INTRODUCTORY
THE TYPE AND EVOLUTION OF MEXICAN RELIGION
If, like the necromancers of old, we possessed the power to summon the shades of the dead before us, and employed this dread authority to recall from the place of shadows the spirit of a member of the priesthood of ancient Mexico, in order that we might obtain from him an account of the faith which he had professed while in the body, it is improbable that we would derive much information regarding the precise significance of the cult of which he was formerly an adherent without tedious and skilful questioning. He would certainly be able to enlighten us readily enough on matters of ritual and mythology, calendric science and the like; but if we were to press him for information regarding the motives underlying the outer manifestations of his belief, he would almost certainly disappoint us, unless our questionary was framed in the most careful manner. In all likelihood he would be unable to comprehend the term “religion,” of which we should necessarily have to make use, and which it would seem so natural for us to employ; and he would scarcely be capable of dissociating the circumstances of his faith from those of Mexican life in general, especially as regards its political, military, agricultural, and artistic connections.
Nor would he regard magic or primitive science as in any way alien to the activities of his office. But if we became more importunate, and begged him to make some definite statement regarding the true meaning and import of his [[2]]religion ere he returned to his place, he might, perhaps, reply: “If we had not worshipped the gods and sacrificed to them, nourished them with blood and pleasured them with gifts, they would have ceased to watch over our welfare, and would have withheld the maize and water which kept us in life. The rain would not have fallen and the crops would not have come to fruition.”[1] If he employed some such terms as these, our phantom would outline the whole purport of the system which we call Mexican religion, the rude platform on which was raised the towering superstructure of rite and ceremony, morality and tradition, a part of which we are about to examine.
The writer who undertakes the description of any of the great faiths of the world usually presupposes in his readers a certain acquaintance with the history and conditions of the people of whose religion he treats. But the obscurity which surrounded all questions relating to Mexican antiquity until the beginning of this century formerly made it essential that any view of its religious phase should be prefaced by an account of the peoples who professed it, their racial affinities, and the country they occupied. This necessity no longer exists. The ground has been traversed so often of late, and I have covered it so frequently in previous works,[2] that I feel only a brief account of these conditions is necessary here, such, in a word, as will enable the reader to realize circumstances of race, locality, and period.
The people whose religious ideas this book attempts to describe were the Nahua of pre-Colombian Mexico, a race by no means extinct, despite the oft-repeated assertions of popular novelists, and which is now usually classed as a branch of the great Uto-Aztecan family of the North American Indian stock. They spoke, and their descendants still speak, a language known as the Nahuatl, or Nahuatlatolli (“speech of those who live by rule” or “by ritual observance”). At the era of the Spanish invasion of their country in 1519 [[3]]they had succeeded in overrunning and reducing to their dominion practically all that part of modern Mexico which lies between the Tropic of Cancer and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. They were, in all probability, immigrants from the north, and their art-forms, no less than their physique and beliefs, have led certain writers to form the opinion that they came originally from the neighbourhood of British Columbia, or that they had a common origin with the Indian tribes which inhabit that region at the present time.
However this may be, the first Nahua immigrants would appear to have entered the Valley of Mexico at some time during the eighth century of our era. But the Aztecâ, part of a later swarm of Nahua, do not seem to have descended upon it until the middle of the thirteenth century, or to have founded the settlement of Mexico-Tenochtitlan until about the year 1376. At the period of their arrival in the valley they were a barbarous tribe of nomadic hunters, wandering from place to place in search of fresh hunting-grounds, precisely as did many North American Indian tribes before reservations were provided for them. Gradually, by virtue of their superior prowess in war, they achieved the hegemony of the Plateau of Anahuac, which boasted a tradition and civilization at least five hundred years old. These they proceeded to assimilate with marvellous rapidity, as is not infrequently the case when a race of hunters mingles with a settled agricultural population. Indeed, in the course of the century and a quarter which intervened between the founding of Mexico and the period of the Spanish Conquest, they had arrived at such a standard of civilization as surprised their Castilian conquerors. When the Aztecâ, abandoning their wandering life, finally settled in the Valley of Anahuac, upon the site of Tenochtitlan, now the city of Mexico, they embarked upon a series of conflicts with their neighbours, which ended in the complete subjection of these peoples.
The races over whom they exercised a kind of feudal sway were many and diverse, and only the more important of these can be mentioned here. To the north [[4]]dwelt the hunting Chichimecs, a related people, and the Otomi, a semi-barbarous folk, probably of aboriginal origin, and speaking a distinct language. To the west dwelt the Tarascans, whose racial affinities are unknown, or, at least, dubious. South of the Rio de las Balsas were situated the Mixtecs and Zapotecs, whose language somewhat resembled that of the Otomi and who possessed a larger measure of civilization. On the East Coast were found the Huaxtecs and Totonacs, races of Maya origin, and south-east of these lay the Olmecs, Xicalancas, and Nonoualcas, of older precedence in the land. Beyond the Isthmus of Tehuantepec were found the Maya, a people of relatively high civilization, whose origin is obscure, and into the question of whose relationship I do not propose to enter in this place.
THE ANTIQUITY OF MEXICAN RELIGION
Until the beginning of the present century most Americanists held that Mexican civilization and consequently Mexican religion were the outcome of but a few generations of native progress. It is true that the Nahua people had behind them a relatively brief history of national and tribal life, but modern research has shown that they were undoubtedly the heirs of a civilization having early foundations and of considerable achievement and complexity, the religious aspect of which had arrived at a high state of development.[3] Evidences of the archaic character of this faith are rapidly accumulating, but many years must yet be dedicated to the examination and comparison of the data concerning it before it is possible to speak with any degree of certainty regarding the causes which contributed to its formation and evolution.
Although we must necessarily regard Mexican religion as having had a progressive history spread over many generations, we are at present almost ignorant of the gradual changes which accompanied its growth. An effort will be made to outline the probable nature of these mutations, but the endeavour will not receive any great measure of [[5]]assistance from the abundant but chaotic and unclassified material amassed by Americanists during the last twenty years, which in its present condition is not of much value as regards this particular branch of the subject, but which it is the writer’s intention to employ, so far as it is capable of illustrating the question before us.
THE LITERATURE OF MEXICAN RELIGION
It is necessary at this stage to deal briefly with the sources of Mexican religious history. A literature, bewildering in its scope and variety, has grown up around the subject of Mexican antiquity as a whole, and it is perhaps well for the student if he approaches it with only a partial realization of the spacious character of the material he must review. I have thought it best in such a work as this to relegate most of the bibliographical matter to an appendix, where an endeavour has been made to supply the student with a trustworthy catalogue of such manuscripts and works as are essential to the study of Mexican religion. It is hoped that this may prove of guidance and assistance and spare much initial toil. But for the present I will confine my remarks to such general observations upon the sources from which we partly glean our knowledge of the ancient Mexican faith as will serve the immediate purpose. These sources are four in number: (I) The native codices or paintings; (II) the native annals; (III) native art-forms in architecture, sculpture, pottery, and mural painting, depicting gods and other divine beings; and (IV) the writings of the Spanish conquerors of Mexico.
(I) The Native Codices.—These are paintings executed by native Mexican artists upon agave paper, leather, or cotton. Through the misguided zeal of the early Spanish religious authorities, who regarded them as of diabolic character, only some twelve of these remain to us, the greater number of which possess a mythological or religious significance. In their pages we find representations of many of the principal deities of the Mexican pantheon, as well as illustrations of [[6]]several passages in Mexican myth, and they frequently depict the tonalamatl or priestly Book of Fate, with its highly complex symbolism.[4] Close familiarity with these manuscripts is indispensable, as they constitute one of the few original sources of our knowledge of the aspect, costume, and insignia of the Mexican deities. All of them have been handsomely, if expensively, reproduced, and these are detailed in the bibliography.
Here it is only necessary to remark upon the several theories which have regard to their place of origin. Dr. H. J. Spinden, in his valuable Study of Maya Art, objects that “most of the detailed accounts of religious beliefs and ceremonies that have come down to us refer primarily to the Valley of Mexico, while nearly all the really elaborate codices of a religious nature come from either the Zapotecan-Mixtecan area or from the Maya.”[5] We are not here concerned with the Maya manuscripts, and with regard to the Zapotec and Mixtec examples we have the assurance of Seler,[6] which is founded upon critical evidence of value, that an entire group of these manuscripts—and that by far the most important, the Codex Borgia group—“belongs to a Mexican-speaking people” who inhabited the districts of Teouacan, Cozcatlan, and Teotitlan del Camino, and who, though separated from the Nahua of the Valley of Anahuac at an early period, yet in great measure retained the ancient beliefs common to both. Nearly all of the deities represented in this group of manuscripts so closely resemble in their aspect, costume, and general symbolism the drawings and descriptions of gods known to have been worshipped in the Mexican area proper, as to make it positively certain that they represent the same divine beings with merely trifling differences of detail due to local environment. The separation of the Nahua of the Plateau of Mexico and those of the more southerly region was of such duration as to justify the belief that their religious ideas had diverged considerably. But the subsequent conquest of the southern area by the Northern [[7]]Nahua must have resuscitated old common beliefs among their kindred in the south, and weakened the ideas they had adopted or developed in that environment. This is proved by the considerable variation in type between the oldest southern pottery representing what are presumably divine forms and the pictures of the gods in the later manuscripts of the Codex Borgia group.
(II) The Native Writings.—These “annals,” as they are sometimes called, the work of natives who wrote in Spanish, constitute a mine of aboriginal information of nearly equal value with that contained in the codices, but considerable discrimination is necessary in using them in view of the tendency of their authors to corrupt traditional material when inspired by patriotic or other motives. This, however, manifestly does not apply with equal force to accounts of a mythical or ritual nature and to historical events, which offer a much greater temptation than the former to scribes manifestly ignorant of the virtues of literary integrity. The Mexican annals are of two classes: those which represent the historical or traditional relics of native communities, such as the Annals of Quauhtitlan, also known as the Codex Chimalpopocâ; and those which are the work of educated Mexicans or half-breeds, prone to magnify the splendour of the ancient races. Ranking almost as a third or separate class are the sacred songs or hymns included in the Mexican MS. of Sahagun’s Historia General, which that most unwearied of workers received at first hand from approved native scribes. The several native writings will be found described in the appendix, and the hymns, or rather a translation of them into English prose, will be met with in the descriptions of the several deities to which they apply.
(III) Native Art-forms.—Mexican architectural motifs, mural paintings, and especially sculpture and pottery, frequently afford reliable material upon which to form conclusions regarding the aspect and costume of the gods, and reproductions of the most important of these illustrate the descriptions of the several Mexican deities.
(IV) Writings of the Spanish Conquerors of Mexico.—If [[8]]the representatives of the Church in Mexico must be condemned for their narrow and illiberal action in destroying all native manuscripts and paintings bearing upon the ancient religion of the country, certain more enlightened individuals among them laboured strenuously to remove this reproach by their zealous, if frequently unskilful, attempts to reconstruct a knowledge of the popular faith by unremitting researches into native tradition. This attitude met with but little countenance from their ecclesiastical superiors, and at times they laboured under conditions the reverse of favourable for the collection of traditional material. But it would be ungrateful not to pay a meed of respect to the self-sacrifice of those enlightened and resourceful men, but for whose endeavours our knowledge of Mexican antiquities would be all the poorer.
Undoubtedly the most valuable collection of evidence relative to the Mexican religion compiled by a Spanish churchman is the Historia General of Bernardino Sahagun, whose work, composed with scholarly care and an almost prophetic knowledge of the correct methods to be pursued in the collection of traditional material, was completed about the middle of the sixteenth century, but remained unpublished until 1830. This work has been described so repeatedly as to require no further mention here, and other notable works are included in the bibliography. Some allusion should also be made here to the works known as the Interpretative Codices, compiled by Pedro de Rios and other monks, who retained the services of native painters to execute drawings of Mexican deities or, as some believe, drew these figures themselves, the symbolism and general meaning of which they endeavoured to make plain and interpret, only too often in the light of their knowledge of the Scriptures.
THE ORIGINS OF MEXICAN RELIGION
The question of the origin of Mexican religion, like that of the civilization of which it was perhaps the most salient characteristic, has afforded matter for ardent controversy [[9]]from the period of the discovery and conquest of the country until the present day. But, even so, it is still unsafe to dogmatize upon Mexican religious origins. At the time of the Conquest we observe Mexican religion as a highly complex faith, with a ceremonial of the most elaborate nature, a priesthood with nicely defined gradations in office, and a pantheon which had obviously been formed by the collocation of the deities of provincial and dependent tribes and peoples around a nucleus composed of the national and departmental gods of the Aztecâ. The great temple-area of Mexico-Tenochtitlan harboured a bewildering array of gods, many of which possessed separate shrines and ministrants. An intensive examination of the alien elements represented, however, tends to prove the identity of many of them with the gods of the Aztecâ, a similarity which, in numerous instances, was manifest to that people themselves and which was the result of tribal affinity or basic resemblance in religious conception. Nevertheless a residuum of unrelated deities remained, which might, perhaps, be accounted for by positing the existence of two markedly different cultures or tendencies in Mexico, barbarous and civilized. This may imply that the opposing influences which gave rise to these variations were alien to each other racially, or it may indicate that, whereas one had remained in an environment of barbarism, the other had developed and enlarged its theological and even its mythical conceptions in the light of the necessities of an advancing material civilization. Whence the seeds of that civilization came is, as has been said, matter of controversy. The existence of a system of monachism in Mexico would seem to indicate a non-American origin. Elements common to both aspects of this interesting faith were sufficiently numerous in Mexican religion. Thus the so-called Chichimecs, or rude hunters of the steppes to the north of the Valley of Mexico, retained in their pristine form the simple beliefs and the ungraded pantheon, which in the case of the more advanced tribes of cognate origin rapidly took shape as a great State religion under the influences of a more complex social system, [[10]]the stimulus of alien religious conceptions, and above all, of a priesthood skilled in the reduction of theological and mythical material to dogma. This cult, although composed of elements perhaps at first conflicting in aim and character, had yet arrived at a comparative degree of homogeneity and had evolved an intricate and exacting ritual and a symbolism of great richness and artistic complexity, the extensive and bewildering nature of which can be verified by a cursory inspection of the native codices.
