Chapter IX: Gods, Supernatural Beings, and Worship (3)

Ome Acatl was the god of banquets and of guests; his name signified 'two canes.' When a man made a feast to his friends, he had the image of this deity carried to his house by certain of its priests; and if the host did not do this, the deity appeared to him in a dream, rebuking him in such words as these: Thou bad man, because thou hast withheld from me my due honor, know that I will forsake thee and that thou shalt pay dearly for this insult. When this god was excessively angered, he was accustomed to mix hairs with the food and drink of the guests of the object of his wrath, so that the giver of the feast should be disgraced. As in the case of Huitzilopochtli, there was a kind of communion sacrament in connection with the adoration of this god of feasts: in each ward dough was taken and kneaded by the principal men into the figure of a bone of about a cubit long, called the bone of Ome Acatl. A night seems to have been spent in eating and in drinking pulque; then at break of day an unfortunate person, set up as the living image of the god, had his belly pricked with pins, or some such articles; being hurt thereby, as we are told. This done the bone was divided and each one ate what of it fell to his lot; and when those that had insulted this god ate, they often grew sick, and almost choked, and went stumbling and falling. Ome Acatl was represented as a man seated on a bunch of cyperus-sedges. His face was painted white and black; upon his head was a paper crown surrounded by a long and broad fillet of divers colors, knotted up at the back of the head; and again round and over the fillet, was wound a string of chalchiuite beads. His blanket was made like a net, and had a broad border of flowers woven into it. He bore a shield, from the lower part of which hung a kind of fringe of broad tassels. In the right hand he held a sceptre called the _tlachielonique_, or 'looker,'[IX-59] because it was furnished with a round plate through which a hole was pierced, and the god kept his face covered with the plate and looked through the hole.[IX-60]

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[Sidenote: IXTLILTON, HEALER OF CHILDREN.]

Yxtliton, or Ixtlilton--that is to say 'the little negro,' according to Sahagun, and 'the black-faced,' according to Clavigero--was a god who cured children of various diseases.[IX-61] His 'oratory' was a kind of temporary building made of painted boards; his image was neither graven nor painted; it was a living man decorated with certain vestments. In this temple or oratory were kept many pans and jars, covered with boards, and containing a fluid which was called 'black water.' When a child sickened, it was brought to this temple and one of these jars was uncovered, upon which the child drank of the black water and was healed of its disease--the cure being probably most prompt and complete when the priests as well as the god knew something of physic. When one made a feast to this god--which seems to have been when one made new pulque--the man that was the image of Ixtlilton came to the house of the feast-giver with music and dancing, and preceded by the smoke of copal incense. The representative of the deity having arrived, the first thing he did was to eat and drink; there were more dances and festivities in his honor, in which he took part, and then he entered the cellar of the house, where were many jars of pulque that had been covered for four days with boards or lids of some kind. He opened one or many of these jars, a ceremony called 'the opening of the first, or of the new wine,' and himself with those that were with him drank thereof. This done, he went out into the court-yard of the house, where there were prepared certain jars of the above-mentioned black water, which also had been kept covered four days; these he opened, and if there was found therein any dirt, or piece of straw, or hair, or ash, it was taken as a sign that the giver of the feast was a man of evil life, an adulterer, or a thief, or a quarrelsome person, and he was affronted with the charge accordingly. When the representative of the god set out from the house where all this occurred, he was presented with certain blankets called _yxguen_, or _ixquen_, that is to say, 'covering of the face,' because when any fault had been found in the black water, the giver of the feast was put to shame.[IX-62]

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[Sidenote: OPUCHTLI, GOD OF FISHING.]

Opuchtli, or Opochtli, 'the left-handed,' was venerated by fishermen as their protector and the inventor of their nets, fish-spears, oars, and other gear. In Cuitlahuac, an island of lake Chalco, there was a god of fishing called Amimitl, who, according to Clavigero, differed from the first-mentioned only in name. Sahagun says that Opuchtli was counted among the number of the Tlaloques, and that the offerings made to him were composed of pulque, stalks of green maize, flowers, the smoking-canes, or pipes called _yietl_, copal incense, the odorous herb _yiauhtli_, and parched maize. These things seem to have been strewed before him as rushes used to be strewed before a procession. There were used in these solemnities certain rattles enclosed in hollow walking-sticks. The image of this god was like a man, almost naked, with the face of that grey tint seen in quails' feathers; on the head was a paper crown of divers colors, made like a rose, as it were, of leaves overlapping each other, topped by green feathers issuing from a yellow tassel; other long tassels hung from this crown to the shoulders of the idol. Crossed over the breast was a green stole resembling that worn by the Christian priest when saying mass; on the feet were white sandals; on the left arm was a red shield, and in the centre of its field a white flower with four leaves disposed like a cross; and in the left hand was a sceptre of a peculiar fashion.[IX-63]

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Xipe, or Totec, or Xipetotec, or Thipetotec, is, according to Clavigero, a god whose name has no meaning,[IX-64] who was the deity of the goldsmiths, and who was much venerated by the Mexicans, they being persuaded that those that neglected his worship would be smitten with diseases; especially the boils, the itch, and pains of the head and eyes. They excelled themselves therefore in cruelty at his festival time, occurring ordinarily in the second month.

