QUETZALCOATL = “FEATHERED SERPENT”
- Area of Worship: The Plateau of Anahuac.
- Minor Names:
- Chicunaui eecatl—“Nine Wind.”
- Ce acatl—“One Reed.”
- Relationship: Son of Iztacmixcoatl and Chimalman or Xochiquetzal; one of the Tzitzimimê.
- Calendar Place:
- Ruler of the second day-count, eecatl.
- Ruler of the second week, ce ocelotl.
- Ninth of the thirteen day-lords.
- Festivals:
- Ce acatl (movable feast).
- Atlacahualco.
- Compass Direction: East.
ASPECT AND INSIGNIA
General.—The insignia of Quetzalcoatl is fairly constant in its appearance. He usually wears the Huaxtec cone-shaped hat painted in the design of the jaguar-skin, which is occasionally divided vertically into a black or blue and a red field, having an eye in the middle. The hair is bound by a leather strap set with jewels, which has a conventional bird’s head on the front, and in Codex Borgia consistently shows a black, stepped pattern on a white ground. Elsewhere a bow with rounded ends takes the place of this strap, but in Borgia (sheet 62) the hair is bound up with two intertwined snakes. At the back of the neck a fan-shaped nape-ornament is usually seen, consisting of black feathers, from which rise the red plumes of the quetzal bird, and it seems, from the account of the costume sent to Cortéz by Motecuhzoma, that this nape-appendage was made from grouse-feathers, although the Spanish account states that they belonged to the crow. The god usually wears white ear-pendants of hook-like shape, which, Sahagun states, were made of gold. The necklace is of spirally voluted snail-shells, and on the breast is worn a large ornament, also sliced from a shell. The ends of the loin-cloth are rounded off and are generally painted in two colours—brown, the colour [[118]]of the jaguar-skin, and white or red. The god’s atlatl, or spear-thrower, is painted with the stellar design of white circles on a black ground, and in his headdress is stuck the agave-leaf spike and the bone dagger, the implements of penance and mortification. The body-paint is frequently black, like that of the priests. Most of these insignia are of Huaxtec origin and show that Quetzalcoatl was usually associated with this coastal people. The snail-shell ornament on the breast, the hook-shaped ear-pendant, the fan-shaped nape-ornament, and the cone-shaped cap, were undoubtedly of Huaxtec origin, and such objects have been taken from Huaxtec graves and are found represented on vases and jugs from the State of Hidalgo. In many representations of him the god is seen wearing a long-snouted mask, usually painted a bright red, through which he was supposed to expel the wind in his guise of Eecatl, the Wind-god. This mask is frequently fringed with a beard.
FORMS OF QUETZALCOATL.
Quetzalcoatl (right) and Tlauizcalpantecutli. (Codex Borgia, sheet 19.)
Codex Vaticanus B.—Sheet 75: Quetzalcoatl’s body-paint is a dark colour, and in his hair he wears unspun cotton, as does Tlazoltcotl. Sheet 76: Here his face is painted black and he wears the fillet with the step-pattern and the two-coloured cap, and in his hair are stuck the instruments of mortification. He holds in his hand a snake, which is to be regarded as the agricultural implement with which he tills the ground.
Codex Borgia.—Sheet 73: In this place he is set back to back with the Death-god and is surrounded by the twenty day-signs. The body-paint is light blue, and the anterior part of the face has the stellar painting of white circles on a black ground. His conical cap has the parti-coloured painting and the cross, the symbol of the four winds, in the middle. On his breast he wears the snail-shell and in his hand a blue staff. His wind-mask is entirely covered with stellar and lunar emblems. His rattle-staff is light blue, in contradistinction to that of the Death-god, which is sprinkled with blood. Sheet 56: Here he is equipped with the hoe and wears the body-paint of a priest, a necklace of jaguar-skin and teeth, the conical bi-coloured cap, the [[119]]stepped fillet with conventional bird’s head in front, and the bearded face-mask. Stellar symbols and feather-balls dot his dress and headdress. He stands back to back with the Death-god, and it is clear that here he is intended to represent the heavenly Quetzalcoatl, the giver of breath and life. On sheet 72 we see him as a priest surrounded by day-signs and implements of mortification. Sheet 19: As represented in this sheet he stands opposite the Death-god. He wears a dark-coloured garment, and what can be seen of his face is painted black, with a spiral pattern. His mantle bears the cross-hatchings indicative of rain or water and is ornamented with feather balls. The red wind-mask protrudes beneath a parti-coloured cap with stellar eyes, and a fillet with step-pattern and conventional bird’s head, and he wears the snail-shell breast ornament and carries the implements of mortification. Sheet 16: On the lower right-hand corner of this sheet he is depicted in a precisely similar manner.
FORMS OF QUETZALCOATL.
Quetzalcoatl (right) and the Death-god. (Codex Vaticanus, 3773, sheet 76.)
Quetzalcoatl’s Dress sent to Cortéz.—When Cortéz landed at Vera Cruz, Motecuhzoma, believing him to be the god Quetzalcoatl returned, sent him “the dress that was appropriate to him.”[69] This consisted of four costumes, that of Quetzalcoatl proper, and those of Tezcatlipocâ, Tlaloc, and Xiuhtecutli, the Fire-god, who were regarded as the four deities dominant in the four quarters of the heavens, and had in the higher theology become fused in the conception of Quetzalcoatl, or were regarded as variants of him. The Quetzalcoatl dress proper is said by Sahagun to have consisted of the turquoise snake-mask, now to be seen in the British Museum, and which can be easily identified by the folds of the snake’s body forming the eyebrows, the quetzal-feather adornment, and the turquoise throwing-stick, shaped in the form of a snake. It seems probable, however, that this dress, although it is described as that of Quetzalcoatl, was that associated with the Fire-god.
Codex Magliabecchiano.—Sheet 89: Quetzalcoatl is here represented in a dancing attitude. He wears the Huaxtec [[120]]hat made of jaguar-skin, the shield with the snail-shell ornament, which is also reproduced on his breast, and the yellow and red face-painting. The bone “reed” for piercing the tongue is stuck in his headgear, and from it depend balls of cotton. He carries an atlatl, or spear-thrower, symbolic of rain or wind, and similar in motif to the nose-ornament of the Maya God B. His mantle is cross-hatched to symbolize rain or water and is decorated with red bows. He wears anklets of jaguar-skin, and a panache of green and yellow feathers.
Quetzalcoatl. (From the Sahagun MS.)
Pottery figure of Quetzalcoatl from Tezcuco.