EVIDENCES OF EARLY RELIGION IN MEXICO
The myths which relate to the earliest religious influences in Mexico are for the most part connected with the pre-Aztec “Toltec” civilization and the more ancient and sacred sites of Tollan and Teotihuacan. They chiefly refer to a god or culture-hero called Quetzalcoatl, whose myths and attributes will be described elsewhere in this work, and who was regarded as the prototype of the Mexican priesthood and one of the inventors of the tonalamatl or Book of Fate. The type of religion founded by him differs greatly from that practised by the Mexicans at the period of the Conquest, as it eschewed, or was, perhaps, originally innocent of, human sacrifice or ceremonial cannibalism, and practised purification and penance by the drawing of blood. In certain myths its founder is described as a native of the country, in others as the offspring of divine beings, while still others regard him as a foreigner who introduced his cult from the east. It is noteworthy that this cult is closely connected with monachism[7] and that in later times it was, perhaps, regarded as more intimately bound up with pietistic and “civilized” ritual practice than that of any other Mexican deity. Ultimately, the myths relate, Quetzalcoatl left the country because of the machinations of “enchanters.”[8] This may mean that the older and less barbarous cult was forced into a secondary place by the ruder and more popular beliefs of a tribe of lower culture, but there are evidences that the [[11]]religion of Quetzalcoatl assuredly assisted in the building-up of the rain-cult of Mexico. In any case little information is to be gleaned from the myth of Quetzalcoatl for our present purpose of illustrating the primitive type of Mexican religion, and it must probably be regarded as pointing to the existence of an early monachism and a developed ritual in ancient Mexico.[9]
The myths relating to the great tribal gods, if faithfully examined, assist us in forming a definite idea of the character of early religious conceptions in Anahuac. The hymns to the gods are, perhaps, a surer indication of the trend of popular faith and probably date from a more archaic period than do the myths, which, as we possess them, nearly all exhibit signs of priestly alteration. In several of these chants we assuredly arrive at the whole significance of Mexican religion, which in its essence, and as seen at the Conquest period, was nothing more than a vastly elaborated rain-cult, similar in its general tendency to that still prevalent among the Pueblo tribes of New Mexico and Arizona, yet broader in outlook, of a higher complexity and productive of a theology and an ethical system of greater sophistication and scope. The religion of the Pueblo peoples is, indeed, the poor and degenerate descendant of the bizarre and picturesque ritual of the Mexicans, or, more probably, had a common origin with it. Through the researches and personal exertions of many well-equipped Americanists the entire ritual of this modern pluvial cult is now well known and deserves the closest study from students of Mexican religion, as providing them with comparative and analogical material of the first importance.[10]
We shall keep on the trail of a very definite clue if we attempt to descry in such evidences as we possess of archaic Mexican faith the signs of an incipient rain-cult, having its origin in a settled agricultural existence. If we glance at [[12]]the general characteristics of the numerous members of the Mexican pantheon, we find that very readily and quite naturally they group themselves into three great classes: (a) creative deities, which may be regarded as the outcome of late theological speculation, and which may, accordingly, be passed over in this place; (b) gods of growth; and (c) gods developed from specific objects and deified heavenly bodies, some of which latter were developed from gods of the chase. The “original” deities of Mexico would seem, therefore, to have presided over vegetable growth and conferred on their votaries good luck in the hunt. But as time passed, these latter also took on the attributes of gods of the cereal and vegetable food-supply, and, indeed, often seriously contested the status of the true growth-gods in the elaborate nature of the symbolic vegetal ceremonial with which their festivals were celebrated.
It is not surprising that the Valley of Mexico became the centre of a cult of which the appeal for rain was the salient characteristic. A copious supply of rainfall for the purposes of irrigation is, indeed, a necessity to the Mexican agriculturist, and a dry year in ancient Anahuac brought with it famine and misery unspeakable. Inexpressibly touching are the fervent prayers to Tlaloc, god of water, that he should not visit his displeasure upon the people by withdrawing the pluvial supply. “O our most compassionate lord … I beseech thee to look with eyes of pity upon the people of this city and kingdom, for the whole world, down to the very beasts, is in peril of destruction and disappearance and irremediable end … for the ridges of the earth suffer sore need and anguish from lack of water … with deep sighing and anguish of heart I cry upon all those that are gods of water, that are in the four quarters of the world … to come and console this poor people and to water the earth, for the eyes of all that inhabit the earth, animals as well as men, are turned towards you, and their hope is set upon you.”[11] [[13]]
DEIFICATION OF THE ELEMENTS OF GROWTH
The elements of growth, in the mind of primitive man, are four in number, the earth, grain, rain, and solar heat, and it is not remarkable that all of these came to be regarded as deified powers, and were latterly personalized in anthropomorphic form. It does not appear that the sun was at first looked upon as an agency of growth. There is, indeed, proof that in early times he was not regarded as of any importance from a calendric point of view, and that the time and festival-counts were designed upon a lunar basis.[12] It is not unlikely that, in a region where his torrid heat, if unaccompanied by rainfall, resulted in famine, he was at first regarded, if not unfavourably, at least with no special predilection. If this conclusion is correct, and we can afford to discount solar influence in the primitive Mexican cultus—or rather that adopted by the aboriginal peoples on embracing a settled agricultural existence—there remain to us the three elements of earth, grain, and rain from which to reconstruct the prototypes of the Mexican pantheon.
In Mexican myth the earth is represented as a monster known as cipactli, the pictures of which have given rise to the assumption that it is either a crocodile, a swordfish, or a dragon. We shall probably not err if we place it in the last category and see in it that great earth-monster common to the mythologies of many races, and which is most conveniently called the “earth-dragon.”[13] This sign cipactli became the first in the tonalamatl or Book of Fate, where it is connected with the creative deities and the Earth-mother, who was known by many names. Circumstances exist which seem to lend colour to the assumption that, as in other countries, the Mexican Earth-mother had at one time been regarded as forming the earth, the soil. At the terrible and picturesque festival of the Xalaquia (“She who is clothed with the sand”), the sacrificed virgin was supposed to enrich and recruit with her blood the frame of the worn-out goddess, who had [[14]]been, says Seler, “merged in the popular imagination with the all-nourisher, the all-begetter, the earth.”[14]
Perhaps the best evidence that the idea of the Earth-mother was associated with the conception of the earth-dragon is afforded by the colossal stone figure of Coatlicue, one of her manifestations, which once towered above the entrance to the temple of Uitzilopochtli in Mexico and is now housed in the Museo Naçional in that city. In this figure, as in a similar if less massive statue from Tehuacan, the characteristics of the cipactli earth-animal obtrude themselves in a wealth of scale, claw, and tusk, which although frequently described as serpentine, is only partially so, and shows traces that more than one idea was in the mind of the artist who chiselled its symbolic intricacies. In the latter of these sculptures the appearance of ferocity is most marked and is accompanied by the same dragon-like claws on hands and feet. In the mythologies of many lands the Earth-mother is represented as ferocious, insatiable, as slaying those who take part in her amours, as a riotous and outrageous demon, unnatural and destructive in her lusts and appetites, and it would seem that her Mexican phase throws light upon the reasons for this savage wantonness. In the sculpture first alluded to, and in the carving on its base, we can perceive a close resemblance to the earth-monster of the Maya peoples, especially as represented in the carvings at Copan and in the Temple of the Cross at Palenque. These afford almost irrefragable proof of the correctness of the supposition regarding the fusion of the concepts of the earth-beast and the earth-mother which has been outlined.[15]
COLOSSAL STATUE OF COATLICUE. (Front.)
(Now in the Museo Naçional, Mexico.)
COLOSSAL STATUE OF COATLICUE. (Back.)
The deification of the grain is so universal a phenomenon as to require but little explanation, especially in regard to a country where it formed the staple alimentary supply. It appears to have received divine honours in many districts in Mexico and to have been worshipped under a variety of names, but there was little difference between the characters [[15]]of these several cults, and the absence of this is well exemplified by the readiness with which they amalgamated and the fusion of their central figures.
The deification of the rain, as apart from the idea of a mere rain-god, is perhaps a circumstance of more novelty to the student of Comparative Religion. Tlaloc, the god of rain or moisture, is one of the most striking examples of this process in any mythology. A god of great antiquity, his pluvial character is obvious and undoubted. But he is also the life-giver, the nourisher, who from his home in the green uplands of Tlalocan sends the vivifying rains to fill the deep fissures in the hard, cracked soil of the Valley of Anahuac. In the courtyard of his dwelling stood four jars of water, typifying the four different “kinds” of rainfall which corresponded to the four quarters of the heavens, and these were distributed by his progeny, the Tlaloquê. There is the best evidence that the aspect of Tlaloc was evolved from the idea of the rain itself. His face is formed from the interlacings of two serpents, his face-paint is black and blue, or dirty yellow like the threatening cloud which holds the thunder-shower. The garments he wears are splashed with ulli rubber-gum, evidently intended to symbolize rain-spots. Indeed, his robe is called the anachxechilli or “dripping garment,” and is frequently depicted as set with green gems to represent the sparkling raindrops. Few rain-gods, even the Vedic Indra himself, whom Tlaloc somewhat resembles, are so frankly symbolic of the moisture which falls from above.[16] But his serpentine or dragon-like form renders it probable that, although he was regarded in later times as a personification of the rain, in earlier times he was looked upon as the “Water Provider,” the great serpent or dragon which dwelt among the hills and which must be defeated by a hero or demi-god ere it will disgorge the floods which ensure the growth of vegetation.
EVIDENCE OF PRIMITIVE INFLUENCES
We may now examine the elements just described for traces [[16]]of the early constituents of religion. The conception that the earth itself was a monster gifted with life is evidently the outcome of a belief in “animism” or “personalization,” and merits little further notice because of its obvious character. Although the grain was also personalized, there are evidences of its “fetishtic” nature in early times. The great stone figure of Coatlicue already alluded to, besides affording evidence of the dragon-like character of the Earth-mother, exhibits many of the attributes of the primitive fetish manufactured from bundles of maize, large beans representing the eyes and pumpkin pips the teeth, while strips of paper form the mouth and labret. True, these early characteristics have been overlaid by the abounding symbolism of later and more complex ideas—the skin of the sacrificial victim, the serpent-heads, representing perhaps the spouting of that victim’s blood from the severed trunk and the skirt of serpents with which myth credited the goddess—but in the clumsy amorphousness of this wondrously carven block we can readily perceive the outline of the maize-sheaves from which its idea was drawn. Indeed the ears and leaves of the maize-plant descend from underneath the skirt of serpents and decorate the knot which secures it behind.[17]
STATUE OF COATLICUE (Front.)
(Found in the Calle del Calisco, Mexico.)
STATUE OF COATLICUE. (Side view.)
“FETISH” ORIGIN OF GODS
More than one of the great gods exhibit the signs of fetishtic origin. Uitzilopochtli, the great tribal patron deity of the Aztecâ of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, was described in tradition as leading them from the mythical northern country of Aztlan in the form of “a little bird.” He is usually represented in the pictorial MSS., where his appearance is infrequent, as wearing a mantle made from humming-birds’ [[17]]feathers. Later legend spoke of him as the vindicator of his mother, a goddess of vegetation, and as slaying her detractors, his own half-brothers, while in historical times the whole business of war was arranged through the instrumentality of his oracular image and was carried out chiefly in view of the necessity for human sacrifice which characterized his especial cult. But if we examine the roots of the beliefs which cluster around him, we shall find much to convince us that he was, after the entrance of his people into the Valley of Anahuac, identified with the maguey plant, which forms so familiar an object in the Mexican landscape. Extended proof of this lowly origin will be found in the section which deals with the god.
Quite as humble are the beginnings of the god Tezcatlipocâ, perhaps the most universally dreaded among the Mexican deities. Regarding his precise significance nothing very definite has been arrived at by modern authorities. As will be shown later, the early significance of Tezcatlipocâ arises out of his connection with obsidian, which had an especial sanctity for the Mexicans.
ANIMAL GODS
In our gropings for the roots of the Mexican faith we must not fail to notice those elements which stand apart from agricultural religion and are eloquent of the concepts of a still earlier time. Agricultural theology is as old as agriculture, and no older. The food-supply of the savage prior to that period depends upon the successful conduct of the chase. His gods are therefore often precisely of the species of animal by hunting which he gains a livelihood, and which he frequently regards as placed at his disposal by a great eponymous beast-god of the same kind.[18] Again, for some reason which has never been satisfactorily explained and for which no solution can be found at present, in view of the rather dubious nature of what is known as “totemism,” primitive man adores, or in some manner exalts, certain [[18]]animals on the flesh of which he does not live. But although gods evolved from animal shapes are frequently to be met with in the Mexican pantheon, I can recall no instance of the taboo of the flesh of any animal as an article of diet in Anahuac, or Mexico proper, although this may be found in the cultus of several of the tribes of the more outlying regions.
Uitzilopochtli has the characteristics of a humming-bird, and, indeed, all of the thirteen gods which governed the hours of the day are figured in the tonalamatl of the Aubin Collection with bird-disguises, and one of the thirteen heavens of the Mexicans is set apart for bird-gods, while certain other deities appear in animal forms. For example, Tepeyollotl is figured as a jaguar, Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl have serpentine characteristics, Itzpapalotl is a butterfly-dragon, Tezcatlipocâ a spider, a jaguar, or a turkey, Mixcoatl takes deer shape, and so on. But some of these forms are probably symbolic rather than “totemic.” The cult of Nagualism,[19] a degraded post-Colombian form of the old religion, was insistent upon the connection of its votaries with an animal spirit or familiar from an early period of their lives—that is, to each individual a personal “totem” was assigned, precisely as is the case among many North American tribes at the present time and as among the Lacandone of Yucatan.