Sahagun describes this god as specially honored by dwellers on the sea-shore, and as having had his origin at Zapotlan in Jalisco. He was supposed to afflict people with sore eyes and with various skin-diseases, such as small-pox, abscesses, and itch. His image was made like a human form, one side or flank of it being painted yellow, and the other of a tawny color; down each side of the face from the brow to the jaw a thin stripe was wrought; and on the head was a little cap with hanging tassels. The upper part of the body was clothed with the flayed skin of a man; round the loins was girt a kind of green skirt. It had on one arm a yellow shield with a red border, and held in both hands a scepter shaped like the calix of a poppy and tipped with an arrow-head.[IX-65]

[Sidenote: EATING THE BODIES OF THE SACRIFICED.]

On the last day of the second month--or, according to some authors, of the first--Tlacaxipehualiztli, there was celebrated a solemn feast in honor at once of Xipetotec and of Huitzilopochtli. It was preceded by a very solemn dance at noon of the day before. As the night of the vigil fell, the captives were shut up and guarded; at midnight--the time when it was usual to draw blood from the ears--the hair of the middle of the head of each was shaven away before a fire. When the dawn appeared they were led by their owners to the foot of the stairs of the temple of Huitzilopochtli--and if they would not ascend willingly the priests dragged them up by the hair. The priests threw them down one by one on the back on a stone of three quarters of a yard or more high, and square on the top something more than a foot every way. Two assistants held the victim down by the feet, two by the hands, and one by the head--this last according to many accounts putting a yoke over the neck of the man and so pressing it down. Then the priest, holding with both hands a splinter of flint, or a stone resembling flint, like a large lance-head, struck across the breast therewith, and tore out the heart through the gash so made; which, after offering it to the sun and other gods by holding it up toward the four quarters of heaven, he threw into a wooden vessel.[IX-66] The blood was collected also in a vessel and given to the owner of the dead captive, while the body, thrown down the temple steps, was taken to the calpule by certain old men, called _quaquacuiltin_, flayed, cut into pieces, and divided for eating; the king receiving the flesh of the thigh, while the rest of the carcass was eaten at the house of the owner of the captive, though, as will appear by a remark hereafter,[IX-67] it is improbable that the captor or owner himself ate any of it. With the skin of these flayed persons, a party of youths called the _tototecli_ clothed themselves, and fought in sham fight with another party of young men; prisoners being taken on both sides, who were not released without a ransom of some kind or other. This sham battle was succeeded by combats of a terribly real sort, the famous so-called gladiatorial fights of Mexico. On a great round stone, like an enormous mill-stone, a captive was tied by a cord, passing round his waist and through the hole of the stone, long enough to permit him freedom of motion everywhere about the block--set near or at a temple called _yopico_, of the god Totec, or Xipe.[IX-68] With various ceremonies, more particularly described in the preceding volume, the bound man furnished with inferior weapons was made to fight with a picked Mexican champion--the latter holding up his sword and shield to the sun before engaging. If, as sometimes happened, the desperate though hampered and ill-armed captive--whose club-sword was, by a refinement of mockery, deprived of its jagged flint edging and set with feathers--slew his opponent, another champion was sent against him, and so on to the number of five, at which point, according to some, the captive was set free; though according to other authorities, he was not allowed so to escape, but champions were sent against him till he fell. Upon which a priest called the _yooallaoa_ opened his breast, tore out his heart, offered it to the sun, and threw it into the usual wooden vessel; while the ropes used for binding to the fighting-stone were carried to the four quarters of the world, reverently with weeping and sighing. A second priest thrust a piece of cane into the gash in the victim's breast and held it up stained with blood to the sun. Then the owner of the captive came and received the blood into a vessel bordered with feathers; this vessel he took with a little cane-and-feather broom or aspergillum and went about all the temples and calpules, giving to each of the idols, as it were to taste of the blood of his captive. The slain body was then carried to the calpulco--where, while alive, it had been confined the night before the sacrifice--and there skinned. Thence it was brought to the house of its owner, who divided and made presents of it to his superiors, relatives, and friends; not however tasting thereof himself, for, we are told, "he counted it as the flesh of his own body," because from the hour that he took the prisoner "he held him to be his son, and the captive looked up to his captor as to a father."

[Sidenote: RELATIONS BETWEEN CAPTOR AND CAPTIVE.]

The skins of the dead belonged to their captors, who gave them again to others to be worn by them for apparently twenty days, probably as a kind of penance--the persons so clothed collecting alms from everyone in the meantime and bringing all they got, each to the man that had given him the skin. When done with, these skins were hid away in a rotting condition in a certain cave, while the ex-wearers thereof washed themselves with great rejoicings. At the putting away of these skins there assisted numbers of people ill with the itch and such other diseases as Xipe inflicted--hoping thus to be healed of their infirmities, and it is said that many were so cured.[IX-69]

