ILAMATECUTLI = “THE OLD PRINCESS”
- Area of Worship: Tehuacan (?); Cozcatlan (?); Chichimec.
- Minor Names:
- Citlallinicue = “She of the Starry Skirt.”
- Cozcamiauh = “Necklace of Maize.”
- Calendar Place: Thirteenth of the lords of the day-hours.
- Compass Direction: The Middle.
- Festival: Tititl (“stretching of limbs”) in the seventeenth month.
- Relationship: Spouse of Iztac Mixcoatl; variant of Tonacaciuatl or Ciuacoatl.
ASPECT AND INSIGNIA
Codex Borgia.—Sheets 9, 11: In this representation the goddess is shown with hair composed of heron-feathers and wearing a white garment. In the pictures of this codex the contracted corners of her mouth, due to old age, are indicated by a ring-shaped ornament worn below the upper lip.
Codex Borbonicus.—She has a skeleton’s head, which differs from that of the Death-god in that it is coloured yellow, with red lines instead of black, but shows a similarity to it in the ruffled “night-hair” with which it is covered. In most of the pictures of her in this codex her blue dress is dotted with [[230]]circular white spots which are perhaps intended for stars. This garment is completed with thongs, from which depend snail-shells, a decoration also seen in the rattling girdle ornaments (citlalicue) characteristic of the Earth and Underworld goddesses.
MYTHS
According to the myth related by Motolinia,[72] Ilamatecutli or Ilancuêyê, as he designates her, was the wife of Iztac Mixcoatl (q.v.), with whom she dwelt in Chicomoztoc, “the land of the seven canes,” the mythical officina gentium of the Mexican tribes, whence the aboriginal ancestors of the several races of Mexico were supposed to have had their being. By a second wife, Chinamatl, or Chimalmat, Iztac Mixcoatl became the father of Quetzalcoatl.
FESTIVAL
Tititl (“Stretching of Limbs”).—This festival was held in the Kalends of the seventeenth month, probably about December 19.[73] A female slave was bought by the authorities and dressed as follows: She wore an upper garment or peplum of white stuff and a skirt of the same colour, beneath which showed the citlalicue, or star-skirt, of the goddess, a dress sprinkled with stars, cut at the ankles in the shape of many thongs, from each of which hung a small shell, so that when she walked these came together and made a rattling sound. Her sandals were white and she bore a shield whitened with chalk, having a design of eagle’s feathers in the centre. Fringes of heron’s feathers terminating in eagle’s plumes hung from the lower edge of the shield. In the other hand she carried the tzotozopaztli, a wooden knife, used for pressing cloth. Her face was painted black and yellow. Her hair was dressed in the form known as tzompilinalli, or “hair tied at the temples,” and eagle’s plumes fell from it behind.
Before the victim was dispatched they made her dance to the sound of instruments played by old men, which mingled [[231]]with the chanting of the priests. The wretched woman wept and sobbed as she danced, and as evening approached she was taken to the temple of Uitzilopochtli, accompanied by all the priests wearing their insignia and the masks of their gods, one of which was that of Ilamatecutli. On arriving at the summit of the teocalli, or pyramid-temple, she was immediately slain, her heart was torn out and she was decapitated. The head was given to the priest attired in the insignia of the goddess, who held it in his right hand by the hair, and engaged in a dance, raising and lowering the horrid trophy, and in this solemn measure he was accompanied by the priests who represented the other divinities. They then descended the steps of the teocalli in procession, and sought their quarters.