FORMS OF QUETZALCOATL.
Sahagun MS. (Biblioteca del Palacio).—In the illustration which accompanies his description in this MS. he wears a pointed cap of jaguar-skin, surmounted by quetzal-plumes. The face and body are painted black with soot, and a curved band falls from beneath the hat to the neck. He wears the golden “water-snake” collar, and on his back the wing of the red guacamayo. Over the hips is slung a cloth with a red border. He wears white sandals, and pieces of jaguar-skin are fastened over the foot. On his shield he has the shell which is typical of him, and in his hand a staff with a motif like that of the nose of the Maya God B. Sahagun says of him: “His image was always in a recumbent position and covered with blankets. The face of it was very ugly, the head large and furnished with a long beard.”[70]
Torquemada states that Quetzalcoatl was a white man, large-bodied, broad-browed, great-eyed, with long black hair and a beard heavy and rounded.[71]
Acosta says of Quetzalcoatl’s image at Cholula: “They called it Quetzallcoalt. This idoll was in a great place in a temple very high. It had about it gold, silver, jewels, very rich feathers, and habits of divers colours. It had the forme of a man, but the visage of a little bird with a red bill, and above a combe full of warts, having ranks of teeth and the tongue hanging out. It carried upon the head a pointed myter of painted paper, a sithe in the hand, and many toyes of gold on the legs, with a thousand other foolish inventions, whereof all had their significations.”[72] [[121]]
Elsewhere Acosta says: “The greatest idoll of all their gods was called Quezcalcovately.… He never ware but one garment of cotton, which was white, narrow and long, and upon that a mantle beset with certain red crosses. They have certain green stones which were his, and those they keep for relickes. One of them is like an ape’s head.”
Anales de Quauhtitlan.—In this work Quetzalcoatl is described as wearing the turquoise snake-mask and the quetzal-feather ornament—that is, the decorations of the Fire-god: “Lastly in the year one reed they say, when he had arrived on the shore of the sea, then he began to weep and put off the garb with which he was arrayed, his quetzal-feather ornament, his turquoise mask.”
QUETZALCOATL.
(From a wall-painting at Mitla.)
TONACATECUTLI-TONACACIUATL.
(From Codex Borgia.)
STATUARY
A statuette of the god from the Valley of Mexico exhibits him in a high cap, ornamented round the lower portion with a serpentine motif, and wearing the sliced snail-shell dress-ornament. A caryatid found in the Calle de las Escalerillas, Mexico City, on the 16th of October 1900, represents him with a long, pointed beard, which might, however, be interpreted as the mouth-mask of the Wind-god lowered down to show the upper part of the face more clearly, and it would seem from this statue that the beard with which Quetzalcoatl is represented in some places in Mexican art is nothing more or less than the mouth-mask pushed down over the chin and neck, although it must be admitted that his mask is frequently depicted with what is undoubtedly a beard. A relief excavated at the Castillo de Teayo shows Quetzalcoatl wearing the feathered-serpent helmet-mask, which in this representation is most elaborate, and the sliced snail-shell dress-ornament. Two figures of Quetzalcoatl found near Texcuco exhibit considerable differentiation from other forms. In both he is seated on the top of a teocalli or temple, and behind him is seen the solar emblem, represented as a large, flaming disc. He wears a high cap which reminds one of the crown of Upper Egypt, as seen in Egyptian representations, except that it is flanked on either side by two large [[122]]studs or knobs and is surrounded at the base by the serpent-motif, as in the specimen from the Valley of Mexico. He also wears his usual breast-ornament. In a round sculpture found at Puebla we perhaps see Quetzalcoatl as a butterfly, and can only identify this figure as the god because of the wind-mask it wears.
WALL-PAINTINGS
In several of the wall-paintings at Mitla, and especially in those on the north side of Palace I, Quetzalcoatl is depicted as wearing the insignia usually connected with him in Mexico. In one of these he wears the Huaxtec cap with jaguar-skin markings, having the sacrificial implements stuck in it, and the wind-mouth mask, with beard. The snail-shell ornament adorns his shield. In another the facial insignia is less easily seen, but the large nape-fan with which he is frequently adorned is well depicted. Immediately behind this is a figure, which, though partially destroyed, is still interesting because of its high degree of conventionality. We have here the cap and panache of Quetzalcoatl, together with the strip running from brow to eye and from eye to jaw, which is part of the face-painting of the Moon-god. Moreover, in the corner we have the symbol of the moon, a pot-shaped bone, so that here, I think, we have a symbol of Quetzalcoatl as the Moon-god. In the preceding figure, too, we have also the lunar emblem, in this place in shape like the nose-plug of the octli-gods, but containing the stellar eye, and flanked by balls of feather-down. It would thus seem that the symbol has some reference to Quetzalcoatl in his variant of the planet Venus. Moreover the eye appears as gouged out. This eye-gouging is seen in the Maya Books of Chilan Balam, in the case of the god Itzamná. These two latter paintings, Seler thinks, are symbolic of the Uiyatao, or the high-priests of Mitla, who were regarded as incarnations of Quetzalcoatl.[73] [[123]]
MYTHS
The myths concerning Quetzalcoatl are numerous and conflicting. In the first place I shall provide a careful précis of the more important, their prolixity rendering full quotation impossible.