The merchants of Mexico--a class of men who hawked their goods from place to place and wandered often far into strange countries to buy or sell--had various deities to whom they did special honor. Among these the chief, and often the only one mentioned, was the god Yiacatecutli, or Jacateuctli, or Iyacatecuhtli, that is 'the lord that guides,' otherwise called Yacacoliuhqui, or Jacacoliuhqui.[IX-70] This chief god of the merchants had, however, according to Sahagun, five brothers and a sister, also reverenced by traders, the sister being called Chalmecacioatl, and the brothers respectively Chiconquiavitl, Xomocuil, Nacxitl, Cochimetl, and Yacapitzaoac. The principal image of this god was a figure representing a man walking along a road with a staff; the face black and white; the hair tied up in a bundle on the middle of the top of the head with two tassels of rich quetzal-feathers; the ear-rings of gold; the mantle blue, bordered with a flowered fringe, and covered with a red net, through whose meshes the blue appeared; round the ankles leather straps from which hung marine shells; curiously wrought sandals on the feet; and on the arm a plain unornamented yellow shield, with a spot of light blue in the centre of its field. Practically, however, every merchant reverenced his own stout staff--generally made of a solid, knotless piece of black cane, called _utatl_--as the representative or symbol of this god Yiacatecutli; keeping it, when not in use, in the oratory or sacred place in his house, and invariably putting food before it preliminary to eating his own meal. When traveling the traders were accustomed nightly to stack up their staves in a convenient position, bind them about, build a fire before them,[IX-71] and then offering blood and copal, pray for preservation and shelter from the many perils to which their wandering life made them especially subject.[IX-72]

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[Sidenote: NAPATECUTLI.]

Napatecutli, that is to say 'four times lord,' was the god of the mat-makers and of all workers in water-flags and rushes. A beneficent and helpful divinity, and one of the Tlalocs, he was known by various names, such as Tepahpaca Teaaltati, 'the purifier or washer;' Quitzetzelohua, or Tlaitlanililoni, 'he that scatters or winnows down;' Tlanempopoloa, 'he that is large and liberal;' Teatzelhuia, 'he that sprinkles with water;' and Amotenenqua, 'he that shows himself grateful.' This god had two temples in Mexico and his festival fell in the thirteenth month, by Clavigero's reckoning. His image resembled a black man, the face being spotted with white and black, with tassels hanging down behind supporting a green plume of three feathers. Round the loins and reaching to the knees was girt a kind of white and black skirt or petticoat, adorned with little sea-shells. The sandals of this idol were white; on its left arm was a shield made like the broad leaf of the water-lily, or nenuphar; while the right hand held a sceptre like a flowering staff, the flowers being of paper; and across the body, passing under the left arm, was a white scarf, painted over with black flowers.[IX-73]

The Mexicans had several gods of wine, or rather of pulque; of these the chief seems to have been Tezcatzoncatl, otherwise known as Tequechmecaniani 'the strangler,' and as Teatlahuiani 'the drowner;' epithets suggested by the effects of drunkenness. The companion deities of this Aztec Dionysus were called as a class by the somewhat extraordinary name of Centzontotochtin or 'the four hundred rabbits'; Yiaulatecatl, Yzquitecatl, Acoloa, Thilhoa, Pantecatl (the Patecatl of the interpreters of the codices), Tultecatl, Papaztac, Tlaltecaiooa, Ometochtli (often referred to as the principal god of wine), Tepuztecatl, Chimapalnecatl, were deities of this class. The principal characteristic of the image of the Mexican god of drunkenness was, according to Mendieta and Motolinia, a kind of vessel carried on the head of the idol, into which vessel wine was ceremoniously poured. The feast of this god, like that of the preceding divinity, fell in the thirteenth month, Tepeilhuitl, and in his temple in the city of Mexico there served four hundred consecrated priests, so great was the service done this everywhere too widely and well known god.[IX-74]

[Sidenote: THE HOUSEHOLD GODS.]

The Mexicans had certain household gods called Tepitoton, or Tepictoton, 'the little ones,'--small statues of which kings kept six in their houses, nobles four, and common folks two. Whether these were a particular class of deities or merely miniature images of the already described greater gods it is hard to say. Similar small idols are said to have adorned streets, cross-roads, fountains and other places of public traffic and resort.[IX-75]

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[Sidenote: THE CEREMONIAL CALENDAR.]

With these Tepitoton may be said to finish the list of Mexican gods of any repute or any general notoriety; so that it seems fit to give here a condensed and arranged résumé of all the fixed festivals and celebrations of the Aztec calendar, with its eighteen months of twenty days each, and its five supplementary days at the end of the year. There is some disagreement as to which of the months the year began with; but it will best suit our present purpose to follow the arrangement of Sahagun, the interpreters of the Codices, Torquemada, and Clavigero, in which the month variously called Atlcahualco, or Quahuitlehua, or Cihuailhuitl, or Xilomanaliztli, is the first.[IX-76] The name Atlchualco, or Atlaooalo, or Atalcaoplo, means 'the buying or scarcity of water;' Quahuitlehua, or Quavitleloa, 'the sprouting of trees;' and Xilomanaliztli, 'the offering of Xilotl (that is heads of maize, which were then presented to the gods to secure their blessing on the seed time).' This first month beginning on the second of February according to Sahagun, the eighteenth according to Gama, and the twenty-sixth according to Clavigero, was consecrated to Tlaloc and the other gods of water, and in it great numbers of children were sacrificed.[IX-77] In further honor of the Tlalocs there were also at this time killed many captives on the gladiatorial stone.