The priest of Ilamatecutli carried a great cane, the stock of which had three roots. The mask of the goddess which he bore had two faces with “great mouths, bulging eyes, and surmounted by a crown of paper cut into sharp points.” The priests, disguised as gods, having entered the calpulli, or priests’ quarters, a priest descended from the teocalli dressed as a young exquisite, wearing a splendid cloak, his head decorated with white plumes and wearing in place of sandals the hoofs of a deer. He carried in his hand a leaf of the maguey, surmounted by a little paper banner. He proceeded to the quauhxicalco, a place of sacrifice principally associated with human offerings to Tezcatlipocâ, where there was a small cage made of pine-wood and covered with paper, and known as “the granary of Ilamatecutli.” The priest laid the maguey-leaf in this receptacle and then set the whole on fire. Seeing this, the other priests rushed to the summit of the teocalli. This ceremony was known as the xochipayna, or “flower-running.” Placing on high a flower called teoxochitl, or “blossom of the god,” the first who gained the eminence seized upon it and cast it upon the quauhxicalco where the “cage” burned. Upon the following day the men and boys made little sacks, which they filled with flowers or paper, and with these they skirmished with one another and beat the young girls who chanced to pass by. [[232]]
The purpose underlying this celebration is obscure. The costume worn by the victim is, of course, that of the goddess herself, and we may, perhaps, infer that the wooden knife she carried, the purpose of which was to press cloth, was symbolical of one of the domestic duties of the older women, whom she appears in a measure to have represented. The exercise of dancing to which the victim was subjected seems to bear reference to the name of the festival, tititl, the “stretching of limbs,” and its purpose was probably to ensure vigour and “liveliness” in the earth or soil, for it was about this period that the winter solstice occurred and the labours of the field were renewed. The Earth-mother must, therefore, stretch her limbs ere she once more took up the great task of growth.[74]
The decapitation of the slave girl was probably a dramatic-mythical representation of the reaping of the maize. The “great cane” borne by the priest of Ilamatecutli was, of course, the magic rain-rattle, so prominent an adjunct to many Mexican religious ceremonies. The “young exquisite” we must surely explain as a representative of vegetation, his deer’s-hoofs sandals having, perhaps, a pluvial significance, or else indicating the swift growth of the maize-plant, which takes but four months to ripen. The burning of the maguey-leaf in the granary would seem to indicate the end of the season of vegetative luxuriance and the commencement of that of domestic fires, and the casting of the sacred blossom into the flames probably possessed a similar significance.
NATURE AND STATUS
Ilamatecutli was unquestionably a goddess of the primeval time, as her aged appearance in the manuscripts, her association [[233]]with Iztac Mixcoatl, the old Chichimec god, and her connection with fire would lead us to suppose. She is primarily a goddess of the earth and of maize. Her stellar connection and her name Citlallinicue (Star Skirt) are eloquent of her Chichimec derivation, and she may represent the starry night sky, or possibly the Milky Way, just as does her mythical husband, and in this she connects with Tonacaciuatl. As an earth-goddess she has also a plutonic significance and can be equated with Mictecaciuatl, mistress of Hades, in this resembling many other earth-goddesses. Again, she is the “old goddess” par excellence, patroness of old women, and worker at the metate, or stone on which the maize cakes were, and still are, made by Mexican women. Her connection with fire proves her relative antiquity. The circumstance that her mask is described as being two-faced leads me to believe that her idol or image had been evolved from the “Kirn-baby,” or doll made at harvests out of the last sheaf of grain and furnished with a face and hands, frequently with two faces, in order that it should not prove of bad omen to those following the image in procession. In this respect Ilamatecutli is similar to Chicomecoatl (q.v.). [[234]]
[1] Tonalamatl of the Aubin-Goupil Collection, 1900–1901. [↑]