Sahagun’s account of Quetzalcoatl may be summarized as follows: The arts had their inception with Quetzalcoatl. His houses were made of chalchiuites, silver, white, and red shells, and rich feathers. His folk were nimble and swift in passage from one place to another, and were called tlanquacemilhiyme.[74] He gave his commands to the people for a hundred leagues round by means of a crier stationed on the mountain Tzotzitepetl.[75] He had wealth in abundance, provision in plenty, and in his time maize was so large in the head that a man might not carry more than one stalk in his clasped arms. Pumpkins were in circumference as great as a man is high, and the stalks of the wild amaranth grew like trees. Cotton grew in all colours—red, scarlet, yellow, violet, white, green, blue, black, grey, orange, and tawny. In the city of Tollan, where Quetzalcoatl dwelt, were many birds of rich plumage and sweet song. The servants of Quetzalcoatl were wealthy and had abundance of all things, and food was plentiful with them. Their master did penance by pricking his legs and drawing blood with the spines of the maguey and by washing at midnight in a fountain. But sorcerers came against Quetzalcoatl and his people, the Toltecs, and these, we are told, were the gods Tezcatlipocâ, Uitzilopochtli, and Tlacuepan. Tezcatlipocâ visited the house of Quetzalcoatl in the guise of an old man, but was told that he was sick, and was at first refused entrance. Later, however, he was admitted, Quetzalcoatl observing that he had waited for him for many days. Tezcatlipocâ then produced a draught of medicine which, he assured the sick king, would intoxicate him, ease his heart, and carry his thoughts away from the trials and fatigues of death and departure.[76] This [[124]]latter phrase roused Quetzalcoatl to ask where he must go, for that he had a premonition of departure seems clear. “To Tollantlapallan,” replied Tezcatlipocâ, “where another old man awaits thee. He and you shall speak together, and on thy return thou shalt be as a youth, yea as a boy.” With little goodwill Quetzalcoatl quaffed the medicine, and having once tasted of it he drank more deeply, so that at last he became intoxicated and maudlin. That which he had drunk was the wine made from the maguey-plant, called teoncetl (“drink of the gods”). And so great a longing to depart came upon him that at length he arose and went from Tollan.[77] Ere departing, Quetzalcoatl burned his houses of shells and silver and buried many precious things in the mountains and ravines. He turned the cocoa-trees into mezquites and dispatched all the birds of brilliant plumage in Anahuac, three hundred miles away. On his journey to the coast he came to the hill Quauhtitlan, where he found a great tree, under which he rested. Gazing into a mirror, as he reclined under its shade, he said, “I am very old,” named the place Ueuequauhtitlan after his saying,[78] and stoned the tree. The stones he cast at it sank into its trunk, and were to be seen remaining there for long afterwards. Preceded by flute-players, he recommenced his journey, but once more became weary, and rested on a stone by the wayside. Looking towards Tollan, he wept, and his tears pitted the stone on which he sat, and the imprints of his hands and thighs also remained thereon. That place he called Temacpalco. Reaching a great river, he halted until a stone bridge was built over it, and having crossed, he called the place Tepanaoya. Certain sorcerers now met him, and asked him whither he was bound, why he had left his city of Tollan, and who would now do penance there. Quetzalcoatl replied that he must go, that he was called to Tlapallan by the Sun. The sorcerers requested him to leave behind his knowledge of the mechanical arts, the smelting of silver, the working [[125]]of precious stones, and masonry, painting, and feather-work. These he left with them perforce. But his treasure of jewels he cast into the fountain of Cozcaapan hard by. Another magician whom he met insisted upon his drinking a draught which he could give “to none of the living.” Intoxicated, he slept, and when he awoke, tore his hair. That place was called Cachtoca. Pursuing his journey, he passed between a mountain of snow and a volcano, where his hump-backed and dwarfish servants perished from the excessive cold. Bitterly he bewailed their death in song. Passing on, leaving signs of his progress on every hand, and sliding down the mountains, he tarried here and there, building a tlachtli court at one place, the markings of which were visible in deep gashes on the hills. Once he transfixed a tree with a dart or with another tree, so that it resembled a cross. In other localities he constructed subterranean houses (mictlancalco), and elsewhere balanced a great rolling-stone, and on all these spots he conferred names. At length he came to the sea-shore, where he commanded that a raft of snakes (coatapochtli) should be constructed for him. In this he seated himself as in a canoe, put out to sea, and set out for Tlapallan.[79]
Torquemada’s account of the Quetzalcoatl myth somewhat resembles that of Sahagun, due, no doubt, to the circumstance that he had access to the unpublished MS. of that author, from which he borrowed in a wholesale manner. The points of difference are these: Quetzalcoatl was high-priest of Tollan, whence he migrated to Cholula. The ruler of Tollan was one Huemac, but Quetzalcoatl was its chief in spiritual and ecclesiastical matters. In drinking the magic potion of Tezcatlipocâ, Quetzalcoatl desired to render himself immortal. He left the impress of his body on a stone situated on a mountain near the city of Tlalnepantla (or Temacpalco), two leagues from Mexico, as the natives declared to Torquemada himself. Met by the sorcerers Tezcatlipocâ and the others who tried to hinder his going, he refused to stay his progress, and said that he must pass on to the sun-land. [[126]]Father Sahagun, remarks Torquemada, when at Xochimilco, was asked by the natives, who were keenly desirous of knowledge on the point, where Tlapallan was, and replied that he did not know, as he had then not been long among them. The fountain in which Quetzalcoatl cast his jewels was now called Coaapan, “in the snake-water.” He then passed on to Cholula, where he was adored as a god. When he had resided there for twenty years, he was expelled by Tezcatlipocâ. Setting out once more for Tlapallan, accompanied by four virtuous youths, he embarked at Coatzacoalco. Bidding farewell to his disciples, he assured them that at a future time there would come by way of the sea, where the sun rises, certain white men with white beards, like him, and that these would be his brothers and would rule the land. These disciples became the rulers of the four provinces of Cholula. Quetzalcoatl was god of the air, and during his life on earth was devoted to the careful observance of the older forms of worship, but instituted many new rites, ceremonies, and festivals and made the calendar. Barren women prayed to him. He swept the road, so that the Tlaloque might rain. For a month or so before the rainy season stormy winds blew throughout New Spain. The Cholulans preserved as relics green stones that had belonged to him, on one of which was carved a monkey’s head. A great temple to him was founded at Cholula.[80]
Elsewhere Torquemada descants on the Quetzalcoatl myth as follows: A body of men came from the north by way of Panuco, dressed in long robes of black linen, cut low at the neck, with short sleeves. They came to Tollan, but finding the country there too thickly peopled, passed on to Cholula, where they were well received. Their chief was Quetzalcoatl, a man with ruddy complexion and long beard. These people multiplied and sent colonists to the Mixtec and Zapotec countries, raising the great buildings at Mitla. They were cunning handicraftsmen, not so good at masonry as at jewellers’ work, sculpture, and agriculture. Tezcatlipocâ and Huemac conceived an enmity to Quetzalcoatl, and as [[127]]he did not wish to go to war with them, he and his folk removed to Onohualco (Yucatan, Tabasco, and Campeche).[81]