GROWTH OF THE RAIN-CULT
Enough has been said in view of the restricted nature of the evidence, to prove that Mexican religion passed through much the same primitive conditions as other faiths. Further evidence on this point will be adduced as the gods are severally described. We may now proceed to examine such proof as we possess of the onward and upward progress of the cult of rain and growth in Mexico. We may, perhaps, imagine the institution of tribal or village rain or grain fetishes, which in course of time would attain godhead by reason of popularity or supposed auspiciousness. The ministers of these would probably bear a strong resemblance [[19]]to the medicine-men of North American Indian tribes. Warfare undoubtedly played a great part in the fortunes of these local cults. Thus, did the people of a certain tribal god triumph in feud or battle, his worship would almost certainly be enlarged in a territorial sense. But such a triumph would be a small incentive to further conquest when compared with the absolute necessity for war engendered by the holy law that captives must be obtained for purposes of sacrifice to the tribal deities.
THE NECESSITY FOR HUMAN SACRIFICE
The origins of the institution of human sacrifice in Mexico are obscure. Native mythology attributed its invention to a group of earth-goddesses headed by Teteo innan or Tlazolteotl, who in the Calendar year “eight-rabbit” came to the city of Tollan or Tula from the Huaxtec country and, summoning the captives whom they had taken in that land, said to them: “We want to couple the earth with you, we want to hold a feast with you, for till now no battle-offerings have been made with men.”[20]
This myth is, perhaps, ætiological, but it would seem to have some historical basis. Deeply rooted in the Mexican mind was the idea that unless the gods were abundantly refreshed with human blood they would perish of hunger and old age and would be unable to undertake their hypothetical labours in connection with the growth of the crops. Whence came this idea? Undoubtedly from that process of barbaric reasoning through which Mexican man had convinced himself that the amount of rainfall would be in ratio to the amount of blood shed sacrificially. Seler[21] has indicated his belief in such a process of reasoning by stating that “the one was intended to draw down the other, the blood which was offered was intended to bring down the rain upon the fields.” This, then, is the precise nature of the compact between Mexican man and his gods, Do ut des, “Give us rain, and we shall give you blood.” Once this is understood the basic [[20]]nature of Mexican religion becomes clear, and all the later additions of theology and priestly invention can be viewed as mere excrescences and ornaments upon the simple architecture of the temple of the rain-cult.
THE LATER ELEMENTS OF MEXICAN RELIGION
The evolution of a higher cultus is frequently identified with a more intimate acquaintance with the heavenly bodies, but it is not generally appreciated or understood by students of Comparative Religion that at least two different kinds of conception underlie the general idea. A luminary, sun, moon, or star, may be deified and achieve godhead by reason of striking natural characteristics, or, on the other hand, it may be identified with some god already known. Thus Mexican myth, as related to Sahagun by the natives, asserted that the gods met at Teotihuacan and told how two of their number, Nanahuatl and Tecciztecatl, sacrificed themselves by leaping into a great fire, becoming the sun and moon respectively. The remaining gods, sacrificing themselves also, “conferred life upon the stars,” that is they became identified with the several stellar constellations, becoming known as the Centzon Mimixcoa and Centzon Uitznaua, or “Four hundred Northerners” and “Four hundred Southerners,” as they occupied the sky on its northern or southern side.[22]
Although this myth and a version of it current at Texcuco and given by Mendieta in his Historia Ecclesiastica[23] both represent Nanahuatl as the sun-god, he was not so known in Mexican popular religion and priestly practice, and was indeed a form of the god Xolotl, a deity of obscure characteristics. Tecciztecatl certainly was regarded as the moon-god, but the solar luminary was known as Tonatiuh or Piltzintecutli. As has already been stated, there are sound reasons for the belief that the solar cult was a relatively [[21]]late institution in Mexico, although in some parts of the country it may have flourished for generations before it became popular in Tenochtitlan. Slightly elaborating our former reasons for this statement, we may indicate: (1) The name Tonatiuh appears in the myths of the origin of the sun as that of the luminary, but not of a god. (2) The circumstance that Tonatiuh was regarded by the Mexicans as a “heaven,” a Valhalla, to which the warriors slain in sacrifice betook themselves after death, and therefore represented a place of reward, a class of myth which is nearly always of comparatively late origin, and is the fruit of mature speculation. (3) The fact that Tonatiuh was closely identified with the warrior caste and therefore with human sacrifice, which was a late introduction and the paramount reason for the existence of that caste. (4) That the original Calendar was a lunar one. But these and other considerations will be dealt with more fully when we undertake the elucidation of the sun-god’s characteristics.
The amalgamation of the solar cult and of the Quetzalcoatl cult (representing the later and earlier “civilized” elements in Mexican religion) with the rain-cult is not an isolated phenomenon in the world’s religious history. The analogy of the fusion of the Osirian cult of Egypt with that of Ra will occur to everyone in this connection, and as the theology of the priests of the more aristocratic faith became in the event subsidiary in real importance to that of the far more popular Osirian worship, in the same manner the Quetzalcoatl cult, and in some measure the solar, were of much less real significance in Mexican life generally than the earlier popular belief. The solar worship seems to have successfully and naturally identified itself with the rain-cult, as also did the Quetzalcoatl religion. The myth which described Quetzalcoatl as the founder or inventor of the tonalamatl or Book of Fate[24] probably records an effort on the part of his priesthood to identify their cult with the popular agricultural religion or to systematize or reduce to symbolic form an idea which until that time had probably [[22]]existed in an uncertain and chaotic condition in the popular mind. For even if the tonalamatl were introduced from the Zapotec or Mixtec country or the Maya region, as is generally supposed, it required skilful arrangement to make it subserve the purposes of Aztec religion. The priesthood and cultus of Quetzalcoatl were widespread throughout Central America and Mexico, and its ministers appear to have adapted themselves with skill and patience to the conditions of the various regions to which they penetrated, the result of their labours never being quite the same in any two regions. It is remarkable, too, that, probably by reason of the superior erudition and ability of its priesthood, the caste of Quetzalcoatl held chief sway in Mexican ecclesiastical government.[25] But a partial, though by no means complete, hostility to human sacrifice and ceremonial cannibalism, a grudging acquiescence in what it had, in all likelihood, denounced in earlier times, gave it in later days a somewhat aloof and separate character.
CULTURAL ELEMENTS OF MEXICAN RELIGION
We must now glance briefly at such evidences as we possess of the distinct racial or cultural elements which assisted in the development of Mexican religion. Three such elements appear to be indicated. It would seem that from an early period a people of settled and agricultural habits occupied the Mexican Plateau. These were probably relatively aboriginal to the Toltecs and may have been of Otomi or Tarascan blood, and to them I would refer the original foundation of a rain-cult having Tlaloc as its principal deity. Tlaloc was unquestionably one of the most venerable gods of Mexico, indeed he is the only god who can be identified with certainty in the remains of pre-Nahuan date at Teotihuacan. Tradition spoke of the finding of an ancient idol representing him by the early Chichimec immigrants.[26] At least five of the yearly festivals were celebrated in his honour, and ancient sculptured representations of him have [[23]]been found in Tarascan territory, in Michoacan, Teotihuacan, Teotitlan, in the Zapotec country and in Guatemala, thus affording irrefragable testimony to his antiquity. Rather later than the culture which probably founded the rain-cult (a religion necessary and indeed inevitable in Mexico) was the Toltec civilization, which regarded Quetzalcoatl as its chiefest divinity, and which probably was brought from the Huaxtec country. But the Toltec are said to have been of Nahua blood, and may have been composed of a Nahua populace and a Huaxtec or proto-Maya aristocracy. The later hordes of Nahua (Chichimecs, Aztecâ, etc.) found these elements already settled upon the land, but brought with them a religion which, if it was destined to have a powerful effect upon the faith of the agricultural folk with whom they came into contact, was also to be quite as strongly influenced by it.
Reverting to the conditions prevailing in Mexico prior to the entry of the Chichimec Nahua, we may regard the rain-cult of the Tlaloc religion as in some measure resembling that of the Pueblo Indians of Northern Mexico and Arizona at the present time. The serpentine character of its principal deity, the appeal for rain which composes the basis of most of the prayers to him, provide strong proofs of such a similarity, and, as has been said, the antiquity of the rain religion is proved by the discovery of early sculptured forms and the facts adduced above. The Tlaloc religion had also been able in some degree to retain its own sacrificial customs, the drowning of victims being practised in addition to the Nahua method of slaughter on the stone of sacrifice. The date of the introduction of the religion of Quetzalcoatl is generally placed at the middle of the eighth century of our era, so that we are perhaps justified in assuming that the faith of the greater portion of Anahuac[27] before that time had as its basis the rain-cult, as represented by Tlaloc.
The religious customs of those peoples who were relatively aboriginal to the Nahua support the theory of the predominance of the rain-cult in Mexico from a very early period, [[24]]and Torquemada states that during seasons of drought the Otomi sought to propitiate the rain-gods by sacrificing a virgin on the top of a hill.[28] Espinosa says that the Tarascans sacrificed snakes rather than human beings—possibly for the same reason as the Esquimaux beat their dogs during an eclipse, in order that the Great Dog which causes the undesirable phenomenon may desist, the Tarascans probably killing the reptiles in question in order that the Great Snake might relent and send rain.[29] The towns about Chapala paid divine honours to the spirit of the adjacent lake. Late though these survivals may have been at the era of the Conquest, yet they seem to have enshrined the memory of an early rain-cult among the peoples with whom they were found, and many others could be adduced.
THE QUETZALCOATL CULT
The appearance of the Quetzalcoatl cult in Mexico, which would seem to have entered the country at some time about the middle of the eighth century, must have caused very considerable alterations in the simple and probably as yet uninfluenced rain religion which it found in occupancy. From whatever portion of the Isthmian tract it came, one thing regarding it is positively certain—that it introduced into Mexico the rudiments of the calendric computation evolved in Central America. In its phase as imported by the apostles of the Quetzalcoatl religion, it seems fairly certain that the tonalamatl was of the nature of a lunar time-count, and the probabilities are that its protagonists discovered on their arrival in Anahuac that a count similar in character was in use among the priesthood of the Tlaloc worshippers, who as an agricultural people could hardly have been without some such system of computation. The Quetzalcoatl faith, however, was manifestly of a considerably higher status than that which it encountered, as is obvious not only by the numerous and extraordinary traditions [[25]]regarding the Toltec civilization, but the actual remains it has left. It is clear that, whether it found a calendar or time-count already existing, it placated aboriginal opinion by the amalgamation of the several festivals of the rain-god with its own. The fact that the day-signs of the Mexican calendar or tonalamatl are almost identical with those of the Maya tonalamatl is good proof that the former was developed from the latter; and if only a small proportion of Toltec deities find a place in its monthly festivals, that would seem to be due to the circumstance that later Nahua demands for the inclusion of their tribal deities were acceded to. We may, perhaps, imagine the early tonalamatl of the Quetzalcoatl missionaries to have been similar in form to that of the Maya—that is, it must have been almost wholly concerned with the festivals of deities of a purely agricultural kind.
But the religion of Quetzalcoatl, as observed in his Yucatec form of Kukulkan and his Guatemalan variant of Gucumatz, bore a close resemblance to that of Tlaloc. In Yucatan Quetzalcoatl was regarded by priests and people as the great rain-making priest, the god of moisture, whereas in Mexico he is merely the sweeper of the ways to the Tlaloc deities of rain. This is surely eloquent of the fact that the Tlaloc religion was not only of greater antiquity in Mexico, but that its ministers were disinclined to permit the deity of the new religion to adopt a status similar to that of their own god. With true priestly diplomacy, then, it would seem that they temporized by affording Quetzalcoatl a status as the great rain-making priest, a character which he retained to the last. Myth certainly alludes to Tlaloc as the supplanter of Quetzalcoatl in the affections of the goddess Chalchihuitlicue and as robbing the peaceful culture-hero of the maize-plant which he had discovered. This does not necessarily signify the defeat of an older religion by a more novel faith, but may relate to a successful defence by the more ancient cultus and its absorption of the other.
The theory of the amalgamation of the Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl cults appears to me to be in some measure assisted by [[26]]the circumstance that the devotees of both placed a high value upon minerals of a green colour. The word chalchihuitl (“green stone”), of such common occurrence in the works of the Spanish authors who wrote on Mexican affairs, must be taken as applying with equal force to jadeite, nephrite, turquoise, emerald, chlormelanite, green quartz, precious serpentine, or, indeed, any mineral of a green shade. A tradition existed that Quetzalcoatl brought the use and manipulation of jadeite into Mexico, but green was a salient hue in the insignia of Tlaloc, and the name of his consort Chalchihuitlicue (“greenstone skirt”) is eloquent of his connection with the several kinds of stones which the Mexicans grouped under the name chalchihuitl. Whatever significance attached to the colour of these stones, apart from their nature as precious stones, whether or not they were symbolic of water or verdure, or metal, or of all of these agencies, which are regarded as so potent by primitive peoples, it is apparent that both cults employed them symbolically or pseudo-scientifically, and it therefore seems probable that each of these religions was originally connected with the worship of water, and therefore the influence associated with and contained in water, and that this belief would render their amalgamation a process of little difficulty.
If, however, such similarities eventually made for the union of the cults, traditions were not lacking regarding their early differences or hostilities. As has been said, myths survived into historical times, which stated that although Quetzalcoatl had succeeded in discovering maize, Tlaloc had stolen it from him and had also succeeded in alienating from him the affection of Chalchihuitlicue, who had originally been regarded as the wife of Quetzalcoatl.[30] But these myths are undeniably of late origin. Quetzalcoatl’s status as a celibate god or priest would scarcely allow his name to be connected with matrimony, and it is plain that Chalchihuitlicue, the water goddess, is in a sense merely a personification of the chalchihuitl stone, which was, perhaps, originally one of the symbols of the Quetzalcoatl cult and which later [[27]]became personified in female form, thus giving rise to the myth in question. Nor do these tales necessarily prove the priority of the Quetzalcoatl cult, which was indeed regarded as responsible for practically all Mexican civilization and which would naturally be credited with the introduction of the use of the sacred stones.