[2] This circular patch with the centre punched out is worn by the women of more than one Asiatic country. [↑]
[3] Sahagun, Bks. viii and x. [↑]
[4] By Seler, in Commentary on Aubin Tonalamatl, p. 93. [↑]
[5] Sahagun, bk. i, c. xii. [↑]
[6] As regards these translations of hymns throughout the work, some have been translated by me from the Mexican originals, others have been translated from the German of Seler. Like that authority I have not received any enlightenment from Brinton’s “translations” in his Sacred Chants of the Ancient Mexicans. [↑]
[7] Bk. ii, c. xxx; see also Torquemada, bk. x, c. xxxv. [↑]
[9] Seler, Commentary on Vaticanus B, p. 262, believes the ceremony to refer to the parturition of the goddess, who gives birth to Cinteotl, although he at first elucidated the ceremony as here indicated. Seler confounds the postures of sexual intercourse and parturition. [↑]
[10] See picture in Codex Borbonicus. [↑]
[11] As do Aphrodite, and other goddesses of love. [↑]
[12] It is equally the symbol of the fertility-pot. [↑]
[15] A species of wild laurel. [↑]
[16] The custom of wearing a mask of the deity worshipped (in this case the slain woman represented the goddess) is widespread. [↑]
[19] Who, like several of the older Spanish authorities, regarded Cinteotl as a goddess, a belief now exploded. See vol. i, bk. vi (English translation). [↑]
[20] It might be quoted against this view that the lewd life of pleasure of which Xochipilli and Macuilxochitl are the representatives results in that death which is the child of sin, and that these gods are therefore “brothers” to Cinteotl in this especial connection. Seler, Comm. Codex Fej.-Mayer, p. 66; Comm. Codex Vat. B, pp. 207–208. [↑]
[21] Sahagun, bk. ix, c. xvii. [↑]
[23] At the festival of Demeter, with whose worship the serpent was connected, the earth was struck with rods by the priest who called upon the goddess. This is also done during the act of divination among the Zulus, when they call upon spirits. See Callaway, Izinyanga Zokubula, p. 362. [↑]
[25] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ. du Mex. (quoting a Cakchiquel MS.), vol. i, p. 248. [↑]
[27] Sahagun, bk. i, c. vi. [↑]
[28] Idem, bk. 2, Appendix. [↑]
[29] Idea, p. 27; vol. i, pp. 419 ff. [↑]
[30] See Introduction, pp. 14, 16. [↑]
[31] See Uitzilopochtli, pp. 73 ff. [↑]
[33] Idea, pp. 63–66. This myth seems to me to show vestiges of a belief in the theory of the transmigration of souls, and to indicate that the ascetic, almost on the borders of what is known in Buddhistic belief as “arahatship,” or promotion to a higher life, was condemned for his lapse to recommence existence once more under a low form of life. [↑]
[34] Bk. i, c. xix, appendix. [↑]
[35] See Appendix in the Tonalamatl, “Day-signs.” [↑]
[39] Seler, Commentary on Aubin Tonalamatl, p. 119. [↑]
[40] Seler, Commentary on Codex Vaticanus B, p. 161. [↑]
[41] But see the song to Cinteotl in the portion dealing with that god, which in a manner refers to Xochipilli. [↑]
[42] Commentary on Aubin Tonalamatl, p. 87. [↑]
[44] Cronica Mexicana. See picture of Axayacatl in Boban’s catalogue of the Goupil collection, Paris, 1891, pp. 14, 15. [↑]
[45] The best authority on Xipe’s costume is Sahagun (Mexican MS.). [↑]
[46] Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, pp. 417 ff. [↑]
[47] Sahagun, bk. v, c. xiii. [↑]
[48] Werenfels, Dissertation upon Superstition, p. 6 (London, 1748). Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. ii, pp. 719 ff. [↑]
[49] Roscher, Über Selene und verwandtes (Leipzig, 1890), pp. 49 ff. [↑]
[50] Pliny, Nat. Hist., vol. ii, p. 223; Payne, Hist. New World, vol. i, p. 495. [↑]
[51] Or calpulli, a muster-place at several festivals. [↑]
[52] “They who seize the head,” alluding to the custom of taking the victims by the hair. [↑]
[53] Sahagun states that the “hair” of the uauantin was kept as a trophy. This seems to me analogous to the North American Indian custom of scalping, which is sometimes spoken of as “losing one’s hair,” a phrase which, through its use among American border fighters, has passed into slang. [↑]
[54] Tezcatlipocâ took the form of a coyote and lay in wait for travellers. Sahagun, bk. v, c. xiii. [↑]
[56] Sahagun, bk. ii, Appendix. [↑]
[57] Sahagun, bk. ii, Appendix. [↑]
[58] Seler, Commentary on Codex Vaticanus B, p. 175. [↑]
[59] Decade iii, lib. iii, c. xv. [↑]
[60] Tezozomac, Cronica Mexicana, c. xci. [↑]
[61] J. Lecœur, Esquisses du Bocage Normand, vol. ii, p. 240. [↑]
