun, bk. v, c. xiii.

[222] Werenfels, Dissertation upon Superstition, p. 6 (London, 1748). Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. ii, pp. 719 ff.

[223] Roscher, Über Selene und verwandtes (Leipzig, 1890), pp. 49 ff.

[224] Pliny, Nat. Hist., vol. ii, p. 223; Payne, Hist. New World, vol. i, p. 495.

[225] Or calpulli, a muster-place at several festivals.

[226] “They who seize the head,” alluding to the custom of taking the victims by the hair.

[227] Sahagun states that the “hair” of the uauantin was kept as a trophy. This seems to me analogous to the North American Indian custom of scalping, which is sometimes spoken of as “losing one’s hair,” a phrase which, through its use among American border fighters, has passed into slang.

[228] Tezcatlipocâ took the form of a coyote and lay in wait for travellers. Sahagun, bk. v, c. xiii.

[229] Or coyote.

[230] Sahagun, bk. ii, Appendix.

[231] Sahagun, bk. ii, Appendix.

[232] Seler, Commentary on Codex Vaticanus B, p. 175.

[233] Decade iii, lib. iii, c. xv.

[234] Tezozomac, Cronica Mexicana, c. xci.

[235] J. Lecœur, Esquisses du Bocage Normand, vol. ii, p. 240.

[236] Athenæus, vol. ix, 47, p. 392 d.

[237] Religion of the Semites, new edition, 1914, p. 469.

[238] Bk. ii. c. viii.

[239] Bk. x, c. xix.

[240] Hist. de Tlaxcallan, c. v.

[241] This deer is two-headed; so is Quaxolotl a variant of Chantico, the Fire-goddess, with whom Itzpapalotl seems to have many points of resemblance.

[242] See Xochipilli.

[243] In some myths of the Old World the butterfly is the soul or ghost. This would explain her connection with the Ciuateteô, or dead women.

[244] Vol. i, bk. vi (English translation).

[245] Bk. i, c. ix.

[246] Hist. de los Indios de la Nueva España (Epistola Proemial).

[247] Sahagun, bk. ii., c. xxxvi; Torquemada, bk. x, c. xxix.

[248] It occurred to the writer that the expression tititl may have had reference to the act of sexual impregnation, as in the case of Tlazolteotl (q.v.), who “widens herself, stretches herself out” at the foot of the teocalli of Uitzilopochtli, when she is impregnated by that deity. This consideration scarcely seems to apply to the present instance, however, and that indicated above appears preferable.

[249] See remarks upon the Tlaloc cult in the Introduction.

[250] See my remarks upon Quetzalcoatl in the section which deals with him, and where he is identified with the trade-wind which brings the rain.

[251] Bk. i, c. xxi.

[252] See Appendix, the Tonalamatl and the Solar Calendar.

[253] See digest of the passage in chapter on Cosmogony, p. 49.

[254] See Spence, The Popol Vuh. London, 1908.

[255] Sahagun (bk. x, c. xxviii, § 10) states that Tlalocan was in the Olmec or Mixtec country; but Camargo (Hist. de Tlaxcallan, Nouvelles annales des Voyages, 1843, tom. 99, pp. 135–137) is a better authority on this particular subject.

[256] Wood-mountain.

[257] Place of Might.

[258] Flower-feather.

[259] Place of Darkness.

[260] Beside the stalle (or banner).

[261] Pearl-serpent.

[262] Rows of pearls.

[263] Servant.

[264] Covered with mugwort.

[265] Bk. ii, c. xx.

[266] Bk. ii, c. iii.

[267] The Pantitlan = “Near the Stake.”

[268] Bk. ii, c. vi.

[269] All of the deities known by these names were octli-gods.

[270] Temple precinct.

[271] Bk. i, c. xiii.

[272] Bk. ii, c. xxxv.

[273] Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones, p. 41, states that girls were sacrificed by the Toltecs to Tlaloc and buried.

[274] Hist. de Tlaxcallan, in Ternaux-Compan’s Nouvelles annales de Voyages, 1843, tom. 99, pp. 133, 135–7.

[275] Vol. i, bk. vi, p. 251 (English translation). See also Torquemada, bk. vi, c. xxiii; Veytia, vol. i, p. 27; Velasquez de Leon, Nevadade Toluca, Bd. Inst. Nac. Geog. Estad. Mex., 1850.

[276] Bk. vi, c. vii.

[277] Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas, c. ii.

[278] Förstemann, Die Maya-Handschrift-zu Dresden, Leipzig, 1880. Second edition, 1892.

[279] Codex Borgia, sheet 14, and Codex Fejérváry-Mayer, sheets 1 and 3.

[280] Unless the costume be spotted like that of her spouse Tlaloc, with ulli rubber-gum, to represent rain.

[281] This picture of Tlaloc and Chalchihuitlicue is reminiscent of the Japanese myth of Susa-no-o and his sister Ama-terasu, the Sun-goddess, who, desirous of progeny, stood one on either side of a “river” (the Milky Way), dipped jewels into the “river,” crushed them into dust and “blew them away”; gods were born from the dust so breathed upon. See Kojiki, translated by Basil Hill Chamberlain, in supplement to vol. x of Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, 1882, pp. 47–49. The Mexican picture has probably a similar generative significance.

[282] Hist. Antig. de Mej., tom. i, c. xxviii.

[283] “Chief Eagle.”

[284] Commentary on the Aubin Tonalamatl, p. 56.

[285] The resemblance of this festival to the uei teciulhuitl, the feast of Xilonen, is obvious. (For a fuller description, see Sahagun, bk. ii, c. xxvii.)

[286] Bk. i, c. xiii.

[287] Bk. vi, c. xvii.

[288] Bk. ix, c. iii.