THE CULT OF OBSIDIAN
But if the later Nahua immigrants also came to regard these chalchihuitl stones with reverence, at the period of their entrance to the Mexican plateau they paid devotion to a mineral of a very different kind. And this it is which helps us to regard their faith as differing entirely from those other faiths which already flourished in the land. The mineral with which their cult was so closely connected was obsidian, a vitreous natural glass found in the upper volcanic strata of Mexico and northern California, which flakes readily from the core by pressure and gains by mere fracture a razor-like edge of considerable penetrative power. The principal quarry of this volcanic glass was the mountain known as the Cerro de las Navajas (“hill of the knives”) near Timapan, and from this centre the itztli, by which name obsidian was known to the Mexicans, was widely distributed by barter over a very considerable area. There would seem to be proof that this mineral, so suitable for the purposes of the nomadic hunter, was anciently known far to the north of Mexico. The observations of Dr. G. M. Dawson[31] in British Columbia satisfied him that trading intercourse was engaged in by the coast tribes with those of the interior along the Frazer River Valley and far to the south. From the remotest times embraced in their native traditions, the Bilqula of Dean Inlet have possessed a trade route by way of the Bella Coola River to the Tinné country, along which trail broken implements and chips of obsidian have been found. Many of the routes in British Columbia have also [[28]]yielded chips and flakes of obsidian, which, the Tinné Indians stated, was obtained from a mountain near the headwaters of the Salmon River (about long. 125° 40′, lat. 52° 40′), formerly resorted to for the purpose of procuring the mineral. The Indian name of this mountain is Bece, which, Dr. Dawson suggested, is the same with the “Mexican” name for knife, itztli, an etymology which may be of Nahuatlac origin. Mr. T. C. Weston, of the Geological Survey, also noted in 1883 the finding of a flake of obsidian in connection with a layer of buffalo bones occurring in alluvium, and evidently of considerable antiquity, near Fort McLeod, Alberta. The nearest source of such a material is the Yellowstone Park region. The coast tribes of British Columbia have been traders for untold generations, exchanging oolactin oil for such material as they could make implements from, and there seems to be no doubt that the Mound-builders of Ohio, Wisconsin, and Kentucky were also acquainted with obsidian, which they could only have obtained by the process of barter. It was thus either to be found in the regions from which the Nahua are thought to have come, or else obtainable through the channels of trade.
If, then, it be granted that the Chichimec Nahua were acquainted with obsidian and its properties before their entrance upon the Plateau of Anahuac (a hypothesis which is strengthened by the material differences of workmanship between their tools and weapons made of this material and those of the aboriginal peoples of Mexico), sufficient time had elapsed for their development of a cult, which, at the era of the Conquest, exhibited traces of a very considerable antiquity. It was, naturally, as a hunting people that they employed weapons of obsidian. The herds of deer on the flesh of which they chiefly lived roamed the steppes, and proof abounds that the customs of the chase strongly influenced the religious ideas of the early Nahua. Certain of their gods, indeed, seem to have been developed from cervine forms, for among barbarous races the animal worshipped is that which provides the tribe with its staple food, [[29]]or, more correctly, a great eponymous figure of that animal is adored—for example, the Great Deer, who sends the smaller deer to keep the savage in life. In like manner barbarous fisherfolk are wont to worship the Great Fish, which sends them its progeny or its subjects to serve as food. These deer gods or hunting gods in some way connected with the deer—Itzpapalotl, Itzcuêyê, Mixcoatl, Camaxtli—had also stellar or solar attributes. The deer was slain by the obsidian weapon, which, therefore, came to be regarded as the magical weapon, that by which food was procured. In the course of time it assumed a sacred significance, the hunting gods themselves came to wield it, and it was thought of as coming from the stars or the heavens where the gods dwelt, in precisely the same manner as flint arrowheads were regarded by the peasantry of Europe as “elf-arrows” or “thunder-stones”—that is, as something supernatural, falling from above.
But the obsidian itself became deified as Tezcatlipocâ. I have retained the full proof of this assertion for the section which treats of that god, and must here content myself with a summary of it. The whole cult of obsidian centred in the personality of Tezcatlipocâ. His idol was made of that stone, and in Codex Borbonicus his sandals are painted with the zigzag line of the obsidian snake. In his variant of Itztli (obsidian) he was the god of the sacrificial knife of obsidian, and in certain codices he is represented as having such a knife in place of a foot. From this stone, too, divinatory mirrors were made, one of which was held by the idols of Tezcatlipocâ and served as the mirror or scrying-stone in which he witnessed the doings of mankind. Obsidian, the great life-giver, food-getter, blood-provider, became identified in the form of this god with the cause or breath of life, which, in turn, was identified with the wind, and therefore it came to be classed among those magical stones which in some mysterious manner are considered capable of raising a tempest. In this manner Tezcatlipocâ came to be regarded as a god of wind, and has been identified with the Hurakan of the Quiches of Guatemala, from whose name the expression [[30]]“hurricane” has been borrowed and who was probably introduced into Central America by the Nahua.
When the nomadic Chichimec adopted an agricultural condition, obsidian had doubtless been regarded as sacred for many generations. It was by virtue of this magical stone that the nourishment of the gods was maintained by the sacrifice of deer; but when the Chichimec came to embrace a more settled existence within an agricultural community where deer must certainly have been more scarce, the nourishment of the gods had necessarily to be maintained by other means. The manner in which this was effected is quite clear. Slaves and war-captives were sacrificed instead of beasts of the chase, and at the festival of Mixcoatl, the greatest of the Chichimec gods, women were sacrificed in the place of deer, and after being slain were carried down the steps of the teocalli, their wrists and ankles tied together precisely in the manner in which a deer is trussed by the hunter.[32] The transition from deer-sacrifice to a human holocaust and from the hunting to the agricultural condition is well illustrated by an ancient hymn relating to the goddess Itzpapalotl (“Obsidian Butterfly”), who was associated with Mixcoatl.
“O, she has become a goddess of the melon cactus,
Our Mother Itzpapalotl, the obsidian butterfly.
Her food is on the Nine Plains,
She was nurtured on the hearts of deer,
Our Mother, the earth-goddess.”
The inference in these lines seems to be that whereas Itzpapalotl was formerly a goddess of the Chichimec nomads of the steppes, who sacrificed deer to her, she has now become the deity of the melon-cactus patch and an agricultural community. Her first human victim is also mentioned by Camargo,[33] who states that the Chichimec, coming to the province of Tepeueuec, sacrificed a victim to her by shooting him with arrows. Itzpapalotl has more than one cervine attribute.[34] [[31]]
Mexican tradition makes it very plain that obsidian, because of its blood-procuring properties, came to be regarded as the source of all life, as the very principle of existence. Tonacaciuatl, the creative goddess, as we shall see, gave birth to an obsidian knife from which sprang sixteen hundred demigods who peopled the earth,[35] and the infant which the goddess Ciuacoatl leaves in the cradle in the market-place undergoes metamorphosis into an obsidian knife.[36] As the Codices show, grain is often pictured in the form of the obsidian knife of sacrifice. Just as in many myths, both in the Old World and the New, flint was regarded as the great fertilizer because of its supposed connection with the lightning, so was obsidian. Thus all the elements which go to make for growth and life were regarded as having a connection with this mineral, even the sun itself, as we shall see, being identified with the Mirror of Tezcatlipocâ. The idea that the sun could not live without human blood was a purely Nahua conception, arising out of an earlier belief that it must be nourished upon the blood of beasts. Of the transitional process abundant proof exists. The hunter’s obsidian weapon which supplied the necessary pabulum became in turn the weapon of the warrior who procured victims for the holocaust, and the sacred knife of the priest who sacrificed them to the deity. Obsidian was thus chiefly the war weapon and the sacrificial weapon, but the traditions relating to it refer to practically all the offices of human art, industry, and activity generally.
Lest this hypothesis seem overstrained, analogies may be indicated. That which is initially sacred in a primitive cult frequently comes to have interrelations with the whole environment of its deities. Thus the worship of the oak by the Druids appears to have given an oak-like virtue to the oracular birds which dwelt in its branches, to the soil from which it grew, to the sky above it, to the priests who ministered to it and to the sacred implements they employed. The same may be said of the oak-cult of Zeus and the vine-cult [[32]]of Dionysos. The numerous traditions which cluster round the ceremonial use of jade in China are eloquent of such a tendency. Thus trees, plants, animals, and natural objects are all in a manner identified and connected with the beautiful jade stone in its character as an imparter of vitality. Thus in the great worship of the gods whose cult was connected with obsidian, well-nigh everything with which it had interrelations came to partake of the nature of obsidian—grain, the earth, the atmosphere, the sun, the stars, the priesthood, blood, and rain.
The process by which this Nahua cult became amalgamated with those of Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl seems fairly clear. Upon their settlement on the Plateau of Anahuac it is plain from the terms of certain myths that the Nahua did not regard the cult of Quetzalcoatl in any friendly manner. Tezcatlipocâ is spoken of as driving him from the country, and it is probable that to begin with a certain amount of persecution may have been inflicted upon his adherents. But the Nahua would undoubtedly come to recognize the value of the calendar system connected with his cult, and it is clear that they did so from the fact that we find included in it certain of their principal gods. The final process of amalgamation probably took place during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, for, as seen at the Conquest period, the union of the three great cults of Mexico must have occupied several centuries. Such a duration of time was necessary for the development of a homogeneous and involved symbolism, which was obviously based on a tacit recognition of the unity of the Mexican faith. Initial disparities seem to be indicated principally by ancient traditions, of which perhaps the most notable was that which spoke of the different heavens of the three original cults, the Tlalocan of the worshippers of Tlaloc, the Tlapallan or over-sea paradise of the Quetzalcoatl cult, and the Sun-house or Valhalla of the Nahua. A striking proof of the adjustment of the chronology of the three cults may perhaps be found in the myths which speak of the existence of several “suns” or ages prior to the historical era, the “rulers” or patrons of [[33]]which were, according to the most trustworthy sources, Tezcatlipocâ, Quetzalcoatl, Tlaloc, and Chalchihuitlicue, goddess of the Tlaloc cult.[37]
The attribution of higher and abstract qualities to the gods was probably of comparatively late origin. Especially is this to be observed in the case of Tezcatlipocâ, to whom, at the period of the Conquest, we find attributed such a bewildering array of qualities, both concrete and abstract, lofty and the reverse, as would seem to indicate that, had European influences failed to penetrate to Anahuac, his worship might have reached the monotheistic stage, and in time have overshadowed that of the other gods of the Mexican pantheon. Undoubtedly, too, the priesthood, and probably the nobility, fostered a more esoteric and loftier type of religion than was understood of the people, and good proof (which is by no means confined to the rather doubtful circumstance that Nezahualcoyotl of Texcuco built a temple to the “Unknown God”) is forthcoming that theological questions of greater or less complexity had begun to exercise the minds of the hierarchy.
UNITY OF RELIGIOUS CONCEPTION THROUGHOUT MEXICO
At the epoch of the Conquest it is abundantly clear that the Aztecâ had succeeded in establishing their tribal cult, enriched with the beliefs of the peoples they had conquered, over a wide area. They had adopted into their pantheon such deities of the surrounding tribes as appealed to their imagination, or were too powerful to be ignored, and actually “imprisoned” many others of lesser puissance, whose idols were kept in confinement in a building within the precincts of the great temple at Mexico-Tenochtitlan.[38]
Within the historical period but little radical difference existed between the several Mexican cults, which all appear to have been affected by a common influence. We observe, therefore, the phenomenon of certain early religious forms [[34]]originating under common influences, separated for centuries and profoundly altered by immigrant forces, at length brought together again by the amalgamating powers of conquest under the influence of one central and paramount cult, only, when once more united, to find a common destruction at the hands of the ministers of an alien and invading faith.
At the period of the Conquest, then, we find the Mexican religion relatively homogeneous in character, with a widespread ascendancy, its provincial activities exhibiting differences of little more than local kind. Even in its most far-flung manifestations, indeed, it never showed such variations as permit us to say that the most dissimilar or distant variety of the cult entirely differed from the metropolitan exemplar.[39] This being so, we are as fully justified in speaking of a Mexican religion as we are in alluding to an Italic or a Hellenic religion, and perhaps more so than in extending the analogy to Egypt, where anything like homogeneity in either theology or popular worship appears never to have been attained. We find, then, that the religion of ancient Mexico, as known at the Conquest period, was the outcome of later religious and ethical impulses brought to bear upon a simple rain-cult, which, judging from the atmospheric conditions essential to it, must have been indigenous to the country. Although the cults of its several deities still retained some measure of distinctiveness, all had long before been amalgamated in what was really a national faith. There are signs, too, that a fully developed pantheon had been evolved, which mirrored an elaborate social system in caste, rank, and guild, but the mythical material from which this might have been reconstructed is only partly available. We find, too, that practically every god in the Mexican hierarchy, whatever his original status, was in some manner connected with the rain-cult. Indeed, the rain-cult is the central and coalescing factor in Mexican religion, its nucleus and foundation. As might be expected, most of the deities of agricultural [[35]]growth appear to be of either Toltec or alien origin. Thus, Chicomecoatl was Toltec, while Tlazolteotl, Xochiquetzal, Xilonen, Cinteotl, and Xipe were all alien deities of the older settled peoples, but what their relationship to the three great cults of Mexico may have been is not apparent. Most of these deities appear in the tonalamatl, so that their worship must have been adopted at a comparatively early date.