It was the second month, called Tlacaxiphualiztli,[IX-78] or 'the flaying of men,' that was specially famous for its gladiatorial sacrifices, sacrifices already described and performed to the honor of Xipe, or Xipetotec.[IX-79]

The third month called Tozoztontli, 'the lesser fast or penance,' was inaugurated by the sacrifice on the mountains of children to the Tlalocs. Those also that traded in flowers and were called Sochimanque, or Xochimanqui, made a festival to their goddess, Coatlycue, or Coatlantona, offering her the first-fruits of the flowers of the year, of these that had grown in the precincts of the cu _yapico_, a cu as we have seen, consecrated to Tlaloc. Into a cave belonging to this temple there were also at this time cast the now rotten skins of the human beings that had been flayed in the preceding month. Thither, "stinking like dead dogs," as Sahagun phrases it, marched in procession the persons that wore these skins and there they put them off, washing themselves with many ceremonies; and sick folk troubled with certain skin-diseases followed and looked on, hoping by the sight of all these things to be healed of their infirmities. The owners of the captives that had been slain had also been doing penance for twenty days, neither washing nor bathing during that time; and they now, when they had seen the skins deposited in the cave, washed and gave a banquet to all their friends and relatives, performing many ceremonies with the bones of the dead captives. All the twenty days of this month singing exercises, praising the god, were carried on in the houses called Cuicacalli, the performers not dancing but remaining seated.

The fourth month was called, in contradistinction to the third, Veitozoztli, or Hueytozoztli, that is to say, 'the greater penance or letting of blood;' because in it not only the priests but also the populace and nobility did penance, drawing blood from their ears, shins, and other parts of the body, and exposing at their doors leaves of sword-grass stained therewith. After this they performed certain already described ceremonies,[IX-80] and then made, out of the dough known as _tzoalli_,[IX-81] an image of the goddess Chicomecoatl, in the court-yard of her temple, offering before it all kinds of maize, beans, and chian, because she was the maker and giver of these things and the sustainer of the people. In this month, as well as in the three months preceding, little children were sacrificed, a cruelty which was supposed to please the water gods, and which was kept up till the rains began to fall abundantly.

[Sidenote: THE MONTH TOXCATL.]

The fifth month, called Toxcatl and sometimes Tepopochuiliztli,[IX-82] was begun by the most solemn and famous feast of the year, in honor of the principal Mexican god, a god known by a multitude of names and epithets, among which were Tezcatlipoca, Titlacaoan, Yautl, Telpuchtli, and Tlamatzincatl. A year before this feast, one of the most distinguished of the captives reserved for sacrifice was chosen out for superior grace and personal appearance from among all his fellows, and given in charge to the priestly functionaries called calpixques. These instructed him with great diligence in all the arts pertaining to good breeding, according to the Mexican idea: such as playing on the flute, walking, speaking, saluting those he happened to meet, the use and carrying about of straight cane tobacco-pipes and of flowers, with the dexterous smoking of the one, and the graceful inhalation of the odor of the other. He was attended upon by eight pages, who were clad in the livery of the palace, and had perfect liberty to go where he pleased night and day; while his food was so rich that to guard against his growing too fat, it was at times necessary to vary the diet by a purge of salt and water. Everywhere honored and adored as the living image and accredited representative of Tezcatlipoca, he went about playing on a small shrill clay flute, or fife, and adorned with rich and curious raiment furnished by the king, while all he met did him reverence kissing the earth. All his body and face was painted--black, it would appear; his long hair flowed to the waist; his head was covered with white hens' feathers stuck on with resin, and covered with a garland of the flowers called _yzquisuchitl_; while two strings of the same flowers crossed his body in the fashion of cross-belts. Earrings of gold, a necklace of precious stones with a great dependent gem hanging to the breast, a lip-ornament (barbote) of sea-shell, bracelets of gold above the elbow on each arm, and strings of gems called _macuextli_ winding from wrist almost to elbow, glittered and flashed back the light as the doomed man-god moved. He was covered with a rich beautifully fringed mantle of netting, and bore on his shoulders something like a purse made of white cloth of a span square, ornamented with tassels and fringe. A white maxtli of a span broad went about his loins, the two ends, curiously wrought, falling in front almost to the knee. Little bells of gold kept time with every motion of his feet, which were shod with painted sandals called _ocelunacace_.

All this was the attire he wore from the beginning of his year of preparation; but twenty days before the coming of the festival, they changed his vestments, washed away the paint or dye from his skin, and cut down his long hair to the length, and arranged it after the fashion, of the hair of the captains, tying it up on the crown of the head with feathers and fringe and two gold-buttoned tassels. At the same time they married to him four damsels, who had been pampered and educated for this purpose, and who were surnamed respectively after the four goddesses, Xochiquetzal, Xilonen, Atlatonan, and Vixtocioatl.[IX-83] Five days before the great day of the feast,[IX-84] the day of the feast being counted one, all the people, high and low, the king it would appear being alone excepted, went out to celebrate with the man-god a solemn banquet and dance, in the ward called Tecanman; the fourth day before the feast, the same was done in the ward in which was guarded the statue of Tezcatlipoca. The little hill, or island, called Tepetzinco, rising out of the waters of the lake of Mexico, was the scene of the next day's solemnities; solemnities renewed for the last time on the next day, or that immediately preceding the great day, on another like island called Tepelpulco, or Tepepulco. There, with the four women that had been given him for his consolation, the honored victim was put into a covered canoe usually reserved for the sole use of the king; and he was carried across the lake to a place called Tlapitzaoayan, near the road that goes from Yztapalapan to Chalco, at a place where was a little hill called Acacuilpan, or Cabaltepec. Here left him the four beautiful girls, whose society for twenty days he had enjoyed, they returning to the capital with all the people; there accompanying the hero of this terrible tragedy only those eight attendants that had been with him all the year. Almost alone, done with the joys of beauty, banquet, and dance, bearing a bundle of his flutes, he walked to a little ill-built cu, some distance from the road mentioned above, and about a league removed from the city. He marched up the temple steps, not dragged, not bound, not carried like a common slave or captive; and as he ascended he dashed down and broke on every step one of the flutes that he had been accustomed to play on in the days of his prosperity. He reached the top;--by sickening repetition we have learned to know the rest; one thing only, from the sacrificial stone his body was not hurled down the steps, but was carried by four men down to the Tzompantli, to the place of the spitting of heads.

