CHANTICO = “IN THE HOUSE”

ASPECT AND INSIGNIA

Sahagun MS.—The lower half of her face is black, daubed with rubber, and the upper half is red. She has a golden ear-plug. She wears a red garment and her hair is bound up in a fillet of cotton rags. On her back she wears the arrow-like device meiotli. Her overdress is “the colour of spring flowers.” In one hand she holds a feather staff, the paper covering of which is painted with the acute-angled figure which denotes cotton, and in the other she bears the shield with the device of the eagle’s foot. Sahagun says her priest had to keep in readiness for her festival red and black pigments, a robe, white sandals, and small shells.

Codex Borgia.—In this MS. she is represented with a yellow face and a yellow body. She wears a red tippet, white skirt, and a step-shaped nose-ornament, while her head is wrapped round with a red cloth edged with white shell disks, a feather decoration surmounting the cloth. [[281]]

Codex Vaticanus B.—Here she has a yellow face with two red cross-lines like the narrow black stroke on the face of the Fire-god.

Codex Telleriano-Remensis.—Her face is painted yellow, disposed in a number of fields, each containing a ring in the centre. She has the long tusk of a carnivorous beast. She wears golden pendants in nose and ears, possibly a symbol of the solar pictograph, and on her head she wears the water-and-fire symbol tlachinolli. She wears the maxtlatl of the men, to symbolize her warlike nature, with a death’s-head behind her girdle.

Codex Borbonicus.—The lower half of her face is painted black, and the upper red, like that of Xiuhtecutli. She wears a blue nose-plug, the decoration of the dead warriors. On her head she has the water-and-fire symbol.

MYTHS

The interpreter of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis regards Chantico as a male god, and states that:

“Chantico or Cuaxolotle presided over these thirteen signs and was lord of Chile, or of the yellow woman. He was the first who offered sacrifice after having eaten a fried fish; the smoke of which ascended to heaven, at which Tonacatecotle became incensed and pronounced a curse against him that he should be turned into a dog, which accordingly happened, and they named him on this account Chantico, which is another name for Miquitlantecotle. From this transgression the destruction of the world ensued. He was called Nine Dogs from the sign on which he was born.”

The interpreter of the Codex Vaticanus A deals with Chantico in almost the same words:

“Chantico, they say, was the first who offered sacrifice after having eaten a fried fish, and that in consequence of the presumption of offering sacrifices without having fasted, Tonacatecutli became incensed and pronounced a curse against him that he should be changed into a dog, which is an animal of a very voracious nature; and accordingly they named him Nine Dogs.” [[282]]

This myth should be compared with that of Nata and Nena in the chapter on Cosmogony.

FESTIVAL

Chicunaui itzcuintli (“Nine Dog”).—Sahagun[14] states that the lapidaries of Xochimilco who cut precious stones adored, among others, this goddess and made a feast to her on the above sign. They attributed to her the articles of feminine toilet, and ornamented her with golden earrings and a butterfly nose-plug of the same metal. At her festival four captives represented Chantico, Naualpilli,[15] Macuilcalli,[16] and Cinteotl, and were dressed in their insignia. Duran (who confounds Chantico with Tlazolteotl) states that at this feast these captives were cast into a fire exactly as at the xocohuetzi festival to Xiuhtecutli (q.v.), and that after the offering the priests mortified themselves by letting the resin from burning copal torches drop on their limbs.

TEMPLE AND PRIESTHOOD

The idol of Chantico was kept in close confinement in the dark Tlillan, and was not visible to the vulgar gaze. Sahagun states that she had a temple in Mexico called Tetlanman, and priests who lived in the Tetlanman Calmecac,[17] and that the office of these priests, the tecamma teoua, was the furnishing of paint, feathers, and other necessaries for the feast of the goddess.

NATURE AND STATUS

Like Xiuhtecutli, the character of Chantico is expressed by a watery sign, that of quiauitl (rain). This, however, is really connected with the old mythic fire-rain at the end of the water-sun age, when fire fell from heaven and “the foam-stones foamed up and the rocks became red.”

The goddess must be regarded as the consuming fire, as [[283]]is proved by an account of her image by Duran, representing her with open jaws and hungry fangs. It is because of this, too, that she came to be connected with the dog,[18] the biting animal, and that her festival is held on the date chicunai itzcuintli, “nine dog.”

She is further the volcanic fire which is hidden in the centre of the earth, and which was symbolically represented by the fire shut up in the tlillan temple or sacred edifice, and this plutonic significance is perhaps the reason why the interpreters speak of her as having the characteristics of Mictlantecutli, the god of Hades; but they speak of her as well as the “Yellow Woman.” Her butterfly names also have reference to the flitting shapes seen in flame.

She is the patroness of chilli pepper, which was naturally associated with the fiery element and was therefore connected with the end of a period of fasting, the Mexicans regarding abstinence from this condiment as equivalent to a fast. The myth which speaks of her as having been punished for eating fish before a sacrifice is also eloquent of this relationship, and also by its reference to her transformation into canine form connects her further with the dog and makes her a patroness of the nanualtin, or wizards, who on the day itzcuintli (“dog”) had especial power to transform themselves into animals.

Her name “In the House” alludes, of course, to her character as a goddess of the domestic hearth. She was also the patroness of the goldsmiths and jewellers of Xochimilco, who of all crafts required the assistance of her element.

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