Students of religious phenomena not infrequently show distaste for the deeper consideration of the Mexican faith, not only because of the difficulties which beset the fuller study of this interesting phase of human belief in the eternal verities, but also, perhaps, because of the “diabolic” reputation which it has achieved, and the grisly horrors to which it is thought those who examine it must perforce accustom themselves. It is certainly not the most obviously prepossessing of the world’s religions. Yet if a due allowance be made for the earnestness of its priests and people in the strict observance of a system the hereditary burden of which no one man or generation could hope to remove, and the religion of the Aztecâ be viewed in a liberal and tolerant spirit, those who are sufficiently painstaking in their scrutiny of it will in time find themselves richly rewarded. Not only does it abound in valuable evidences for the enrichment of the study of religious science and tradition, but by degrees its astonishing beauty of colour and wealth of symbolic variety will appeal to the student with all the enchantment of discovery. The echoes of the sacred drum of serpent-skin reverberating from the lofty pyramid of Uitzilopochtli, and passing above the mysterious city of Tenochtitlan with all the majesty of Olympic thunder, will seem not less eloquent of the soul of a vanished faith than do the memories of the choral chants of Hellas. And if the recollection of the picturesque but terrible rites of this gifted, imaginative, and not undistinguished people harrows the feelings, does it not arouse in us that fatal consciousness of man’s helplessness before the gods, which primitive religion invariably professes and which reason almost seems to uphold? [[36]]
[1] Motecuhzoma described his faith to Cortéz in almost precisely similar terms. See Bernal Diaz, True History of the Conquest of Mexico, Maudslay’s translation. London, 1908. [↑]
[2] Especially in The Civilization of Ancient Mexico, 1911. [↑]
[3] See Seler, Gesammelte Abhandlungen, passim. [↑]
[4] See Appendix, The Tonalamatl and the Solar Calendar. [↑]
[5] A Study of Maya Art, 1913, p. 225. [↑]
[6] See his commentaries on the several codices, passim. [↑]
[7] See Torquemada, bk. vi, c. 24. [↑]
[8] Sahagun, III, c. 4; Anales de Quauhtitlan. [↑]
[9] On Quetzalcoatl generally see Sahagun, passim; Torquemada, vol. i, p. 254; Motolinia, tom. i, pp. 10–11; and Mendieta, passim. [↑]
[10] Consult bibliography to chapter ix of H. B. Alexander’s North American Mythology. Boston, 1916. [↑]
[11] Sahagun, bk. vi, c. viii. [↑]
[12] See appendix on Tonalamatl. [↑]
[13] See chapter on Cosmogony. [↑]
[14] Seler, Codex Vaticanus B, 1902–3, p. 174. [↑]
[15] In many cosmogonies—Hindu, Babylonian, Chinese, Scandinavian, for example—the earth is formed from the remains of a slain monster or living being. [↑]
[16] See section on Tlaloc. [↑]
[17] Payne in his History of the New World called America, vol. i, 1892, pp. 424 ff., was the first to indicate the “fetishtic” nature of this statue, which he identifies as that of Chicomecoatl. He pours the vials of scorn upon “the Italian dilettante Boturini” for his identification of the block as Uitzilopochtli-Teoyaomiqui. He further states that it “has no limbs,” but its large, scaly dragon-legs are at least as obvious as his lack of success in giving the sculpture its proper name. [↑]
[18] See my article “Cherokees” in Hastings’ Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, vol. iii, p. 504. [↑]
[19] See Brinton, Nagualism. [↑]
[20] Anales de Quauhtitlan (Brasseur, Hist. Nat. Civ. de Mex., vol. i, pp. 400 ff.). [↑]
[21] Codex Vaticanus, 1902–3, p. 75. [↑]
[22] For much Mexican star-lore of value see Seler’s Venus Period in the Picture-Writings of the Borgia Codex Group, translated into English in Bulletin 28 of the Bureau of American Ethnology, pp. 355 ff. For the myth see section on Cosmogony. [↑]
[24] See Appendix on Tonalamatl. [↑]
[25] Sahagun, bk. ii, Appendix. [↑]
[26] Clavigero, Storia del Messico, vol. i, bk. vi, p. 257 (English translation). [↑]
[27] The native name for Mexico, signifying “Place upon the water.” [↑]
[28] Monarq. Ind., tom. ii, p. 525. [↑]
[29] Hist. Mex., tom. i, pp. 291–2. [↑]
[30] See the section on Tlaloc. [↑]
[31] Notes on the Shushwap People of British Columbia, “Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada,” 1891, vol. ix, sect. ii. Montreal, 1892. [↑]
[32] Sahagun, Hist. Gen., bk. ii, c. xiv. [↑]
[33] Hist. de Tlaxcallan, c. v. [↑]
[34] See Section on Itzpapalotl. [↑]
[35] See chapter on Cosmogony. [↑]
[36] See Sahagun, bk. i, c. 6. [↑]
[37] See chapter on Cosmogony. [↑]
[38] Torquemada, bk. viii, c. 13. [↑]
[39] Although some of the old authors, Bernal Diaz for instance, say explicitly that the gods of one city were not recognized in another, in effect they were, only under other names. [↑]
CHAPTER II
COSMOGONY
Accounts of the creation of the world and of man, even as handed down to us by those writers on Mexican mythology who had the best opportunities for collecting them, are prone to vagueness, and differ so materially one from another that we will probably not be in error if we impute their inconsistencies to a variety of local origins. As regards the agencies by whom the creation or reconstruction of the earth was accomplished, we are not in doubt, for certain passages in the Interpretative Codices find almost exact corroboration in the creation story contained in the Popol Vuh, the mythic book of the Quiche of Guatemala (which was unknown to the interpreters of the Mexican Codices), as well as in similar works of Maya origin.
The interpreter of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis states that the god Tonacatecutli, “when it appeared good to him, breathed and divided the waters of the heavens and the earth, which at first were all confused together, and disposed them as they now are.”[1] Further, “he breathed and begot Quetzalcoatl, not by connection with a woman, but by his breath alone.”[2] The first of these deities, and his female counterpart Tonacaciuatl, are almost certainly spoken of in the Popol Vuh as “the serpents covered with green feathers,” which, farther on in the Quiche work, are alluded to as Xpiyacoc and Xmucane, gods who are generally admitted to be the same as the Mexican Oxomoco and Cipactonal, who, again, are either identical with or closely connected with Tonacatecutli and his spouse.[3] Quetzalcoatl, [[37]]too, appears in the Popol Vuh as Gucumatz, a known Quiche equivalent or translation of his name, for as “wind” or “breath” he was also thought of as “spirit” or “life,” and probably his fecundating efficacy as a water-bearing god was also taken into consideration. In the Sahagun MS. in the Academia de la Historia, Madrid, is a passage which reads when translated: “They say that he made, created, and formed us whose creatures we are, Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, and he made the heaven, the sun, the earth.” The Anales de Quauhtitlan or Codex Chimalpopca,[4] too, relates how Quetzalcoatl created the four classes of humanity, the men of the four “suns” or periods of the world, and how men were made by him on the day “7 wind,” and, as we shall see, the work of creation in detail is alluded to in the Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas, as effected by him and by Tezcatlipocâ. Lastly, we find in the Creative Council of the Quiche heaven, Hurakan, who is none other than Tezcatlipocâ, a deity closely connected with Quetzalcoatl in at least one Mexican creation myth.
THE “AGES” OF MEXICAN COSMOGONY
Having thus satisfied ourselves regarding the creative personnel of the Mexican pantheon, and preserving further proof of the constructive character of certain of these deities until we come to discuss them individually, we may proceed to examine such myths as tell of the formation of the world. In the belief of the Mexicans the earth was not destined to receive its present inhabitants, although occupied by man-like beings, until it had undergone a series of cataclysms or partial destructions, regarding the precise incidence and even the number of which there is a marked difference of opinion on the part of the older authorities.
The interpreter of the Codex Vaticanus states that “in the first age” (or “Sun,” as these periods were called by the Nahua of Mexico) “water reigned until at last it destroyed [[38]]the world.… This age, according to their computation, lasted 4,008 years, and on the occurrence of that great deluge they say that men were changed into fish, named Tlacamichin, which signifies men-fish.”[5] The second age, he tells us, lasted for 4,010 years and the world was ended by the force of violent winds, the catastrophe concluding by the transformation of men into apes. The third age endured for 4,801 years and ended in a universal fire, and in the fourth, which occupied 5,042 years, the human race, which had never ceased to transmit a few survivors from one of these epochs to the next, was almost destroyed by famine.
In his Historia Chichimeca[6] Ixtlilxochitl calls the first of these epochs Atonatiuh (Water Sun), in which all men perished by a great inundation. The second epoch, Tlachitonatiuh (Earth Sun), ended with violent earthquakes. In this age lived gigantic beings called Quinames. The third epoch was Ecatonatiuh, or “Sun of Wind,” in which edifices, trees, and men were nearly all destroyed by hurricanes, those who remained being changed into creatures of an intelligence so low as to be almost indistinguishable from monkeys.[7] The Texcucan chronicler does not furnish us with the name of the present age in his Historia, nor in his Relaciones,[8] where, however, we receive fuller information regarding the first three epochs, which he succeeds in carelessly transposing, giving the third the second place.
THE GREAT CALENDAR STONE OF MEXICO.
(Now in the Museo Naçional, Mexico.)
Camargo[9] would almost appear to have been indebted to Ixtlilxochitl for his version of the creation myth, but he seems to have been under the impression that only two of the epochs were ended. That three past cataclysms had taken place and that four ages in all had occurred is, indeed, the most generally favoured version of the story, but some [[39]]authorities seem to have been of the opinion that a myth was current among the Mexican people which stated that no less than five epochs had taken place in the history of the world. Gama, Gomara, and Humboldt share this view, and Mendieta is of opinion that five “suns” existed before the present era, all of which were of such noxious character that the inhabitants of the earth languished and perished through their baneful influence.
But we have more stable authority for the sequence of these “suns” or epochs. It is probable that this cataclysmic theory was in vogue among the Nahua for generations before it received a more or less definite form, and, indeed, Veytia[10] and Ixtlilxochitl[11] state that the number of suns was agreed upon at a meeting of native astronomers within traditional memory. We are probably following the official version of the myth if we accept that to which the so-called calendar-stone of Mexico gives sculptured form and which may be interpreted as follows: While the world was still wrapped in primeval gloom, the god Tezcatlipocâ transformed himself into the sun. This epoch, which was known as Naui Ocelotl or “Four Jaguar,” ended in the destruction of humanity and the race of giants who then inhabited the earth by fierce jaguars. Quetzalcoatl became the second sun, and the age of Naui Eecatl or “Four Wind” ended in violent hurricanes, during which men were transformed into monkeys. Tlaloc then took upon himself the task of providing the world with light, and his epoch of Naui Quiauitl or “Four Rain” came to an end by means of a deluge of fire. The goddess Chalchihuitlicue represented the sun of the age Naui Atl, “Four Water,” at the end of which there descended a deluge in which men were changed into fishes. Later there appeared the present sun, Naui Olin, which, it was believed, would end in earthquakes.
THE MAKING OF THE EARTH
The second chapter of the Historia de los Mexicanos por [[40]]sus Pinturas, a précis of the opening chapters of which is given farther on, states that the gods “created a great fish which is called the Cipactli, which is like the cayman [alligator], and of this fish they made the earth.”
The description of the earth-monster, as it appears in the Codices, as an alligator or sword-fish is, however, by no means convincing. Moreover, the sculptured representation of the earth-monster in Maya art, especially in such examples as that from Copan, is essentially dragon-like in form, and there would seem to be little difficulty in classing the Cipactli as an earth-dragon, similar in nature to the cosmic monster of Chinese art and mythology. The fact, too, that in the native paintings we frequently observe the sun-god in the act of being swallowed by the Cipactli strengthens the analogy with the Chinese example.
The Jaguar-sun.
The Wind-sun.
STONES SHOWING THE SYMBOLS OF THE “SUNS” OR AGES.
THE PEOPLING OF THE EARTH
The precise manner in which the earth was peopled by the gods is also a subject concerning which great variety of opinion is shown by the older writers on Mexican beliefs, and, as in the case of the cosmogonic myth proper, this is probably to be accounted for by local variation. Mendieta[12] is our authority for a conception which appears to have gained wide currency in many parts of Mexico. There is good evidence that he in turn received it from Andres de Olmos, a friar of great literary integrity and linguistic capability, whose writings we may regard with credence and confidence. The myth opens in the heavenly abode of the gods Citlalatonac and Citlalicue, who were also known as Ometecutli and Omecihuatl or Tonacatecutli and Tonacaciuatl, and whom the Mexicans regarded as the eventual sources of all human life. The goddess gave birth to a flint knife, probably such an implement as was employed for the purpose of human sacrifice. The circumstance appeared of bad omen to her sons, who, scandalized by it, cast the flint earthwards. It fell in the vicinity of Chicomoztoc, the Place of Seven Caves, [[41]]and immediately there sprang from it an army of sixteen hundred gods, who, discontented with their condition, dispatched Tlotli, the Hawk, as an ambassador to the heavenly sphere to ask as a boon that the power of creating men might be conferred upon them, as it was not fitting that beings of divine origin should suffer the miseries of earthly toil. Their mother, who also seems to have been perplexed by the manner of their birth, replied in no very gracious terms. But in order to relieve their wretchedness, she directed them to seek the good offices of Mictlantecutli, Lord of the Realm of the Dead, from whom, she suggested, they might obtain some of the relics of past generations, which, if subjected to the magical influence of sacrifice, might provide the beginnings of a new earth-race. After consultation, the earth-gods chose Xolotl[13] as their messenger to the place of the dead, and after an interview with its terrible ruler, he succeeded in obtaining a bone of superhuman dimensions. Fearful of treachery at the hands of Mictlantecutli, Xolotl turned to flee, but was pursued and, falling in his flight, broke in pieces the precious relic he carried. These he hastily gathered up and succeeded in quitting the subterranean world without mishap. Returning to his brothers, he placed the bone in a vessel, and each of the earth-gods, drawing blood from his own body, dropped it into the receptacle. For three days nothing occurred to justify their hopes; but on the fourth the gory mass stirred, and from its depths there emerged a human boy. Satisfied with the experiment, the gods repeated it, and at the end of another four days a girl arose from the vessel. Xolotl was appointed guardian to the children so miraculously created,[14] and nourished them upon the milk-like juice of the maguey plant. They throve apace, and in course of time became [[42]]man and woman, the progenitors of the entire human race, who differ in bulk and stature as the pieces of the rescued bone varied in size and shape. Thus were born Iztac Mixcoatl the first man and Ilanceuitl or Ilamatecutli, his wife.
The Water-sun.
The Rain-sun.
STONES SHOWING THE SYMBOLS OF THE “SUNS” OR AGES.