Motolinia says of Quetzalcoatl that when Iztacmixcoatl, the Mexican Adam, married his second wife Chimalmat, she bore him Quetzalcoatl, who grew up chaste and temperate. He instituted fasting and mortification, and never married. He founded the custom of drawing blood from the ears and tongue in penitence. A certain Chichemecatl fastened a leather strap to his arm, near the shoulder, and from that time this Chichemecatl was known as Acolhuatl, and became the ancestor of the Colhua. Quetzalcoatl was god of the air and many temples were raised to him.[82]
Mendieta has much to say of Quetzalcoatl, but in a synopsis of his account we retain only such circumstances as have not been already alluded to: Many different traditions regarding Quetzalcoatl existed, some saying that he was the son of Camacotli (Camaxtli), god of hunting and fishing, and of his wife Chimialuna; others that Chimialuna, when sweeping one day, found a chalchihuitl stone, by virtue of which she became miraculously pregnant and gave birth to Quetzalcoatl, who came either from Tollan or Yucatan. The people came to love him, not only because he taught them handicrafts, and desired no offerings but those of bread, flowers, and perfumes. He forbade all war and disturbance. Pilgrims came to his shrine at Cholula from all parts of Mexico, even the enemies of Cholula, and the lords of distant lands built them chapels and idols there. Among all the gods only Quetzalcoatl was called Lord, and men swore by him. The gods thought it well that the people should have some means of writing by which they might direct themselves, and two of their number, Oxomoco and Cipactonal, who dwelt in a cave in Cuernavaca, especially considered the matter. Cipactonal thought that her descendant Quetzalcoatl should be consulted, and she called him into counsel. He, too, thought the idea of a calendar good, and the two addressed themselves to the task of making the tonalamatl. To Cipactonal was given the privilege of choosing [[128]]and writing the first sign. She painted the cipactli animal, and called the sign ce cipactli (“one cipactli”). Oxmoco then wrote ome acatl (“two cane”), and Quetzalcoatl “three house,” and so on, until the thirteen signs were completed.[83]
Another form of the Quetzalcoatl myth given by Mendieta is in substance as follows: Tezcatlipocâ let himself down from the upper regions by means of a spider’s web, and coming to Tollan engaged in a game of tlachtli (the native ball game) with Quetzalcoatl, in the midst of which he transformed himself into a tiger. Those who watched the game were panic-stricken, and cast themselves pell-mell into a ravine, and were drowned in a river which flowed therein. Tezcatlipocâ then harassed Quetzalcoatl from city to city, until he drove him to Cholula, and latterly to Tlapallan, where he died, and where his followers burnt his body, thus inaugurating the custom of burning the dead.[84]
The interpreter of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis says regarding Quetzalcoatl:
“Quetcalcoatl they say was he who created the world; and they bestowed upon him the appellation of Lord of the Wind, because they said that Tonacatecotli when it appeared good to him breathed and begat Quecalcoatle. They erected round temples to him without any corners. They said that it was he (who was also lord of these thirteen signs which are here represented) who formed the first man. They celebrated a festival on the sign of four earthquakes, to the destroyer with reference to the fate which again waited the world; for they said that it had undergone four destructions and would again be destroyed. He alone had a human body like that of men; the other gods were of an incorporeal nature.
“After the deluge the custom of sacrificing commenced. Topilcin Quetcalcoatle was born on the day of seven canes; and they celebrated on this same day of seven canes a great festival in Cholula, to which they came from all parts of the country and the cities and brought great presents to the lords and papas of the temple; and they did the same on [[129]]the day on which he disappeared or died, which was the day of One Cane. These festivals happened at the expiration of every period of fifty-two years.
“They here fasted the last four days to Quecalcoatl of Tula, who is he who was named after the first Calcoatle; and now they name him One Cane, which is the star Venus, of which they tell the fable accredited amongst them.
“Tlavizcalpantecutli is the star Venus the first created light (Civahteltona) before the deluge. They say that it was a fire or a star: it was created before the sun. This star (Venus) is Quecalcoatle. They say this is the star which we call Lucifer from its light; and they accordingly paint it with the sign of one Cane, which was the day dedicated to it. He took this name on the occasion of his departure or disappearance. Tlavizcalpantecutli is the God of Morning when it begins to dawn: he is also the Lord of Twilight on the approach of Night: he presided over these thirteen days during the four last of which they fasted. It properly was the first light which appeared in the world; it here signifies the light which diffuses itself over things, or the surface of the earth.”
The interpreter of Codex Vaticanus A says:
“They invented dreams, the result of their own blindness, relating that a god of the name of Citallatonac, which is the sign seen in heaven called St. James’s or the Milky Way, sent an ambassador from heaven on an embassy to a virgin of Tulan called Chimalman (a shield) who had two sisters, the one named Tzochitlique and the other Couatlique; and that the three being alone in the house, two of them, observing the ambassador of heaven, died of fright, Chimalman alone remaining alive, to whom the ambassador announced that it was the will of this god that she should conceive a son; and having delivered to her the message, he rose and left the house, and as soon as he had left it she conceived a son without connection with man, who they called Quetzalcoatle, who they say is the god of air, and his temples are round in the manner of churches, although till that time such was not the fashion of their temples. He was the inventor of [[130]]temples of this form as we shall show. He it was, as they say, who caused hurricanes and in my opinion was the god who was called Citaladuali and it was he who destroyed the world by winds. This painting is here wanting, together with another which represented that as soon as the son of this virgin was born he possessed the use of reason. The son of the virgin, Topilcin Quetzalcoatle, knowing that the vices of men were necessarily the cause of the troubles of the world, determined on asking the goddess Chalchiutlicue (this was the heavenly designation of the virgin Chimalman) who is she who remained after the deluge with the man in the tree, and is the mother of the god Tlaloque, whom they have made goddess of water, that they might obtain rain when they stood in need of and accordingly Quetzalcoatle commenced offering sacrifices to obtain rain, as a period of four years had elapsed since it had rained.
“Quetzalcoatltopilzin does penance and makes offerings of prayers, sacrifice, gold gems, incense, etc., to appease divine wrath against the people; draws his own blood with thorns. After the expiration of a long period during which he continued his penance a lizard appeared scratching the ground giving him to understand that the scourge of heaven was past and that the earth would with joy produce its fruits, which quickly came to pass; and accordingly they relate that on a sudden such abundance followed that the earth, which had remained so many years barren, bore many kinds of fruit and from that even they took four signs.
“Quetzalcoatl’s example teaches men to do penance, make offerings. He founded four temples—the first for the nobles; second, for the people; third, House of Fear or Serpent; fourth, Temple of Shame.
