Chapter IX: Gods, Supernatural Beings, and Worship (2)

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

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

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

[Sidenote: CONFESSION.]

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

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

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

[Sidenote: PENANCES.]

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

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

[Sidenote: GOD OF FIRE.]

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

[Sidenote: FESTIVAL OF THE FIRE GOD.]

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

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

[Sidenote: CLIMBING FOR THE GOD.]

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

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

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

[Sidenote: FOURTH YEAR FESTIVAL.]

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

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

[Sidenote: THE GREAT NEW FIRE FESTIVAL.]

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

[Sidenote: FEAST OF THE NEW FIRE.]

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

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

* * * * *

[Sidenote: TEOYAOMIQUE.]

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

[Sidenote: GAMA ON THE COMPOUND IMAGE.]

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

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

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

[Sidenote: MICTECACIHUATL.]

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

[Sidenote: MIXCOATL, GOD OF HUNTING.]

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

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

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

[Sidenote: DRIVE-HUNT OF MIXCOATL.]

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

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

* * * * *

[Sidenote: MACUILXOCHITL.]

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