CREATION OF THE SUN AND MOON
These deeds had, however, passed in a world of darkness, for as yet the sun had not risen. A council of the gods was assembled at Teotihuacan, a locality of great sanctity, and seated round a council fire, it considered the means by which the luminary might be created. It was resolved that he who first cast himself into the fire should be transformed into the sun. The offer was accepted by Nanahuatzin, who was afflicted with a painful disease, had therefore found life intolerable and did not dread the transformation. Nothing happened for some time after his self-immolation, and the waiting gods began to make wagers with one another regarding the place in the heavens where the sun would be likely to show itself. None of them had considered it probable that it would rise in the East, and when at last it became visible in that quarter, it was as a stationary mass which directed such scorching rays upon them that they dispatched the hawk messenger to request it to depart. Whether or not Nanahuatzin in his rôle of Sun-god was wroth with his brothers for personal reasons, he replied that it was his intention to destroy them utterly. A great fear seized upon some, whilst others grew angry and caught up their weapons. Among the latter was Citli, who fitted an arrow to his bow and fired at the transformed Nanahuatzin. The sun-god avoided the shaft. He could not, however, evade all those which followed, but seizing one, cast it back at Citli, whom it transfixed and slew. Fiercer became the heat, until at length the gods could tolerate it no longer, and felt that it behoved them to perish by each other’s hands rather than by the ignoble death of suffocation. They agreed that Xolotl should dispatch them one by one, cutting open their breasts, and this holocaust he undertook, finally slaying himself. Before perishing, the gods left their raiment to their personal [[43]]servants, of which each retainer made a bundle, wrapping his master’s clothing round a stick, placing a small green stone inside to serve as a heart, and naming it after the god to whom it had belonged. Olmos himself encountered such a relic in Tlalmanalco, exhibiting evidences of very considerable age.[15] On the death of the gods the sun began to move in the heavens, and a god, Tecciztecatl, who had hidden himself in a cavern when Nanahuatzin leaped into the fire, now emerged from his hiding-place and took the form of the moon. The retainers carried the bundles from place to place, and one of them, the servant of Tezcatlipocâ, coming to the sea-shore, had a vision of his deceased master, who commanded him to betake himself to the house of the sun and to bring him singers and players of instruments to assist in the celebration of a festival. To enable the messenger to travel to the Sun-House, the whale, the siren, and the tortoise were asked to form themselves into a bridge which might reach the abode of the luminary. The servant crossed it, singing sweetly as he went, and his song was heard by the Sun, who straitly commanded his retainers not to respond to it on being approached by the singer. This some of them failed to do, and returning with the messenger, took with them the necessary instruments wherewith to celebrate the festival of Tezcatlipocâ.
The people of Texcuco, says Olmos, naturally placed the occurrence of these events within their own boundaries, but they added (according to a pictorial manuscript which they showed the friar) that the Sun shot a dart into the ground and at this spot the first man arose. He was imperfect, being formed only from the armpits upward. He was followed by a woman. Mendieta suppresses the remainder of the myth because of its Rabelaisian details, but we may conclude that from these twain humanity was descended.
Sahagun’s account of the creation of the sun and moon[16] [[44]]differs somewhat from the foregoing and is as follows: The gods met at Teotihuacan, and asked one another: “Who will undertake the task of lighting the world?” to which one god called Tecciztecatl (he who was to become the Moon-god) replied: “That will I.” They cast about for still another member of the pantheon to undertake the duty. At last they fixed upon one who was afflicted with a terrible disease who at once agreed to the accomplishment of their desires. During four days the gods prepared for the occasion by acts of penitence, then they kindled a fire on a rock named Teotexcalli (high place of the gods). Meanwhile Tecciztecatl made offerings of many precious things, rich feathers and golden ornaments. The spines with which the gods ceremonially pricked themselves were like the spines of the maguey, but were made from precious stones, and the copal they used for incense was of no common sort. The victim, who was called Nanahuatl, offered nine green reeds, joined three and three, instead of the ordinary branches and balls of grass and spines of the maguey generally employed for such ceremonies, and these he saturated with his own blood. In place of copal he offered up the scabs of his sores. The gods built a tower for each of the two divinities who had undertaken the illumination of the world, and performed penance for four days and four nights. They then strewed the ground with the branches, flowers, and other objects of which they had made use during that time. On the night following, shortly before midnight, they brought Tecciztecatl his ornaments. These consisted of a plumage called aztacomitl, made of herons’ feathers, and a jacket of light stuff, whilst to Nanahuatl they gave a crown of paper called amatzontli (paper hair) and a stole and cincture, likewise of paper. Midnight having arrived, all the gods ranged themselves in the place called Teotexcalli, where the fire had burned for four days. They arranged themselves into two files, one on either side of the fire, and Tecciztecatl was requested to cast himself into the burning mass. Terrified by the intense heat which he experienced as he advanced towards the flames, the god recoiled; again and again he essayed [[45]]to leap into the fire, but his courage failed him. Then the gods called upon Nanahuatl, who, on being summoned, immediately cast himself into the blazing mass, where he at once began to crackle “like meat that roasts.” Tecciztecatl, ashamed of his former conduct, now followed him into the conflagration, and it was said that the eagle entered the flames at the same time, which is the reason assigned for its dark plumage. The tiger or ocelot followed, and was only partly burnt, as is witnessed by its spots. It is evident that this myth applied in some manner to the Aztec military brotherhoods of quauhtli and ocelotl, who wore the eagle and ocelot insignia respectively.[17]
The gods had already waited some time to witness the resurrection of Nanahuatl, when they beheld the heavens commence to grow red. Terrified at the sight, they fell upon their knees and could not comprehend whence the light had arisen. The glow of sunrise illuminated every point of the compass, but many fixed their gaze upon the East, feeling that in that direction the luminary would first be sighted. Those who gazed thither were Quetzalcoatl (also called Eecatl), Totec, and Tezcatlipocâ. Others called Mimixcoa were innumerable, and there were also present four goddesses, Tiacapan, Teicu, Tlacoeua, and Xocoyotl. When the sun rose at length he appeared very red, and no one might look upon him without being blinded by his rays. The moon appeared at the same time, and gave forth light equal to that of the orb of day. But the gods thought it ill that the moon should be as bright as the sun, and therefore one of them took a rabbit and cast it at the face of the moon, so that it remained there to dim its splendour. Although the sun and moon were raised above the earth, they remained stationary. They spoke mockingly to their erstwhile companions.
“How now,” they said, “do you wish to remain in mortal shame? Die all of you and confer life upon the stars.” The wind then offered to discharge the function of immolating [[46]]the gods and slew them one by one. Only Xolotl refused to die, and begged for life, weeping so sorely that his eyes dropped out. When those who were to make the sacrifice laid hold of him he fled and concealed himself in a field of maize, where he changed himself into a stalk of that plant having two feet (roots) such as the peasants call xolotl. But having been recognized among the maize, he took flight a second time and hid himself among some maguey plants, where he changed himself into the double maguey plant which is called mexolotl (maguey of Xolotl). On being discovered a third time he took flight once more and threw himself into the water, where he took the form of a fish called axolotl.[18] But in this last disguise he was caught and killed.
When the gods had been slain the wind commenced to whistle and blow with violence, so that at length the burning globe of the sun began to drift over the heavens. But the moon still remained at rest, and in this manner they became separated, so that their habit is to rise at different hours.
The Anales de Quauhtitlan, after the manner of the Book of Genesis, states that the world and all therein were created in seven days. In the sign Tochtli the earth was created, the firmament was erected in Acatl, animals came into being in Tecpatl, and man was made out of dust or ashes on Ehecatl, the seventh day, but completed and perfected by Quetzalcoatl, who appears to have played the part of a demiurgos as regards the human race. There can be little doubt that this myth has been sophisticated, or is a later invention. The Anales de Quauhtitlan, however, sustains the accounts of Olmos and Sahagun regarding the creation of the sun and moon.
Camargo, speaking of the Tlaxcaltec cosmology,[19] says that the Indians did not believe that the world had been created, but that it had been produced by chance. Space, according [[47]]to their philosophy, has always existed. Veytia[20] states that the Mexicans believed the world and man to have been created by Tloque Nahuague (Tonacatecutli). Boturini credits the creation to the same first cause, and passages in Sahagun lead us to believe that both Tezcatlipocâ and Quetzalcoatl were regarded as sub-creative spirits, who were either partly or wholly responsible for the existence of the universe. Clavigero expressly states that the former was “the soul of the world, the creator of heaven and earth and lord of all things.”[21] Mendieta,[22] a much older authority, gives it as his opinion that the making and moulding of the world was the handiwork of several gods, but especially of Tezcatlipocâ, Uitzilopochtli, and an obscure deity, Ocelopuchtli, who equates with the ocelot alluded to in Sahagun’s account.
Sahagun, it will be observed, disappoints us in his account of the creation, which he confines to the details of the appearance of the sun and moon and is silent concerning the creation of gods and men. This is strange when the facilities he had for the collection of myths are considered, but as a priest, it is evident that he is more interested in points of ritual than in religious narrative, which, he evidently agrees with Curtin’s French-Canadian, is to be regarded as “chose d’absurde.”[23] Even although we possess the sonorous warning of Prescott and the objections of others to bias us against Ixtlilxochitl, there is little ground for regarding his version of the Mexican creation story as being other than he received it from sources which would have been unspeakably precious had he made better use of them as regards other subjects.
Regarding Ixtlilxochitl’s version of the creation myth, that the creator Tloque Nahuague, the maker of the planets, brought into being a man and a woman from whom all human beings are descended, we have no parallel in Mexican myth, nor, indeed, in American myth, if we accept that of [[48]]the creation of man current in ancient Peru, and it is probable that, so far as his version of the creation of humanity is concerned, Ixtlilxochitl had encountered a myth which was either of relatively late origin, or had arisen out of the ideas engendered by contact with Christianity. This is, however, by no means to say that Ixtlilxochitl himself invented the account.[24]
THE HISTORIA DE LOS MEXICANOS
The Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas is a manuscript of such importance to the study of Nahua Cosmogony that a short précis of its earlier chapters may, perhaps, be found of value in this place.
“Tonacatecutli and his consort Tonacaciuatl, who had existed from the beginning, resolved to undertake the work of creation. They had four sons, the eldest of whom was Tlactlauque-Tezcatlipocâ, or Camaxtli. He was born of a red colour. The second son, Yayanque-Tezcatlipocâ, was greater and more powerful than the rest. He was born black. The third was Quetzalcoatl or Yacatecutli, and the fourth Omitecilt, and for another name Magueycoatl, and the Mexicans called him Ochilobi (Uitzilopochtli), for he was left-handed and was chief god to those of Mexico, and their war-god. Of these four, Tezcatlipocâ was the wisest, was in all places, and knew the hearts and thoughts of everyone. And for this he was called Moyocoya, “he who is all-powerful, and who has all those things without which nothing can be.” Uitzilopochtli was born without flesh, but with bones,[25] and in this state he remained for six hundred years, during which time the gods made nothing.
“After six hundred years these four god-like brothers were born, and all came together to order what was to be and the law that they should hold. They made a half-sun in the midst, the other luminaries great and small, [[49]]and a man and woman named Oxomuco and Cipactonal, commanding him to till the earth and her to spin and weave. From these were born the maceguales or labourers. And to Cipactonal the gods gave certain grains of maize that she might keep them and use them for charms and riddles, and since that day women have used them for that purpose.
“The gods then gave this pair the days of the calendar and divided them into months, twenty days to each month, and three hundred and sixty days in the year. Then they made Mictlantecutli and Mictecaciuatl, man and wife, to be the gods of the infernal regions. Later they made the heavens and space and the water, and then a great fish like the cayman, which is called cipactli, from which they shaped the earth. In order to create the gods of water, all four gods joined together and made Tlaloc and his wife Chalchihuitlicue.
“These gods of water have their place in the four quarters, and in the middle of it was a great court, where there were four tubs of water. One water is very good, and this rains when they grow grain and wheat. And these gods of water have many dwarfish servants in the said house, and these have pitchers, with which they take the water from the tubs, and sticks in the other hand. When the gods of water wish them to go to the boundaries, they take the pitchers and sticks and sprinkle the water as they are told. And when it thunders, they crack the pitchers with the sticks, and when it lightens they break off a portion of the pitcher.
“All the aforesaid things had been made and created without taking any account of the years, and without respect of time. The first man and woman had a son called Piltzintecutli, who desired a wife with whom to live. So the gods made of the hairs of Xochiquetzal a woman, and thus was the first marriage made. This having been done, all the four gods saw that the half-sun which had been created gave but little light. And they saw that they must make another half, because the existing light was not able to illuminate the world.… Then Tezcatlipocâ became the sun-bearer. And the gods created the giants, who were very [[50]]great men and of much strength.… And they called the age in which Tezcatlipocâ was the sun the age of boasting and of tigers, for the giants gorged and ate and wanted for nothing. And when thirteen times fifty and two years were passed, Quetzalcoatl was the sun. Then Tezcatlipocâ took a great stick and struck upon the water, and turning himself into a tiger, went out to kill the giants. Afterwards he appeared in the sky, for they said that the ursa major sank in the water, because it is Tezcatlipocâ.… During the time Quetzalcoatl was the sun another count went on, which, having ended, Tezcatlipocâ cast out Quetzalcoatl, who became the wind, which, when it blew on the maceguales, turned them into monkeys and apes. And there was for sun Tlaloc, which lasted three hundred and sixty-four years.… During these years Quetzalcoatl rained fire on the sun, and then created as the sun his wife Chalchihuitlicue. She was the sun for three hundred and twelve years.
“In the last year in which Chalchihuitlicue was the sun, it rained so heavily that all the maceguales were turned into fishes. And when it had ceased to destroy, the heavens fell upon the earth and the great rain began, the which year was tochtli. And the gods ordered four roads to be made to the middle of the earth for them, and raised the heavens, and to help them in holding them up they created four men, called Cotemuc, Yzcoadt, Yzmali, and Tenesuchi, who were created by Tezcatlipocâ and Quetzalcoatl. Then they made great trees, Tezcatlipocâ one which was called tazcaquavlt, which is to say “tree of the mirror,” and Quetzalcoatl one which was called queçalhuesuch, and with the help of the men they had made and the trees the gods held up the heavens and the stars and made a road in the sky.
“After the heavens had been raised, in the second year after the flood, which was acatl, Tezcatlipocâ pronounced his name, and there appeared the dumb Mixcoatl, ‘Serpent of the Clouds.’ And they paint him as a serpent. And they drew fire from fire-sticks, which they called heart of the fire. In the seventh year after the flood was born Cinteotl, the first son of the first man, who was a god, and [[51]]his wife a goddess, and he was made of the hairs of the mother goddess, and it was said that he was not able to die. And in the eighth year after the flood the gods created the maceguales, like those that were before. When the first three years of this group of years had passed, in the first of the next group all the four gods came together, and said that because the earth had no light, and was dark, and that because there was no fire, they would make a sun which would give light to the earth, and which would eat hearts and drink blood. In order to do this they made war, by which they were able to procure hearts and blood. In this time Tezcatlipocâ made four hundred men and a hundred women, and on these the sun lived. In the tenth year, Suchicar, the first wife of Piltzintecutli, the son of the first man, was killed in the war, and was the first so to die.”