“Of Quetzalcoatle they relate that, proceeding on his journey, he arrived at the Red Sea, which is here painted, and which they named Tlapallan; and that entering into it, they saw no more of him, nor knew what became of him, except that they say that he desired them at the time of his departure to restrain their grief and to expect his return, which would take place at the appointed time; and accordingly [[131]]they expect him even to the present time: and when the Spaniards came to this country they believed that it was he, and when at a later period of 1550 when the Çapotecas revolted, they alleged, as the cause of their insurrection, the report that their god who had to redeem them had already come. Quetzalcoatle was born on the sign One Cane; and the year of the Spaniards’ arrival commenced on the sign One Cane, according to their ancient Computation: whence the occasion arose of their believing that the Spaniards were their gods; because they say that he had foretold that a bearded nation would arrive in those countries who would subject them. They adored him as a god, as will be seen: for they believed it certain that he had ascended into heaven and was that star which was visible at the north of the sun before the break of day, which is the planet Venus; and they represented him accordingly as has already been shown.
“Quetzalcoatle was the first inventor of sacrifices of human blood, amongst the various other things which they offered to the gods; and this was the manner in which they pierced their tongues, that the blood might flow … and their ears and penis; till at last, as we shall presently mention, the custom of human sacrifices was introduced, when they tore out the hearts of the victims to present them to the face of the idol which they considered the image of their wretched god.
“They declare that their supreme deity Tonacatecotle, whom we have just mentioned, who by another name was called Citinatonali, when it appeared good to him, breathed and begot Quetzalcoatle, not by connection with woman, but by his breath alone, as we have observed above, when he sent his ambassador, as they say, to the virgin of Tula. They believed him to be the god of the air and he was the first to whom they built temples and churches, which they formed perfectly round without any angles. They say that it was he who effected the reformation of the world by penance, since as, according to his account, his father had created the world and men had given themselves up to vice, on which account it had been frequently destroyed, Citinatonali sent [[132]]his son into the world to reform it.… They assigned to him the dominion over the other thirteen signs, which are here represented, in the same manner in which they assigned the preceding thirteen to his father. They celebrated a great festival on this sign, as we shall see on the sign of four earthquakes, which is the fourth in order here, because they feared that the world would be destroyed in that sign, as he had foretold to them when he disappeared in the Red Sea, which event occurred on the same sign. As they considered him their advocate, they celebrated a solemn festival and fasted during four signs.”
The Anales de Quauhtitlan or Codex Chimalpopocâ states that Quetzalcoatl was born in no natural manner, but was a nine years’ child. He created the four classes of men: the men of the four “suns” or periods of the world were made by him on the day chicome ehecatl, or “seven wind.” The record proceeds to relate the circumstances of his rule at Tollan, the manner in which he discovered the value of precious stones, gold and silver, red and white shells, quetzal feathers, the cotinga and red sparrowbill feathers, the various species of cocoa and cotton. When he had drunk the octli offered him by Tezcatlipocâ, he forgot his chastity in the intoxication and indulged in intercourse with Quetzalpetlatl, for which sin he was forced to quit Mexico. When he was driven from Tollan in the year one reed, he arrived on the sea-shore, wept, and divested himself of his garb and turquoise snake-mask. Then he immolated himself by burning, his ashes became dust and changed into birds and his heart was converted into the morning star. Lastly, it is said of him that when he died he was not visible for four days, during which period he tarried in the Underworld. For a subsequent four days “he was bones.” “After eight days appeared the great star which they called Quetzalcoatl. They said that he thus mounted the throne as a god.”
In its second or historical portion the codex states that Quetzalcoatl discovered maize which was concealed in the mountain Tonacatepetl. Many of the gods searched for it, but Quetzalcoatl, taking the form of a black ant, was guided [[133]]to the spot by a red ant. As he was unable to lift the mountain, it was split open by the magical prowess of Xolotl in his manifestation of Nanahuatl, and the maize became the spoil of Quetzalcoatl. But it was stolen from him by Tlaloc, the rain-god proper, perhaps an allegorical manner of alluding to the more direct influence of that deity upon growth.
Other myths relating to Quetzalcoatl, chiefly as a creative agency, will be found in the précis of the opening chapters of the Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas, in the chapter on Cosmogony.
In Codex Borgia we find a passage (sheets 35–46) which appears to refer to the progress of Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipocâ through the infernal regions, and which might be described as the Mexican “Harrying of Hell.” On this passage Seler has briefly commented (see his Commentary on Codex Vaticanus B, p. 119).
CENTRAL AMERICAN MYTHS RELATING TO QUETZALCOATL
Quetzalcoatl is, perhaps, singular among the deities of Mexico in that a number of well-authenticated Central American myths cluster around his name in its forms of Kukulcan, Gucumatz, and Votan. Certain of these must be considered here, for purposes of comparison and analogy.
Nuñez de la Vega: A book in the Quiche tongue, said to have been written by Votan, a local name for Quetzalcoatl, was at one time in the possession of Nuñez de la Vega, Bishop of Chiapas, who included portions of it in his Constituciones Diocesianos de Chiapas, but nevertheless destroyed it in his holocaust of MSS. at Heuheutlan in 1691. Ordoñez de Aguilar had, however, made a copy of it before its destruction, and incorporated it in his Historia de Cielo MS. In this work Votan declared himself “a snake,” a descendant of Imos, of the line of Chan[85] of the race of Chivim. Taking Aguilar’s account along with that of Nuñez de la Vega, as both rely upon the same authority, we find that Votan proceeded to America by divine command, his mission being to lay the [[134]]foundation of civilization. With this object in view he departed from Valum Chivim,[86] passing the dwelling of the thirteen snakes, and arrived in Valum Votan, whence, with some members of his family, he set out to form a settlement, ascending the Usumacinta River and ultimately founding Palenque. By reason of their peculiar dress the Tzendal Indians called them Tzequitles, or “men with shirts,” but consented to amalgamate with them. Ordoñez states that when Votan had established himself at Palenque he made several visits to his original home. On one of these he came to a tower which had been intended to reach the heavens, a project which had been brought to naught by the linguistic confusion of those who conceived it. Finally he was permitted to reach “the rock of heaven” by a subterranean passage. Returning to Palenque, he found that others of his race had arrived there, and with them he made a friendly pact. He built a temple by the Heuheutan River, known, from its subterranean chambers, as “the House of Darkness,” and here he deposited the national records under the charge of certain old men called tlapianes, or guardians, and an order of priestesses. Here also were kept a number of tapirs. A quotation of the passage dealing with this temple may be made from Nuñez de la Vega:
“Votan is the third heathen in the calendar (that is the deity who is ascribed to the third division of the calendar), and in the little history written in the Indian language all the provinces and cities in which he tarried were mentioned; and to this day there is always a clan in the city of Teopisa that they call the Votans. It is also said that he is the lord of the hollow wooden instrument which they call tepanaguaste (that is, the Mexican teponaztli); that he saw the great wall, namely, the tower of Babel, which was built from earth to heaven at the bidding of his grandfather, Noah; and that he was the first man whom God sent to divide and apportion this country of India, and that there, where he saw the great wall, he gave to every nation its special language. It is related that he tarried in Huehueta (which is a city in Soconusco), [[135]]and that there he placed a tapir and a great treasure in a slippery (damp, dark, subterranean) house, which he built by the breath of his nostrils, and he appointed a woman as chieftain, with tapianes (that is, Mexican tlapiani, “keepers”) to guard her. This treasure consisted of jars, which were closed with covers of the same clay, and of a room in which the picture of the ancient heathens who are in the calendar were engraved in stone, together with chalchiuites (which are small, heavy, green stones) and other superstitious images; and the chieftainess herself and the tapianes, her guardians, surrendered all these things, which were publicly burned in the market place of Huehueta when we inspected the aforesaid province in 1691. All the Indians greatly revere this Votan, and in a certain province they call him ‘heart of the cities’ (Corazon de los pueblos).”