[62] Athenæus, vol. ix, 47, p. 392 d. [↑]
[63] Religion of the Semites, new edition, 1914, p. 469. [↑]
[66] Hist. de Tlaxcallan, c. v. [↑]
[67] This deer is two-headed; so is Quaxolotl a variant of Chantico, the Fire-goddess, with whom Itzpapalotl seems to have many points of resemblance. [↑]
[69] In some myths of the Old World the butterfly is the soul or ghost. This would explain her connection with the Ciuateteô, or dead women. [↑]
[70] Vol. i, bk. vi (English translation). [↑]
[72] Hist. de los Indios de la Nueva España (Epistola Proemial). [↑]
[73] Sahagun, bk. ii., c. xxxvi; Torquemada, bk. x, c. xxix. [↑]
[74] It occurred to the writer that the expression tititl may have had reference to the act of sexual impregnation, as in the case of Tlazolteotl (q.v.), who “widens herself, stretches herself out” at the foot of the teocalli of Uitzilopochtli, when she is impregnated by that deity. This consideration scarcely seems to apply to the present instance, however, and that indicated above appears preferable. [↑]
CHAPTER VI
THE GODS OF RAIN AND MOISTURE
INTRODUCTORY
The gods of rain proper are clearly to be distinguished from the gods of grain and growth, although they were regarded by the ancient Mexicans as stimulating vegetable plenteousness. That they were paramount in the practical theology of the rain-cult[1] is evident, for, whereas Quetzalcoatl was regarded in one of his phases as the deification of the rain-making priest, Tlaloc and the Tlaloquê possessed the entire disposition of the rainfall. Sahagun’s remarks upon Quetzalcoatl make it clear that in this connection he was regarded as a wind-god who swept the way clear for the rain-gods, or ushered in the rains. Myth related how Quetzalcoatl, the first discoverer of the maize, was robbed of his find by Tlaloc, who afterwards had the governance over its growth and distribution. Although the high-priest of the Mexican hierarchy was called by the name of Quetzalcoatl, the prelate next in importance to him bore the name of Tlaloc.
Although Quetzalcoatl was above all regarded by the Aztecâ as a god of wind, evidence is not lacking that to some extent he was looked upon as a rain-god, or at least a rain-bringing god. But the overwhelming superiority of the Tlaloquê in this cult is witnessed to by the fact that out of eighteen great seasonal festivals, no less than five were dedicated to them.[2]
Those of the Tlaloquê, or gods of rain, whose names are [[235]]known were: Tlaloc, the father of all, Chalchihuitlicue, his wife and sister, Nappatecutli, god of the mat-makers, who used aquatic reeds in their work, Atlaua, “Lord of the Beaches” or lake shores, Uixtociuatl, goddess of salt, and Opochtli, god of fishers and fowlers, and inventor of the net.
Concerning the Tlaloquê Sahagun remarks: “The Mexicans take for gods all those high mountains from which the rain comes in the rainy season, and for each of these they imagine an idol.… They also believe that certain maladies proceeding from cold have their origin in the mountains and that these gods have the power to visit them upon them. Those who were attacked by such complaints made a vow to this or that mountain, whichever chanced to be in the neighbourhood, or that for which they entertained the most devotion. A similar vow was made by persons on the point of being drowned in the rivers or in the sea. The maladies for which they made these vows were gout in the hands, feet, or any other part of the body, impotence in any member, or in the entire body, rheumatism, the contraction of the members or cramp. Those who were visited with these maladies made a vow to raise a statue to the following gods: to the idols of the volcano called Popocatepetl in the Sierra Nevada, to a mountain named Poyauhtecatl, or any other to which the feeling of devotion inclined them. When they proposed to offer up to the mountain or gods, they made an image in human form, a mass called tzoalli.”[3] These the people did not make themselves, but called in the offices of those priests skilled in the making of idols, who moulded them out of the paste and gave them teeth of calabash pips and eyes of haricot beans. The rest of the process of manufacture is as described in the account of the festival of the atemoztli (see Tlaloc). These small figures were known as tepictoton, and, like the sacrificial victims to the rain-gods, their hair was dressed in two horns or whorls.