If we search for a common factor among these conflicting ideas, we will, indeed, find the task one of difficulty. The nature of the sources from which we obtain them does not permit us to arrange them chronologically, and all that we can found upon in this respect is their subject-matter, which cannot enlighten us much. As has been said, we are probably on safe ground if we accept the version of the several ages hypothetically contained in the so-called Calendar Stone of Mexico. The circumstance, too, that the sun and moon myth, as related by Olmos, agrees for the most part with the version of Sahagun, permits us to regard it as a well-recognized belief. Nor can the variant myth regarding the creation of mankind, which is briefly described in an annotation, shake our confidence in the credibility of Olmos, as it obviously differs more in the names of the actors in the drama of creation than in the circumstances, which are almost identical. But if it is impossible to verify strictly the place of origin of the Olmos myth, although Texcuco was claimed as its home, it is permissible to indicate the universal character of that portion of it which deals with the creation of the heavenly bodies, from its similarity to the analogous passage in Sahagun’s rendering, which proves that that part of it at least must have been more or less widely [[52]]disseminated throughout Mexico. We know that after the collection of data in any district it was his custom to submit them to experts in other and distant parts of the country for comparison and verification. We may thus be justified in classing the Calendar-stone version of the world’s ages and the Sahagun portion of the creation myth of the luminaries of the last age as among the standard beliefs of Mexican theology. It follows from Sahagun’s general agreement with the Olmos-Mendieta account that the portion of that version which he does not treat of must naturally be within reasonable distance of exactitude. The circumstance that both of these accounts relate the self-immolation of the gods by the sacrificial method of having their breasts opened, seems to prove that the myth was no older than the institution of human sacrifice, which we are perhaps correct in regarding as of no very great antiquity, although arguments of sufficient cogency might be brought against this view.
DELUGE MYTHS
As Mexican myths of the creation differ, so do those concerning the great deluge which at one period was supposed to have overwhelmed the earth. As we have seen, myths which are concerned with the several ages of the earth dwell upon such an event, but separate myths exist which also tell of a great flood which is almost certainly to be identified with the “Water-sun.” The goddess Chalchihuitlicue (the goddess of water), says one of the interpreters of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, “saved herself in the deluge.” The interpreter of the Codex Vaticanus A. relates that: “Most of the old people of Mexico say that a single man and a single woman escaped from this deluge, from whom, in course of time, mankind multiplied. The tree in which they saved themselves was called Ahuehuete (the fir-tree), and they say that this deluge happened in the tenth sign, according to their computation, which they represented by water, which on account of its clearness they place in their calendar. They say that during the first age men ate no bread, but only a certain kind of wild maize, [[53]]which they called atzitziutli. They name this first age coniztal, which signifies the white head; others say that not only did these two who were preserved in the tree escape, but that seven others remained hidden in a certain cave, and that the deluge having passed away, they came forth and restored the population of the earth, dispersing themselves over it: and that their descendants in course of time worshipped them as gods, each in his own nation.”
A similar myth in the Anales de Quauhtitlan or Codex Chimalpopoca, is also worthy of quotation.
“And this year was that of Ce-calli, and on the first day all was lost. The mountain itself was submerged in the water and the water remained tranquil for fifty-two springs.
“Now toward the close of the year, Titlacahuan (Tezcatlipocâ) had forewarned the man named Nata and his wife Nena, saying: ‘Make no more pulque, but straightway hollow out a large cypress, and enter it when in the month of Tozoztli the water shall approach the sky.’ They entered it, and when Titlacahuan had closed the door he said: ‘Thou shalt eat but a single ear of maize and thy wife but one also.’
“As soon as they had finished eating, they went forth and the water was tranquil; for the log did not move any more; and opening it they saw many fish.
“Then they built a fire, rubbing together pieces of wood, and they roasted fish. The gods Citlallinicuc and Citlallatonac, looking below, exclaimed: ‘Divine Lord, what means that fire below? Why do they thus smoke the heavens?’
“Straightway descended Titlacahuan Tezcatlipocâ and commenced to scold, saying: ‘What is this fire doing here?’ And seizing the fishes he moulded their hinder parts and changed their heads, and they were at once transformed into dogs.”[26]
THE “COXCOX” FALLACY
It is unnecessary in this place to deal at any length with the quite artificial myth given by Siguenza and Clavigero, [[54]]based on a mistaken interpretation of certain Mexican paintings. Briefly, they state that Coxcox, “the Mexican Noah,” and his spouse Xochiquetzal escaped from the deluge in a boat which grounded on the peak of Colhuacan: “the Ararat of Mexico.” Dumb children were born to them, who received innumerable languages from a polyglot dove. Garcia y Cubas published in his Atlas Geografico a letter from Ramirez (April 1858) in which the then conservator of the National Museum of Mexico showed the fallacy of Siguenza’s interpretation and proved that the pictures in question referred to the wanderings of the Aztecs in the Valley of Mexico.
A flood myth which has for its hero one of the giants who were supposed to inhabit the earth in the first age (or rather the first age according to the version which is supported by the Calendar-stone), states that Xelhua, the giant in question, escaped the deluge by ascending the mountain of Tlaloc in the terrestrial paradise, and afterwards built the pyramid of Cholula. The interpreter of the Codex Vaticanus A says of this story: “In this first age giants existed in that country.… They relate of one of the seven whom they mention as having escaped from the deluge, that, the earth becoming populous, he went to Chululan and there began to build a tower which is that of which the brick base is still visible. The name of that chief was Xelhua; he built it in order that should a deluge come again he might escape to it. Its base is 1,800 feet in circumference. When it had already reached a great height lightning from heaven fell and destroyed it. Those Indians who were under that chief who had escaped from the deluge, named Xelhua, made bricks out of a mountain in Tlalamanalco called Cocotle, and from Tlalamanalco to Chulula Indians were placed to pass the bricks and cement from hand to hand: and thus they built this tower, that was named Tulan Chulula, which was so high that it appeared to reach heaven. And being content, since it seemed to them that they had a place to escape from the deluge if it should again happen, and from whence they might ascend into heaven—[[55]]a chalcuitl, which is a precious stone, fell from thence and struck it to the ground. Others say that the chalcuitl was in the shape of a toad; and that whilst destroying the tower it reprimanded them, inquiring of them their reason for wishing to ascend into heaven, since it was sufficient for them to see what was on the earth. The base of the tower is at the present day still remaining and its circumference is 1,800 feet.”
This myth has equivalents in the Hindoo story of the manner in which Hanuman, king of the monkeys, built a bridge from India to Ceylon, and in Scottish legend, where Corstorphine Church, near Edinburgh, is the scene of the building, the stones being passed on from hand to hand by the “Picts” from Ravelston Quarry, some considerable distance away. But it bears a more striking resemblance to the story of the tower of Babel, the work of another being of gigantic origin—Nimrod. Xelhua was the mythical ancestor of the people of Tehuacan, and Teotitlan del Camino. It may be that his myth has been sophisticated by the priestly writers who set it down, and in any case it seems to be ætiological or explanatory of the Pyramid of Cholula.
THE FALL OF THE GODS
In the literature of ancient Mexican mythology we find persistent vestigial notices of a fall of the gods, or rather of certain deities from “heaven.” Thus in the interpretation of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis we find a divine locality called Tamoanchan described as the “mansion” from which they fell, and “where they gathered roses.” The same paragraph[27] relates that Tamoanchan “is the place where these gods were created whom they feared: it signifies the Terrestrial Paradise, and accordingly they relate that those gods being in that place transgressed by plucking roses and branches from the trees, and that on this account Tonacatecutli and his wife, Tonacacigua, became highly incensed, and cast them out of that place, and that some of them came [[56]]to earth and others went to hell.” One of these, the divinity most frequently associated by the Codices with this event, Ixnextli, is spoken of in the same work[28] as “Eve, always weeping and looking at her husband Adam. She is called Ixnextli, which signifies ‘Eyes blind with ashes,’ and this refers to the time subsequent to her sinning by plucking the roses.” In Codex Telleriano-Remensis (Plate VII, Kingsborough) she is associated with a god Ueuecoyotl and is represented as kneeling on a chair with head averted. There is no doubt that the name given her here, and which is supplemented by the name Xochiquetzal, is that of a variant of the latter, who is the goddess of flowers.
In his interpretation of this goddess in his work on the Aubin-Goupil tonalamatl (pp. 118–119) Seler gives it as his opinion that the insignia of the goddess Tonacaciuatl, consort of the creative deity Tonacatecutli, is identical with that of Xochiquetzal, and proceeds to say that this strongly suggests “that the home of the cosmogonic speculations embodied in the names of Tonacatecutli and Tonacaciuatl was to be sought in the region where dwelt the goddess Xochiquetzal, and this was assuredly not Mexico proper, but appears to have been the group which in one place is comprised by Torquemada under the name Chalmeca, Olmeca, Xicalanca, Tepaneca, Xochimilca, and Tlalhuica. Here by Chalmeca are to be understood the dwellers about the volcano, and by Olmeca, Xicalanca, the aborigines of the Tlaxcallan district.… Originally the goddess Xochiquetzal is perhaps nothing more than the deity of one of those mountains from which the life-giving waters flow down from the fields.” It is easy to believe that Xochiquetzal is a variant of Tonacaciuatl; but it is not necessary to infer therefrom that the Olmec-Tlaxcaltec version of the myth relating to her with its cosmogonic speculations was prior in origin to that which found acceptance at Mexico, even although the Olmecs were regarded as an older race. Tonacatecutli and his consort were believed to be Toltec deities, and had thus a greater antiquity behind them than Olmec myth could invest them [[57]]with. Codex Vaticanus A tells much the same story regarding Ixnextli and was probably inspired from the same source.
MEXICAN CONCEPTIONS OF THE UNIVERSE
No definite account of the Mexican conception of the universe has come down to us, but we are probably founding correctly if we accept the Maya belief as closely approximating to that in general currency in Mexico. An examination of the central design in the Maya Book of Chilan Balam of Mani, given in Cogolludo’s History of Yucatan (1640), shows the earth as a cubical block, by which term it is practically described in the Popol Vuh (“the quadrated castle, four-pointed, four-sided, four-bordered”). This the Maya described as tem (“the altar”), that is, the altar of the gods, the offering upon which was life. Above this cube on four legs is the celestial vase (cum) containing the heavenly waters, rains, and showers, upon which all life depends. Above it hang the rain-clouds which fill it and from it springs the vax che, or Tree of Life, with outspread branches.
A similar illustration from the Codex Cortesiano,[29] a Maya MS. which has been described as the “Tableau of the Bacabs” or heavenly supporters, shows the Tree of Life, the Celestial Vase, and the cloud masses. Beneath the tree are seen the two creative deities, and the whole design is surrounded by the twenty day-signs.
THE FIVE REGIONS OF THE WORLD
The Mexicans divided the universe into five regions. The locus classicus for the representatives of the gods who preside over these regions is the first sheet of the Codex Fejérváry-Mayer. The Fire-god occupies the centre of the picture, for just as fire occupies a space in the middle of the primitive hut, so does Xiuhtecutli maintain the central position in the universal disposition of things. From him four streams [[58]]of sacrificial blood radiate in the direction of the four cardinal points, east, north, west, south,[30] which are situated at each corner of the picture, for he rules over all as well as over the centre, which is known as Tlalxicco. These bands of blood end in the four day-signs—acatl, tecpatl, calli, and tochtli, from which alone the years of the “calendar” or tonalamatl could be named, and which respectively agree with the cardinal points noted above. The four sides of the square are also associated with the four quarters of the universe. Thus the top square in the picture represents Tlapcopa, Region of the Dawn (the East), the right-hand side Uitznauac, Place of Thorns (the South), the bottom Ciutlampa, Region of Women (the West), and the left-hand side Mictlampa, Place of the Dead (the North). Within these squares are seen four species of trees, belonging to the four points of the compass. They resemble the trees seen in sheet 49 of Codex Borgia and sheet 17 of Codex Vaticanus B, from the first of which codices they can be more clearly described.
North.
South.
THE TREES OF THE WORLD-QUARTERS.
(Codex Fejérváry-Mayer, sheet 1.)
The Tree of the East is represented as a highly conventionalized tree having two boughs, each with four branches which end in the chalchihuitl (greenstone) symbol. Round branches are twisted two ropes, green and blue in colour, set with golden bells. A quetzal bird perches upon the top and the trunk is decorated with the symbol for war, for the spirits of the sacrificed warriors were believed to dwell in the eastern heavens, where the sun rose. The tree springs from the body of the Earth-goddess, and the ornaments borne by it are symbolic of the rich and fruitful character of the Orient.
The Tree of the North.—This tree is painted half-green, half-blue, but is set with thorns in every part. Bands of blood and darkness issue from the body of the Earth-goddess, in which it has its root, and these wind around its boughs. The eagle stands upon the top, each of its plumes bristling with a sacrificial stone knife.
The Tree of the West.—This has a yellow star, and bears [[59]]the magic bloom at the end of each branch. It is surmounted by the humming-bird, and its trunk is dotted with the stellar eye, in this case the evening star.
East.
West.
THE TREES OF THE WORLD-QUARTERS.
(Codex Fejérváry-Mayer, sheet 1.)
The Tree of the South.—This, too, is thorny, but painted red, and the trunk is sprinkled with symbols recalling that of the “spoken word” which in the Codices is frequently seen issuing from the mouths of gods and men. It may symbolize smoke or fire, thus alluding to the fiery nature of the region to which the tree belongs. A cloud of darkness and a stream of blood wind around the stem. It is surmounted by the arara bird.
These four trees have parallels in Maya mythology, as, for example, on the altar-pieces of the cross from Palenque (Temple II) and elsewhere.
The gods governing the five regions of the universe are[31]:
- Centre—Xiuhtecutli.