In his ninth Pastoral Letter Nuñez says of Quetzalcoatl:
“In most of the Calendars, the seventh sign is the figure of a man and a snake, which they call Cuchulchan. The masters have explained it as a snake with feathers which moves in the water. This sign corresponds with Mexzichaut (Mixcoatl), which means Cloudy Serpent, or, of the clouds. The people also consult them in order to work injury on their enemies, taking the lives of many through such devilish artifices, and committing unspeakable atrocities.”
The Popol Vuh.—The myths relating to Quetzalcoatl under his name of Gucumatz in the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Quiche of Guatemala, are difficult to summarize. In the first chapter he is alluded to as “the serpent covered with feathers, the heart of the lakes, the heart of the sea, master of the sky, master of the blue expanse,” and is connected with the creative gods. Along with Hurakan (Tezcatlipocâ) he creates the world by uttering the word “earth.” The creation of man having been considered, the wherewithal for his sustenance is debated. Gucumatz, who is sometimes alluded to in the plural, like the Hebrew Elohim, succeeds in discovering maize in Paxil by the aid of the fox, jackal, parrot, and crow, and obtains the seeds of other alimentary plants (pt. iii, c. i.) Gucumatz then created man by a [[136]]“miracle” (c. ii). In c. v, pt. iii, Quetzalcoatl is alluded to as Tohil, a parallel for which we have justification in ver. 19 of c. x, where in the song called Kamucu (“We see”) the first men sing: “Truly Tohil is the name of the god of the Zaqui nation, which was called Yolcuat-quetzalcuat when we separated in the place Tolan in Zuiva.” But the myths relating to this deity are obviously tribal and local, and I am of opinion that they refer to some tribal deity who possessed some of the characteristics of Quetzalcoatl and who was identified with him by the Quiches in rather an arbitrary fashion.[87]
FESTIVALS
Atlacahualco.—The festival of Atlacahualco or Quaitl Eloa was, says Sahagun, sacred to Quetzalcoatl, as well as to the Tlaloque. For an account of it see the section which deals with Tlaloc.
Ce Acatl.—Says Sahagun: “On the first day of the sign ce acatl the great folk made a feast to Quetzalcoatl, the god of winds. This was celebrated in the calmecac, and here they offered rich gifts to his idol, perfumes and things to eat. They said it was the sign of Quetzalcoatl.”
PRIESTHOOD
The order of priests devoted to the service of Quetzalcoatl[88] was called Tlamacazcayotl, and its members Tlamacazque. Of these Clavigero, who was well informed regarding the Mexican priesthood, says: “Amongst the different orders or congregation, both of men and women, who dedicated themselves to the worship of some particular gods, that of Quetzalcoatl is worthy to be mentioned. The life led in the colleges or monasteries of either sex, which were devoted to this imaginary god, was uncommonly rigid and austere. [[137]]The dress of the order was extremely decent; they bathed regularly at midnight, and watched until about two hours before day, singing hymns to their god, and observing many rules of an austere life. They were at liberty to go to the mountains at any hour of the day or night, to spill their blood; this was permitted them from a respect to the virtue which they were all thought to possess. The superiors of the monasteries bore also the name of Quetzalcoatl, and were persons of such high authority, that they visited but the king when it was necessary. The members of this religious order were destined to it from their infancy. The parents of the child invited the superior to an entertainment, who usually deputed one of his subjects. The deputy brought the child to him, upon which he took the boy in his arms and offered him with a prayer to Quetzalcoatl, and put a collar about his neck, which was to be worn until he was seven years old. When the boy completed his second year, the superior made a small incision in his breast, which, like the collar, was another mark of his destination. As soon as the boy attained his seventh year he entered into the monastery, having first heard a long discourse from his parents, in which they advertised him of the vow which they had made to Quetzalcoatl, and exhorted him to fulfil it, to behave well, to submit himself to his prelate, and to pray to the gods for his parents and the whole nation.”
The high-priest of Quetzalcoatl was stationed at Cholula and was, perhaps, the most venerated ecclesiastic in Mexico.
TEMPLES
The principal temple of the cult of Quetzalcoatl in Mexico was the well-known teocalli at Cholula. He had also a shrine in the great temple court at Mexico, built in circular form, and thus typical of the Wind-god.
NATURE AND STATUS
The latest of the myths concerning Quetzalcoatl are obviously those which regard him as a culture-hero who enters the country as an alien, and, his beneficent work performed, [[138]]withdraws to the place whence he came, under pressure of malignant opposition. Had the basic outline of his myth been more carefully examined, fewer unsatisfactory hypotheses concerning Quetzalcoatl’s nature might have been ventured upon. The Mexicans themselves recognized Quetzalcoatl as a wind-god, but Dr. Seler has not seen fit to accept their assurance upon this point in toto, and at various times has advanced the hypotheses that Quetzalcoatl represents the wind, the planet Venus, or the moon, latterly confining his personality almost entirely to the lamp of night.[89]
In my view the physical phenomena which occur in connection with the courses of the winds typical of the Mexican plateau provide by far the most simple and natural explanation of the nature of the god Quetzalcoatl. From April or May to the beginning of October the trade-wind blows from the east coast over the Plateau of Anahuac, bringing with it abundance of rain, and accelerating vegetable growth, thus actually “sweeping the ways for the rain-gods.” Its advance is comparatively slow, the rains beginning three or four weeks earlier in Vera Cruz than in Puebla and Mexico. At the beginning of October, however, it is invariably modified by the local monsoon, which interrupts it over wide areas, or in certain districts invades it in violent cyclonic storms, dissipating its energies and altering its course. Quetzalcoatl represents the gentle trade-wind, which ushers in the growth-making rains. His reign of peace, plenty, and fertility over, he comes into opposition with Tezcatlipocâ, who represents the monsoon and who chases his rival “from city to city,” ravening at him like a tiger, says Mendieta, and at last hustling him out of the country. That Tezcatlipocâ is also a god of wind is certain, as is proved by one of his names, Yoalli Ehecatl, “Wind of Night,” and that he is the monsoon or hurricane is proved beyond all doubt by the circumstance that he is said to have rushed along the highways at night at extraordinary speed, and that Hurakan, his Quiche name, is still employed for the very wind he represented, and has [[139]]become a generic name for a tempestuous wind in practically all European languages, which have without question adopted it from the American word.[90]
If this simple elucidation of the original myth be accepted, it will be seen how naturally its later modifications arise out of it or adapt themselves to it. But before we examine the manner in which they crystallized around it, it becomes necessary to disentangle from the whole mass that portion of it which alludes to the advent of a civilizing agency upon the Mexican plateau.