[Sidenote: THE FEAST OF TOXCATL.]

And the chroniclers say that all this signified that those who enjoyed riches, delights in this life, should at the end come to poverty and sorrow--so determined are these same chroniclers to let nothing escape without its moral.

In this feast of Toxcatl, in the cu called Huitznahuac, where the image of Huitzilopochtli was always kept, the priests made a bust of this god out of _tzoalli_ dough, with pieces of mizquitl-wood inserted by way of bones. They decorated it with his ornaments; putting on a jacket wrought over with human bones, a mantle of very thin _nequen_, and another mantle called the _tlaquaquallo_, covered with rich feathers, fitting the head below and widening out above; in the middle of this stood up a little rod, also decorated with feathers and sticking into the top of the rod was a flint knife half covered with blood. The image was set on a platform made of pieces of wood resembling snakes and so arranged that heads and tails alternated all the way round; the whole borne by many captains and men of war. Before this image and platform a number of strong youths carried an enormous sheet of paper resembling pasteboard, twenty fathoms long, one fathom broad, and a little less than an inch thick; it was supported by spear-shafts arranged in pairs of one shaft above and one below the paper, while persons on either side of the paper held each one of these pairs in one hand. When the procession, with dancing and singing, reached the cu to be ascended, the snaky platform was carefully and cautiously hoisted up by cords attached to its four corners, the image was set on a seat, and those that carried the paper rolled it up and set down the roll before the bust of the god. It was sunset when the image was so set up; and the following morning every one offered food in his own house before the image of Huitzilopochtli there, incensing also such images of other gods as he had, and then went to offer quails' blood before the bust set up on the cu. The king began, wringing off the heads of four quails; the priests offered next, then all the people; the whole multitude carrying clay fire-pans and burning copal incense of every kind, after which every one threw his live coals upon a great hearth in the temple-yard. The virgins painted their faces, put on their heads garlands of parched maize with strings of the same across their breasts, decorated their arms and legs with red feathers, and carried black paper flags stuck into split canes. The flags of the daughters of nobles were not of paper but of a thin cloth called _canaoac_, painted with vertical black stripes. These girls joining hands danced round the great hearth, upon or over which on an elevated place of some kind there danced, giving the time and step, two men, having each a kind of pine cage covered with paper flags on his shoulders, the strap supporting which passed, not across the forehead--the usual way for men to carry a burden--but across the chest as was the fashion with women. The priests of the temple, dancing on this occasion with the women, bore shields of paper, crumpled up like great flowers; their heads were adorned with white feathers, their lips and part of the face were smeared with sugar-cane juice which produced a peculiar effect over the black with which their faces were always painted. They carried in their hands pieces of paper called _amasmaxtli_, and sceptres of palm-wood tipped with a black flower and having in the lower part a ball of black feathers. In dancing they used this sceptre like a staff, and the part by which they grasped it was wrapped round with a paper painted with black lines. The music for the dancers was supplied by a party of unseen musicians, who occupied one of the temple buildings, where they sat, he that played on the drum in the centre, and the performers on the other instruments about him. The men and women danced on till night, but the strictest order and decency were preserved, and any lewd word or look brought down swift punishment from the appointed overseers.

[Sidenote: DEATH OF THE YXTEUCALLI.]

This feast was closed by the death of a youth who had been during the past year dedicated to and taken care of for Huitzilopochtli, resembling in this the victim of Tezcatlipoca, whose companion he had indeed been, but without receiving such high honors. This Huitzilopochtli youth was entitled Yxteucalli, or Tlacabepan, or Teicauhtzin, and was held to be the image and representative of the god. When the day of his death came, the priests decorated him with papers painted over with black circles, and put a mitre of eagles' feathers on his head, in the midst of whose plumes was stuck a flint knife, stained half way up with blood and adorned with red feathers. Tied to his shoulders, by strings passing across the breast, was a piece of very thin cloth about a span square, and over it hung a little bag. Over one of his arms was thrown a wild beast's skin, arranged somewhat like a maniple; bells of gold jingled at his legs as he walked or danced. There were two peculiar things connected with the death of this youth; first he had absolute liberty of choice regarding the hour in which he was to die; and second, he was not extended upon any block or altar, but when he wished he threw himself into the arms of the priests, and had his heart so cut out. His head was then hacked off and spitted alongside of that of the Tezcatlipoca youth, of whom we have spoken already. In this same day the priests made little marks on children, cutting them, with thin stone knives, in the breast, stomach, wrists, and fleshy part of the arms; marks, as the Spanish priests considered, by which the devil should know his own sheep.[IX-85] The ceremonies of the ensuing monthly festivals have already been described at length.[IX-86]

[Sidenote: MISCELLANEOUS FEASTS.]