- East—Mixcoatl and Tlaloc.
- North—Itztli and Xochipilli.
- West—Iztac Mixcoatl and Quetzalcoatl.
- South—Macuilxochitl and Xipe.
We find from an examination of the codices that the Mexicans believed that the “world” or universe was divided into:
- Tlalxicco, the centre or “navel” of the Earth.
- Tlapcopa, “the region of the Dawn” (the East).
- Uitznauac, “Place of Thorns” (the South).
- Ciuatlampa, “Region of Women” (the West).
- Mictlampa, “Place of the Dead” (the North).
These several regions demand a brief description.
Tlalxicco was the dark interior of the earth, which was supposed to be inhabited by an animal-headed god or demon, resembling a badger, to whom no name has as yet been applied, but who seems to possess affinities with sorcery and the darker arts. A good representation of him is to be found on sheet 9 of Codex Vaticanus B.
Tlapcopa, the East, or “Region of the Dawn,” was regarded [[60]]as a region of prosperity, fertility, and abundant food-supplies. It was the house of the Sun, the region where sacrificed warriors dwelt in bliss, and will be further described when we come to deal with the subject of “heaven and hell.”
THE TREE OF THE MIDDLE-QUARTER.
Uitznauac or Uitzlampa, “Region of Thorns” (the South), was, as its name implied, a place of rather evil omen, for it was sometimes thought of as inhabited by Mictlan, Lord of the Dead. The Mexicans, dwelling in a plateau country where climatic conditions were temperate, probably regarded the tropics to the south as a region fatal to health, and generally insalubrious in character.
Ciuatlampa, “Region of Women” (the West), was the place to which those women who died in their first childbed (Civapipiltin or Ciuateteô) went after death, and as such falls to be described in the section on “heaven and hell.” But it was also the home of the maize-plant, and of the deities producing it, and also of the Gods of Procreation. It was the Region of the Evening Star, Tlauizcalpantecutli, the planet Venus. In Codex Borgia (sheets 43–46) we seem to see a subdivision of the Western region into North, South, and West. This region may also be collated with Tamoanchan, the paradisaical land of abundant maize, where the maize goddess Tlazolteotl gave birth to her son Centeotl.
Mictlampa, “Region of the Dead,” also falls to be noticed in the section on “heaven and hell.” Symbolically it is the region of drought.
THE SUPPORTERS OF THE HEAVENS
Just as we gain light upon the subject of the Mexican idea of the universe from Maya sources, so do we find a similar correspondence in the beliefs of the two races as regards the conception that the heavens were supported by certain deities. Thus the Maya believed that the heavens were upheld by four gods called Bacabs, and we find pictures in the Mexican Codices which depict certain deities upholding both the heavens and the earth. On sheets 49–52 of Codex Borgia (upper half) are seen the gods of the four quarters and the four supporters of the sky, which last are Tlauizcalpantecutli, [[61]]the Sun-god, Quetzalcoatl, and Mictlantecutli. On sheets 19–23 of Codex Vaticanus B the four upholders of the heavens are given as Tlauizcalpantecutli, Uitzilopochtli, Quetzalcoatl, and Mictlantecutli, and the four terrestrial gods as Xipe Totec, Mictlantecutli, Xochipilli, and Centeotl. The first four are shown upholding the starry firmament, so that we are left in no doubt as regards the existence of such a conception as the support of the heavens by certain gods. The close correspondence between the personnel of the sky-bearers in the two MSS. proves a fairly universal acceptance of the belief, especially as Xipe Totec, and Tonatiuh the Sun-god have much in common.[32]
THE AZTEC HEAVENS
According to ancient Mexican belief various destinations awaited the dead. Warriors slain in battle repaired to the region of the sun, where they dwelt in bliss with the deity who presided over that luminary. Sacrificed captives also fared thence. These followed the sun in his daily course, crying aloud and beating upon their shields, and fighting sham battles. “It is also said,” writes Sahagun in his History of the Affairs of New Spain (Appendix to bk. iii, ch. 3), “that in this heaven are trees and forests of divers sorts. The offerings which the living of this world make to the dead duly arrive at their destination, and are received in this heaven. After four years of sojourn in that place the souls of the dead are changed into divers species of birds having rich plumage of the most brilliant colours.” These were known as tzintzonme[33] (“little bird which flies from place to place”), and they flitted from blossom to blossom on earth as well as in heaven, sucking the rich fragrance from the tropical blooms of the deep Valleys of Anahuac. This region is the Ciutlampa, and perhaps the Tamoanchan alluded to above.
Tlalocan.—An even more material paradise was presided over by the water-god or deity of moisture, Tlaloc. Sahagun [[62]]calls this a “terrestrial paradise,” “where they feign that there is surfeit of pleasure and refreshment, void, for a space, of torment.” In that delectable region there is plenteousness of green maize, of calabashes, pepper, tomatoes, haricots, and it is fulfilled with variegated blossoms. There dwell the god Tlaloc and his followers. The persons who gain admittance to this paradise are those who have been slain by lightning or thunderbolt, the leprous and the dropsical—those whose deaths have in any way been caused through the agency of water—for Tlaloc is god of that element. Existence there is perpetual. The paradise of Tlaloc was situated in the east in a climate of eternal summer.
Homeyoca.—The interpreter of the Codex Vaticanus A states that the abode of the Creator of the Universe, Tonacatecutli, was Homeyoca or Homeiocan, “place of the Holy Trinity.” The etymology is vague, but would appear to apply to duality rather than trinity, a suggestion which is buttressed by the androgynous character of the creative deities. In an accompanying picture he points out the various departments of this heaven as “the Red Heaven,” “the Yellow Heaven,” “the White Heaven.” Young children, he says, went to a specific paradise, but it was thought that they would return to re-people the world after the third destruction. They were nourished by a milk-giving tree round which they were seated, getting suck from the branches.
But we have glimpses here and there in Aztec literature of a much more elaborate series of heavens, thirteen in number. The first contained certain planets, the second was the home of the Tzitzimimê, who included many of the great gods, the third that of the Centzon Mimixcoa, or star-warriors, who were many-coloured—yellow, black, white, red, blue—and provided the sun with food in the shape of blood. The fourth was inhabited by birds, the fifth by fire-snakes (perhaps comets), the sixth was the home of the winds, the seventh harboured dust, and in the eighth dwelt the gods. The remainder were placed at the disposal of the high primal and creative gods Tonacatecutli and his spouse Tonacaciuatl, [[63]]whose abode proper was in the thirteenth and highest heaven.[34]
MICTLAMPA AS HADES
The Hades of the Aztec race was Mictlampa, presided over by Mictlantecutli (Lord of Mictlampa) and his spouse (Mictecaciuatl). The souls of the defunct who fared thither were those who died of disease, chiefs, great personages, or humbler folk. On the day of death the priest harangued the deceased, telling him that he was about to go to a region “where there is neither light nor window,” and where all was shadow, a veritable land of gloom, the passage to which swarmed with grisly forms inimical to the soul. It was a vast, trackless, and gloomy desert, having nine divisions, of which the last, Chiconahuimictlan, was the abode of the lord of the place. Rank and privilege would appear to have been maintained even in this dark realm, although all offerings to the dead must first be inspected by Mictlantecutli himself ere being passed on to their proper owners. Sahagun states that four years were occupied in journeying to Mictlampa, evidently an error for four days, as elsewhere he says that the former period was spent within the regions of the dead. The journey thence was replete with terrors. Says the interpreter of the Codex Vaticanus A: “In this region of hell they supposed that there existed four gods, or principal demons, one of whom was superior, whom they called Zitzimatl, who is the same as Miquitlamtecotl, the great god of hell. Yzpuzteque, the lame demon, was he who appeared in the streets with the feet of a cock. Nextepehua was the scatterer of ashes, Contemoque signifies he who descends headforemost; an allusion being made to the etymology which learned men assign to the name of the Devil, which signifies deorsum cadens, which mode of descent after souls they attribute to him from this name and Zon. Yzpuzteque is he whose abode is in the streets, the same as Satan, he who on a sudden appears sideways. It appears that they [[64]]have been acquainted with the Holy Scriptures, although clearer arguments in proof of this fact are adduced in the course of the following pages. They say that these four gods or demons have goddesses.”
These and other dread beings, according to the same MS., rendered the hellward journey terrible in the extreme, and an attempt was made to mitigate the terrors of the passage between the two worlds by means of passports of much the same character as the spells in the Egyptian “Book of the Dead,” which franked the soul past the numerous demons and dangers which awaited it. The first paper served to pass him by two mountains which threatened to clash together and crush him. The second saved him from the maw of a huge snake. Others helped him to face the lurking terrors of eight deserts and eight hills, and to avoid the grim crocodile Xochitonal. A wind of sharp flint knives then attacked him. Lastly he came to the river Chiconahuopan (Nine Waters), which he crossed on the back of a red-coloured dog which accompanied him and which was killed for that purpose by having an arrow thrust down its throat. It is not clear whether this dog acted as a guide to Mictlampa, or whether it preceded the soul, but it would seem that its master found it awaiting him when he came to the banks of the river, in the passage of which it assisted him. It kept its vigil on the opposite bank, however, and had to swim the river ere it could reach him.
The deceased then came before Mictlantecutli, to whom he made suitable gifts—cotton, perfumes, and a mantle. He was told to which sphere he must go. It is obvious that Mictlampa was not so much a place of punishment as a place of the dead, a Hades, where the souls of the good and evil were alike consigned. Its locality is partially fixed, for it is “the place where the sun slept,” and, like the Egyptian Amenti, it was therefore antipodean, or occupied the centre of the earth. After a four years’ sojourn in this dark monarchy the soul was supposed to come to a place where, according to the interpreter of the Codex Vaticanus, it enjoyed a measure of rest. [[65]]
[1] Translation in Kingsborough, vol. vi, p. 198. [↑]
[3] L. Spence, The Popol Vuh (1908), description of bk. i; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Le Vuh Popol, Paris, 1861. [↑]
[4] An important work republished with a Latin translation by Dr. W. Lehmann under the title of Traditions des anciens Mexicains (Jour. Soc. Amer. Paris, n.s., vol. iii. Paris, 1906. pp. 239–298). [↑]
[5] Kingsborough’s translation, vol. vi, p. 171. [↑]
[6] Chavero’s edition, Mexico, 1892, p. 21. [↑]
[7] See the Popol Vuh, bk. i., for a Quiche analogy to this tale of human degradation. [↑]
[8] Chavero’s edition, Mexico, 1891, pp. ii ff. [↑]
[9] Hist. de Tlaxcala, in Ternaux-Compan’s Voyages, tom. lxxxvi, p. 5; also edition by A. Chavero, Mexico, 1892. [↑]
[10] Hist. Antigua de Mexico, bk. i, c. 4. [↑]
[13] A variant myth makes Quetzalcoatl the god who seeks bones in the underworld from which to make the human race. As he returns, the bones drop to earth and quails gnaw them. Ciuacoatl pounds them into a paste from which men are formed. The Anales de Quauhtitlan makes the gods create man from the cinders of the worlds destroyed in the four epochs. [↑]
[14] Probably because of his status as god of twins and of duplicates of all kinds. [↑]
[15] Obviously this sacred bundle is in the same category with the “medicine-bundle” of the North American Indian tribes, and it would seem that from such a form certain of the Mexican gods were evolved. [↑]
[17] For further information regarding this incident see Boturini, Idea, section iii, 14, “Tlatocaocelotl.” [↑]
[18] These metamorphoses, or at least the first two, are obviously founded upon Xolotl’s dual characteristic as a twin. The resemblance between his name and that of the little amphibious animal axolotl is due to the monstrous character of both. [↑]
[19] Hist. du Tlaxcallan in Ternaux-Compan’s Nouvelles Annales des Voyages (tom. xcix, p. 129). [↑]
[20] Hist. Antig. de Mexico, tom. i, p. 7. [↑]
[21] Storia Antica del Messico, tom. ii, p. 7. [↑]
[23] Curtin, Creation Myths of Primitive America, Intro., p. 35. [↑]
[24] Relaciones (Chavero’s edition; Mexico, 1891), p. 11. Hist. Chichimeca (Chavero’s edition; Mexico, 1892), p. 21. [↑]
[25] Among the American races the soul was thought of as residing in the bones. See Brinton, Myths of the New World, pp. 295 ff., 299, 321. [↑]
[26] Anales de Quauhtitlan. [↑]
[27] Translation of interpretation in Kingsborough, vol. vi, p. 127. [↑]
[29] See Rady y Delgado’s reproduction of this Codex, Madrid, 1892. [↑]
[30] The colours associated with the points of the compass were: East, yellow; north, red; west, blue; south, white. [↑]
[31] For the further relation of the gods to time and space see the appendix on the tonalamatl. [↑]
[32] See myth of the creation of the four supporters, supra. [↑]
[33] Humming-birds. The warriors seem to have been metamorphosed into the naualli or bird-disguise of Uitzilopochtli, the humming-bird god of war. [↑]
[34] Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas. I believe these different heavens to have resulted from the clashing and mingling of rival cults. [↑]
CHAPTER III
THE GREAT GODS
METHOD OF TREATMENT
In the section descriptive of the gods, each divinity is dealt with separately. The need for system and orderly arrangement in the study of Mexican Mythology is clamant. In the hope that future students of the subject may be spared the Herculean task of separating the mythology of the Mexican people from their history, I have thought it best to arrange my material in as systematic a fashion as its complex character permits.
The plan employed is a simple one. I have prefaced the description of each god with a table containing the following information concerning him: Area of Worship, Name, Minor Names, Relationship, Calendar-place, Compass-direction, Symbol, Festivals. In some cases where, for example, a god has no festival or no minor names, the item relating to such information is, of course, absent.
The description proper of each deity begins with an account of his Aspect and Insignia, as observed in the several codices and paintings, manuscripts, vases, or statuary.[1] A section is devoted to festivals celebrated in his honour, another deals with the priesthood specially attendant on him, and a further paragraph with the temples in which he was worshipped. There follows a précis of all known myths relating to him. In certain instances, too, hymns and prayers offered up to [[66]]him are quoted. The last section deals with his nature and status, so far as I have been able to elucidate these.