[289] Bk. vi, c. iv.

[290] Bk. vi, c. ix.

[291] Bk. ii, c. xxix.

[292] Bk. ii, c. xxxvii.

[293] Bk. ii, c. xix.

[294] Bk. ii, Appendix.

[295] See Sahagun, bk. ii, Appendix.

[296] Seler, Commentary on Tonalamatl of the Aubin Goupil Collection, p. 73.

[297] Commentary on the Tonalamatl of the Aubin Collection, p. 71.

[298] See also T. L. Preuss, Die Feuergötter als Ausgangspunkt zum Verständnis der Mexikanischen Religion (“Mittheilungen der Anthropologische Gesellschaft in Wien,” vol. xxxiii, Vienna, 1903, pp. 129–233).

[299] Bk. ix, c. xvii.

[300] “Wizard-prince,” evidently a patron of sorcerers and cunning workmanship.

[301] “Five House.”

[302] Bk. ii, Appendix.

[303] Sahagun states that the dog is the symbol of fire (bk. iv, c. xxii).

[304] Bk. ii, Appendix.

[305] The locus classicus for representations of the octli-gods is the Codex Magliabecchiano, which presents a most valuable series of them, pp. 49–59.

[306] Bk. i, c. xxii.

[307] “Mirror covered with Straw.”

[308] See Seler, “Temple-pyramid of Tepoxtlan,” Bulletin 28, U.S. Bureau of Ethnology, p. 349.

[309] Teatro Mexicana, tom. i.

[310] Hist. de los Indios, tom. ii, p. 240.

[311] Bk. i, c. xiii.

[312] Manuel de los Ministros, p. 35.

[313] Bk. i, Appendix.

[314] In The Ascent of Olympus.

[315] See Sahagun, bk. vii, cs. x–xiii, for a much more detailed description.

[316] See Sahagun, bk. iii, Appendix, c. iv.

[317] Historia de los Indios de la Nueva España, Preface, in Izcazbalceta, vol. i, 1858, pp. 7, 10.

[318] Izcazbalceta, vol. iii, 1891, p. 237.

[319] Appendix to bk. i, c. xiv.

[320] Brinton, Myths of the New World, p. 190.

[321] Commentary on Codex Vaticanus B, p. 287.

[322] Bulletin 28 of U.S. Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 355 ff.

[323] See Commentary on the Codex Vaticanus B, p. 90. It seems to me that, as Tezozomoc says, these were gods of the “signs and planets,” i.e. of the tonalamatl in its augural or astrological sense. If so, the definitely astrological nature of the tonalamatl might be argued therefrom.

[324] See L. Spence, The Popol Vuh. London, 1908.

[325] Commentary on Codex Fejérváry-Mayer, p. 43.

[326] See Section on Tezcatlipocâ.

[327] Las Casas, Apologetica, c. cxcix; Herrera, 4, 10, c. xiii.

[328] Seler (Commentary on Codex Vaticanus B, p. 102) sees in a passage in Sahagun (bk. v, c. 1) an association between the omen of a jaguar roaring in the mountains by night and the echo thereof and Tepeyollotl.

[329] Bk. i, c. xix; bk. ix, passim.

[330] Nat. Rac. Pac. States, vol. iii, p. 417, note.

[331] Bradford, American Antiquities, p. 333; Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, vol. i, p. 271; Von Tschudi, Beiträge, p. 29.

[332] See Seler, Bull. 28, American Bureau of Ethnology, p. 94.

[333] Bk. i, c. xvi.

[334] See also Sahagun, bk. i, c. xv.

[335] Bk. i, c. xv.

[336] The most convincing modern writers on the tonalamatl are Morley, Bowditch, De Jonghe, and Seler. A bibliography of works on the subject will be found at the end of this appendix.

[337] We speak of “numbers.” More accurately, the numbers employed by the Mexicans were merely simple dots. Thus a single dot represented our numeral 1, and thirteen dots our numeral 13.

[338] It will be seen that, although the first ten day-gods take the first ten week-signs, these signs are, naturally, not in the same order as the day-signs, as has been pointed out, therefore these gods could not take precisely the same sign as in the day-signs, but only the same place.

[339] For Seler’s point of view on this question see his Commentary on the Aubin Tonalamatl, London and Berlin, 1900–1, pp. 197–228.

De Jonghe, Le Calendrier Mexicain (Journal of the Americanist Society of Paris, New Series, vol. iii, 1906, pp. 197–228), believes that the “Lords of the Night” are connected with the days of the tonalamatl. He states that the combination of these “Lords of the Night” with the day-names sufficed to distinguish the days of the year which by the tonalamatl reckoning would take the same numeral and sign. Thus if the year began with 1 acatl, the 261st day would also be 1 acatl, but would have a different “Lord of the Night.” This is denied by Seler.

[340] These are depicted in the Aubin tonalamatl along with their thirteen bird-disguises in the second and first vertical rows of the upper and the second, and first cross-rows of the lower half of the sheets, and are displayed in a similar manner in Codex Borbonicus. There are discrepancies between the two MSS., but these are by no means irreconcilable. Thus in the seventh place Codex Borbonicus has the Maize-god Cinteotl and the Aubin tonalamatl Macuilxochitl or Xochipilli, who, however, in one of the songs to the gods, is addressed as “Cinteotl,” and so forth.

[341] This, however, clashes with Seler’s enumeration of the day and night hours elsewhere.

[342] Sahagun, bk. ii, c. xix.

[343] These month-names bear a striking resemblance to those of certain North American Indian tribes, and are certainly seasonal in their origin.

[344] The Venus Period in the Borgian Codex Groups, English translation in Bull. 28 of the U.S. Bureau of Ethnology.