There were, besides, a number of movable feasts in honor of the higher gods, the celestial bodies, and the patron deities of the various trades and professions. Sahagun gives an account of sixteen movable feasts, many of which, however, contained no religious element.[IX-87] The first was dedicated to the sun, to whom a ghostly deputation of eighteen souls was sent to make known the wants of the people, and implore future favors. The selected victims were ranged in order at the place of sacrifice, and addressed by the priest, who exhorted them to bear in mind the sacred nature of their mission, and the glory which would be theirs upon its proper fulfillment. The music now strikes up; amid the crash and din the victims one after another are stretched upon the altar; a few flashes of the iztli-knife in the practiced hand of the slayer, and the embassy has set out for the presence of the sun.[IX-88]

The sixth, seventh, and eleventh festivals were celebrated to Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca, and Huitzilopochtli respectively. The public and household idols of these gods were at such seasons decorated, and presented with offerings of food, quails, and incense. During the festival of the god of fire, the thirteenth of the movable feasts, various public officials were elected, and a great many grand banquets given. The _atamalqualiztli_, or 'fast of bread and water,' seems to have been one of the most important of the movable feasts. The people prepared for its celebration, which took place every eight years, by a rigid fast, broken only by a midday meal of water and unsalted bread. Those who offended the gods by neglecting to observe this fast were thought to expose themselves to an attack of leprosy. The people indulged in all sorts of amusements during the holiday season which succeeded the fast. The most interesting feature of the festivities was a bal masqué, which was supposed to be attended by all the gods. The chief honors of the day were, however, rendered to the Tlalocs, and round their effigy, which stood in the midst of a pond alive with frogs and snakes, the dancers whirled continually. It was a part of the ceremonies for a number of men called _maxatecaz_ to devour the reptiles in the pond; this they did by each seizing a snake or a frog in his teeth, and swallowing it gradually as he joined in the dance; the one who first bolted his titbit cried out triumphantly, 'Papa, papa!'

Every fourth year, called _teoxihuitl_, or 'divine year,' and at the beginning of every period of thirteen years, the feasts were more numerous and on a larger scale, the fasts more severe, and the sacrifices far greater in number than upon ordinary occasions.[IX-89] The entire series of festivals may be said to have closed with the solemn Toxilmolpilia, or 'binding up of the years,' which took place every fifty-two years, and marked the expiration and renewal of the world's lease of existence.[IX-90]

FOOTNOTES:

[IX-1] _Müller_, _Amerikanische Urreligionen_, p. 493.

[IX-2] Clavigero, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., pp. 16, 22, indeed says that Teteionan and Tocitzin are 'certainly different.'

[IX-3] _Squier's Serpent Symbol_, p. 47. A passage which makes the principal element of the character of Toci or Tocitzin that of Goddess of Discord may be condensed from Acosta, as follows: When the Mexicans, in their wanderings, had settled for a time in the territory of Culhuacan, they were instructed by their god Huitzilopochtli to go forth and make wars, and first to apotheosize, after his directions, a Goddess of Discord. Following these directions, they sent to the king of Culhuacan for his daughter to be their queen. Moved by the honor, the father sent his hapless daughter, gorgeously attired, to be enthroned. But the wiley, superstitious, and ferocious Mexicans slew the girl and flayed her, and clothed a young man in her skin, calling him 'their goddess and mother of their god,' under the name of Toccy, that is 'grand mother.' See also _Purchas his Pilgrimes_, vol. iv., p. 1004.

[IX-4] _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. i., pp. 16-22; _Explicacion del Codex Telleriano-Remensis_, lam. xii., in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., p. 140; _Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano_, tav. xxx., _Ib._, p. 180; _Humboldt_, _Essai Politique_, tom. i., p. 217; _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. vi., p. 631. The sacrifices to Centeotl, if she be identical with the earth-mother, are illustrated by the statement of Mendieta, _Hist. Ecles._, p. 81, that the Mexicans painted the earth-goddess as a frog with a bloody mouth in every joint of her body, (which frog we shall meet again by and by in a Centeotl festival) for they said that the earth devoured all things--a proof also, by the by, among others of a like kind which we shall encounter, that not to the Hindoos alone (as Mr J. G. Müller somewhere affirms), but to the Mexicans also, belonged the idea of multiplying the organs of their deities to express great powers in any given direction. The following note from the _Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano_, in _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., pp. 179-80, illustrates the last point noticed, gives another form or relation of the goddess of sustenance, and also the origin of the name applied to the Mexican priests: 'They feign that Mayaguil was a woman with four hundred breasts, and that the gods, on account of her fruitfulness, changed her into the Maguey, which is the vine of that country, from which they make wine. She presided over these thirteen signs; but whoever chanced to be born on the first sign of the Herb, it proved unlucky to him; for they say that it was applied to the Tlamatzatzguex, who were a race of demons dwelling amongst them, who according to their account wandered through the air, from whom the ministers of their temples took their denomination. When this sign arrived, parents enjoined their children not to leave the house, lest any misfortune or unlucky accident should befall them. They believed that those who were born in Two Canes, which is the second sign, would be long lived, for they say that that sign was applied to heaven. They manufacture so many things from this plant called the Maguey, and it is so very useful in that country, that the devil took occasion to induce them to believe that it was a god, and to worship and offer sacrifices to it.'