This speaks of the advance of a body of men from the neighbourhood of Vera Cruz to the Mexican plateau, and precisely in the direction whence the trade-wind comes—that is, from the east, the direction of the land of the Huaxtecs, a people of proto-Maya stock.
Quetzalcoatl is dressed in Huaxtec garb, and wears the truncated sugar-loaf hat and shell-ornaments of this people. This may signify nothing more than that he was so attired because he represented a wind which blew from the direction of the land of the Huaxtecs. Yet, it is certain that several of the deities adopted by the Mexicans had undoubtedly a Huaxtec origin, and this is markedly the case with Tlazoltcotl. There seems to be some ground, then, for the hypothesis that Quetzalcoatl was a god of Huaxtec origin. But the acceptance of such a theory will entail the acknowledgment of certain hypotheses which are among the most controverted questions in Mexican archæology. In the first place, it makes Quetzalcoatl the deity of a people of Maya stock, and secondly it would seem to imply a Huaxtec or Maya origin for the much-debated Toltec culture.
A discussion of these points must begin with the question, “Has the myth of Quetzalcoatl’s civilizing mission to the Mexican plateau any historical justification?” Regarding the reality of the civilization known as Toltec there is now no question, although I fully admit that it took me a long time to realize this, thanks principally to my acceptance of Brinton’s well-known theory on the subject, to which I [[140]]attached far too much weight. But admitting Toltec reality, what proof do we possess that such a civilizing agency as that of Quetzalcoatl gave an impetus to the “prehistoric” culture of Tollan? But little—that is if we are to regard Quetzalcoatl as a man. But in his guise as the gentle trade-wind that ushers in the rains, we have every reason to see in him the founder of the Toltec civilization. Such a culture as the Toltec must undoubtedly have had its origin in agricultural efficiency. Only through agricultural efficiency can the corvée system arise and extensive building become possible. The god whose bountiful patronage of growth assisted the arts in this manner seems in time to have been ‘humanized.’[91] Legends of his civilizing prowess clustered around his supposititious memory, he was thought to have been a culture-hero who actually moved and had his being among the people. Kings or rulers were called by his name—a lucky name of happy associations—and the illusion that he actually existed was thereby heightened. These rulers seem to have flourished in Mexico ere yet the offices of king and priest had become separate, so that it is not surprising that Quetzalcoatl was regarded as having been the priest of his own cult, or that the Mexican pontiffs of historical times bore his name. From this point of view, then, Quetzalcoatl was certainly the “founder” of the Toltec civilization. If this theory be accepted, I do not see how the myth of Quetzalcoatl can be regarded as having any basis in actual fact, unless one can find in the rather vague statements of certain early writers on Mexico a further basis for discussion as to his reality. To me the meaning of the myth seems very plain. It may be that Huaxtec influence was brought to bear upon Toltec civilization, but my hypothesis does not seem to me to require assistance from such an admission.
CRITICISM OF THE LATER ELEMENTS OF QUETZALCOATL’S MYTH
In short, the myth of Quetzalcoatl as recorded by Sahagun is obviously developed from a much older one which referred [[141]]to a season of plenteous rain—the period of the rule of the gentle and beneficent god representing the trade-wind. As it was connected with prosperous conditions in agriculture, it was naturally brought into connection with the Toltec time, the “good old times of long ago,” when conditions were greatly better, and no mouth knew want. Such a concept was obviously of later origin. The revised myth took on a cultural complexion. In terms of allegory, it tells how the powers of the rain-making priest-god fail him; he becomes sick, and is beguiled and defeated by Tezcatlipocâ, the rival wind-god, who tells him that “another old man” awaits him in Tlapallan. And here we seem to find interpolated a reference to the guardian genius of the fountain of perpetual youth, the reservoir of rain and all refreshment, which Quetzalcoatl must visit if he would be cured of the ills of old age, and he is counselled to speak with its keeper if he would return to Mexico “as a boy.” The destruction of his treasure by the banished god seems to point to a reminiscence of the downfall of the Toltec state, and the concealment of his gold and gems by burial to analogous Toltec practice on the defeat or decline of that civilized folk. With his departure the reign of plenty ceases, the trees wither, the birds migrate, the season of the trade-wind rains has come to an end. History and myth are perhaps combined in this story of the latter days of the Toltec régime and those of the revivifying rains. The priest-god withdraws eastwards to the “flute-playing” of the retreating trade-winds. Nahua sorcerers detain him in order to learn the Toltec arts, perhaps a mythical manner of showing how the Nahua barbarians forced captive Toltecs to teach them the mysteries of stone- and metal-craft. He is given the draught of the dead, “that none of the living can drink,” a mythical episode common in all parts of the world. His dwarfish followers (the rain-gods, the Tlaloque, with whom Sahagun associates him elsewhere) are frozen to death in the cold of the mountains, otherwise the rain is congealed into snow.
Torquemada’s version of Quetzalcoatl’s myth is eloquent of the pre-eminence of his cult at Cholula. The priest-god’s [[142]]prophecy of his return bears an extraordinary resemblance to that given in the Books of Chilan Balam, a Guatemalan native production, regarding the coming of white men to Central America.[92]
Motolinia’s story of the fixing of the strap on Quetzalcoatl’s arm is merely a grotesque explanation of the name Acolhua, which in reality signifies “the folk of the great shoulder,” “the pushers,” “the hustling invaders.”