[IX-5] _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., pp. 5-6; Gallatin, in _Amer. Ethnol. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., pp. 341, 349-50, condensing from and commenting upon the codices Vaticanus and Tellerianus says: 'Tonacacigua, alias Tuchiquetzal (plucking rose), and Chicomecouatl (seven serpents); wife of Tonacatlecotle; the cause of sterility, famine, and miseries of life.... Amongst Sahagun's superior deities is found Civacoatl, the 'serpent woman,' also called Tonantzin, 'our mother;' and he, sober as he is in Scriptural allusions, calls her Eve, and ascribes to her, as the interpreters [of the codices] to Tonatacinga, all the miseries and adverse things of the world. This analogy is, if I am not mistaken, the only foundation for all the allusions to Eve and her history, before, during, and after the sin, which the interpreters have tried to extract from paintings which indicate nothing of the kind. They were certainly mistaken in saying that their Tonacacinga was also called Chicomecouatl, seven serpents. They should have said Civacoatl, the serpent woman. Chicomecoatl, instead of being the cause of sterility, famine, etc., is, according to Sahagun, the goddess of abundance, that which supplies both eating and drinking: probably the same as Tzinteotl, or Cinteotl, the goddess of maize (from _centli_, maize), which he does not mention. There is no more foundation for ascribing to Tonacacigua the name of Suchiquetzal.' Gama, _Dos Piedras_, pt i., p. 39, says in effect: Cihuacounatl, or snake woman, was supposed to have given birth to two children, male and female, whence sprung the human race. It is on this account that twins are called in Mexico _cocohua_, 'snakes,' or in the singular cohuatl or coatl, now vulgarly pronounced coate.

[IX-6] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 3-4; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., pp. 4-7.

[IX-7] Or, according to Bustamante's ed., Aba, Tlavitecqui, and Xoquauchtli.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., p. 149.

[IX-8] Lime was much used in the preparation of maize for making various articles of food.

[IX-9] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 69-70; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 148-56.

[IX-10] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 60-1; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 135-9; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 75; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 269-71.

[IX-11] Chiquiuitl, cesto ó canasta. _Molina_, _Vocabulario._

[IX-12] Chian, ó Chia, cierta semilla de que sacan azeite. _Id._

[IX-13] Pinolli, la harina de mayz y chia, antes que la deslian. _Id._

[IX-14] Apparently the earth symbolized as a frog (see this vol. p. 351, note 4.) and bearing the fruits thereof on her back.

[IX-15] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 43-4; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. ii., pp. 97-100; _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 67; _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., pp. 52-3, 60-1, 134, 152-3, 181, 255-6.

[IX-16] Yoalticitl, another name of the mother-goddess, of the mother of the gods, of the mother of us all, of our grandmother or ancestress; more particularly that form of the mother-goddess described, after Sahagun (this vol. p. 353), as being the patroness of medicine and of doctors and of the sweat-baths. Sahagun speaks in another passage of Yoalticitl (_Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. v., p. 453): 'La madre de los Dioses, que és la Diosa de las medicinas y medicos, y és madre de todos nosotros, la cual se llama Yoalticitl, la qual tiene poder y autoridad sobre los Temazcales (sweat-baths) que llaman Xuchicalli, en el qual lugar esta Diosa vé las cosas secretas, y adereza las cosas desconcertadas en los cuerpos de los hombres, y fortifica las cosas tiernas y blandas.'

[IX-17] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 5, 35, vol. v., pp. 459-2; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., pp. 8-9, lib. ii., pp. 78-9; tom. ii., lib. vi., pp. 185-191.

[IX-18] _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. ii., p. 16.

[IX-19] _Boturini_, _Idea_, pp. 25-6.

[IX-20] 'The stones called _chalchiuites_ by the Mexicans (and written variously _chalchibetes_, _chalchihuis_, and _calchihuis_, by the chroniclers) were esteemed of high value by all the Central American and Mexican nations. They were generally of green quartz, jade, or the stone known as _madre de Esmeralda_.... The goddess of water, amongst the Mexicans, bore the name of _Chalchiuilcuye_, the woman of the _Chalchiuites_, and the name of _Chalchiuihapan_ was often applied to the city of Tlaxcalla, from a beautiful fountain of water found near it, "the color of which," according to Torquemada, "was between blue and green."' _Squier_ in _Palacio_, _Carta_, p. 110, note 15. In the same work p. 53, we find mention made by Palacio of an idol apparently representing Chalchihuitlicue: 'Very near here, is a little village called Coatan, in the neighborhood of which is a lake ["This lake is distant two leagues to the southward of the present considerable town of _Guatepeque_, from which it takes its name, _Laguna de Guatepue_"--Guatemala], situated on the flank of the volcano. Its water is bad; it is deep, and full of caymans. In its middle there are two small islands. The Indians regard the lake as an oracle of much authority.... I learned that certain negroes and mulattoes of an adjacent estate had been there [on the islands], and had found a great idol of stone, in the form of a woman, and some objects which had been offered in sacrifice. Near by were found some stones called _chalchibites_.'

[IX-21] _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 47.

[IX-22] _Atlacueçonan_, ninfa del onenufar, flor de yerna de agua. _Molina_, _Vocabulario._ The Abbé Brasseur adds, on what authority I have not been able to find, that this leaf was ornamented with golden flags. _Hist. des Nat. Civ._, tom. i., p. 324. He adds in a note to this passage, what is very true, that, 'suivant Ixtlilxochitl, et après lui Veytia, la déesse des eaux aurait été adorée sous la forme d'une grenouille, faite d'une seule émeraude, et qui, suivant Ixtlilxochitl, existait encore au temps de la conquête de Mexico. La seule déesse adorée sous la forme unique d'une grenouille était la terre.' (See this vol. p. 351, note 4.) Gomara, _Hist. Conq. Mex._, fol. 326, says that the figure of a frog was held to be the goddess of fishes: 'Entre los ídolos ... estaua el de la rama. A la cual tenian por diosa del pescado.' Motolinia extends this last statement as follows. The Mexicans had idols he says, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. de Doc._, tom. i., p. 34, 'de los pescados grandes y de los lagartos de agua, hasta sapos y ranas, y de otros peces grandes, y estos decian que eran los dioses del pescado. De un pueblo de la laguna de México llevaron unos ídolos de estos peces, que eran unos peces hechos de piedra, grandes; y despues volviendo por allí pidiéronles para comer algunos peces, y respondieron que habian llevado el dios del pescado y que no podian tomar peces.'

[IX-23] _Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq._, vol. vii., pp. 5-6, 36; _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i., lib. i., pp. 9-10, lib. ii., p. 81; _Amer. Ethnol. Soc., Transact._, vol. i., pp. 342, 350.

[IX-24] See this vol., p. 58, note 15.

[IX-25] See note 24. 'Entre los Dioses que estos ciegos Mexicanos fingieron tener, y ser maiores, que otros, fueron dos; vno llamado Ometecuhtli, que quiere decir, dos hidalgos, ò cavalleros; y el otro llamaron Omecihuatl, que quiere decir, dos mugeres: los quales, por otros nombres, fueron llamados, Citlalatonac, que quiere decir, Estrella que resplandece, ò resplandeciente; y el otro, Citlalicue, que quiere decir, Faldellin de la Estrella: ... Estos dos Dioses fingidos de esta Gentilidad, creìan ser el vno Hombre, y el otro Muger; y como à dos naturaleças distintas, y de distintos sexos las nombraban, como por los nombres dichos parece. De estos dos Dioses, (o por mejor decir, Demonios) tuvieron creìdo estos naturales, que residian en vna Ciudad gloriosa, asentada sobre los once Cielos, cuio suelo era mas alto, y supremo de ellos; y que en aquella Ciudad goçaban de todos los deleites imaginables y poseìan todas las riqueças de el Mundo; y decian que desde alli arriba regian, y governaban toda esta maquina inferior del Mundo, y todo aquello que es visible, è invisible, influiendo en todas las Animas, que criaban todas las inclinaciones naturales, que vemos aver en todas las criaturas racionales, è irracionales; y que cuidaban de todo, como por naturaleça los convenia, atalaindo desde aquel su asiento las cosas criadas.... De manera, que segun lo dicho, está mui claro de entender, que tenian opinion, que los que regian, y governaban el Mundo, eran dos (conviene á saber) vn Dios, y vna Diosa, de los quales el vno que era el Dios Hombre, obraba en todo el genero de los Varones; y el otro, que era la Diosa, criaba, y obraba en todo el genero de las Mugeres.' _Torquemada_, _Monarq. Ind._, tom. ii., p. 37.

[IX-26] Caquantototl, paxaro de pluma amarillo y rica. _Molina_, _Vocabulario._ According to Bustamante however, this bird is not one in anyway remarkable for plumage, but is identical with the _tzacua_ described by Clavigero, and is here used as an example of a vigilant and active soldier. Bustamante (in a note to _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. ii., lib. vi., pp. 194-5) writes: _Tzacua_, of this bird repeated mention has been made in this history, for the Indians used it for a means of comparison or simile in their speeches. It is an early-rising bird (madrugador), and has nothing notable in its plumage or in its voice, but only in its habits. This bird is one of the last to go to rest at night and one of the first to announce the coming sun. An hour before daybreak a bird of this species, having passed the night with many of his fellows on any branch, begins to call them, with a shrill clear note that he keeps repeating in a glad tone till some of them reply. The _tzacua_ is about the size of a sparrow, and very similar in color to the bunting (calandria), but more marvellous in its habits. It is a social bird, each tree is a town of many nests. One _tzacua_ plays the part of chief and guards the rest; his post is in the top of the tree, whence, from time to time, he flies from nest to nest uttering his notes; and while he is visiting a nest all within are silent. If he sees any bird of another species approaching the tree he sallies out upon the invader and with beak and wings compels a retreat. But if he sees a man or any large object advancing, he flies screaming to a neighboring tree, and, meeting other birds of his tribe flying homeward, he obliges them to retire by changing the tone of his note. When the danger is over he returns to his tree and begins his rounds as before, from nest to nest. Tzacuas abound in Michoacan, and to their observations regarding them the Indians are doubtless indebted for many hints and comparisons applied to soldiers diligent in duty. The _quechutl_, or _tlauhquechol_, is a large aquatic bird with plumage of a beautiful scarlet color, or a reddish white, except that of the neck, which is black. Its home is on the sea-shore and by the river banks, where it feeds on live fish, never touching dead flesh. See _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del Messico_, tom. i., pp. 87, 91-3.