Mendieta, in dwelling upon Quetzalcoatl’s dislike of war, merely retains for us a characteristic of the effeminate people of Cholula. The appearance of Tezcatlipocâ as a spider is typical of the god of the dry season, or of the dry-rot prevalent in that period of the year. As a tiger he symbolizes the fierceness of the hurricane, and the tlachtli game which he and Quetzalcoatl engage in is undoubtedly symbolic of the seasonal strife between the wind-gods.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONCEPTION OF QUETZALCOATL
Summarizing the myths relating to Quetzalcoatl we find:
(1) That all of them have their origin in or refer back to an original nature-myth, in which Quetzalcoatl, the trade-wind, is, at the end of the rainy season, regarded as driven from the Mexican Plateau by Tezcatlipocâ (Hurakan) in his guise of the monsoon, or hurricane.
(2) That this myth in the first place became confounded with traditions of the Toltec civilization, naturally enough, as that civilization was the direct outcome of the agricultural wealth stimulated by the god representing the trade-wind.
(3) That it seems to have been associated with a myth relating to the fountain of youth, that is, the fountain in which the refreshing and revivifying rains were stored, to which Quetzalcoatl must return for rejuvenation and a fresh rain-supply.
(4) That the conception of the god Quetzalcoatl became humanized in the light of the agricultural and other manifestations of Toltec culture, thus bringing about the [[143]]idea of his existence as a priest-king, and culminating in the establishment of a line of priestly rulers bearing his name, which endured as long as Mexican civilization.
(5) Out of these conceptions there naturally arose other related ideas, as those of:
(a) Quetzalcoatl as inventor of the tonalamatl, the instrument by which the festal days of the rain-cult were originally noted, but which on the adoption of the solar calendar as time-count degenerated into what may be regarded as an astrological table.
(b) The lunar basis upon which the tonalamatl was founded connected Quetzalcoatl with the moon.[93]
(c) Regarded as inventor of the tonalamatl, he gained a reputation as the possessor of profound hieratic wisdom, and came to be looked upon as the magician or sage par excellence, the patron of education, the rain-maker who knew precisely when the blood shed in penance should be spent in order that it might return to the soil of Anahuac in an abundant rainfall.
(d) Quetzalcoatl as the god of wind was also regarded as the breath of life, a phenomenon encountered in many mythologies, and therefore came to be conceived as the agency by which souls were originally placed in human bodies. From this, too, we may argue his appearance as a creator, or cosmic deity, although it may have been in his character as fertilizer that he came to be regarded in this light.
(e) Quetzalcoatl is the great penitent, the supreme protagonist of the penitential system, because without the blood spent in penitential exercise no rain might fall. The secondary character of this conception is probable.
(f) Quetzalcoatl seems at a later date to have been regarded as the god of the four quarters of the compass, a conception of him indubitably evolved from his status as a wind-god. I think I also perceive signs that from this latter [[144]]idea was further evolved a conception of him as god of the four elements—fire, air, earth, and water. He is the fire and the flint, because of the lightning which in Mexico accompanies the fall of the trade-wind rain. He is the air in his rôle of Wind-god, and as such is symbolized by the bird, the natural inhabitant of the air, the beak of which he uses as a funnel from which to expel the wind. He is earth, and, his myth says, a builder of subterranean houses, and sometimes bears the earth-staff of agriculture.[94] He is water, or rain, in which guise he is typified by the feathered snake.
This conception of him, evidently strongly sophisticated by priestly theological science, is illustrated in the Codex Magliabecchiano, where he is represented on one sheet along with Tezcatlipocâ, Tlaloc, and Uitzilopochtli. This group, in my opinion, represents the four elements: Fire (Uitzilopochtli), as possessor of the tlachinalli symbol, a hieroglyph for water and fire, and as sun-god; Air (Quetzalcoatl); Earth (Tezcatlipocâ), who as Tepeyollotl was an earth-deity; and Water (Tlaloc). The picture may also be descriptive of the four points of the compass over which he rules. But above and beyond this, as Seler has shown, it implies that these deities were later embodied in the idea of Quetzalcoatl. When Cortéz, coming from the East, landed at Vera Cruz, the Mexicans naturally believed that Quetzalcoatl had returned, and Motecuhzoma sent him as an offering “the dress appropriate to him,” four kinds of attire, the ceremonial costumes of Uitzilopochtli, Tezcatlipocâ, Tlaloc, and Quetzalcoatl.
ETYMOLOGY
There but remains the etymology of Quetzalcoatl’s name. It is compounded of the element quetzalli and coatl. The first denotes the bright green tail-feathers of the quetzal bird, and coatl = “snake,” so that the whole implies “feathered snake.” The generally accepted belief is that [[145]]this name applies to the rain-bearing clouds which accompany the trade-wind, although others have seen in it a description of the rain itself, and still others the ripples made by wind on water. But quetzal in a secondary sense means “precious,” and coatl is capable of being translated “twin.” The Mexicans themselves, however, frequently drew and sculptured the god as a feathered serpent, although this may easily have possessed a merely pictographic significance. In any case, after prolonged consideration on the etymology of the name, I do not, so far, see any reason to quarrel with the currently accepted rendering of it. [[146]]
[1] As it has been found impossible to include every illustration from the codices which is mentioned in the text, those pictures not supplied may be consulted in the reproductions of the codices themselves. A full bibliography of the codices will be found at the end. When the letter K appears with reference to a codex, its reproduction in Kingsborough’s “Mexican” antiquities is implied. [↑]
[2] This stellar mask is so called from being worn by the stellar deities. It is usually connected with the red-and-white striped painting of the body. The Sahagun Aztec MS. calls it “face-cage marking” and “face-star marking which is called darkness,” the former referring to stripes over the face, the latter to the mask design, which seems to me to symbolize night surrounded by the “eyes” of the stars. [↑]
[3] Hist. Nat. Ind., pp. 352 ff., English translation in Purchas his Pilgrimes, bk. v, c. 9. Maclehoses’ edition. [↑]
[4] Hist. Conq. Mex., tom. i, pp. 396–398. [↑]
[5] Gage’s trans. of Herrera, in New Survey, pp. 116–117; for Spanish text, see Hist. Gen., tom. i, dec. ii, bk. vii, c. xvii. [↑]
[6] Monarq. Ind., tom. i, p. 293. [↑]
[8] House of the youths, where the acolytes or junior priests resided. [↑]
[12] This custom was in vogue among certain prehistoric races, and is still practised on the death of a relative by African bushmen, who first remove a finger-joint. [↑]
[13] More correctly quauhxicalli, a stone vase for the reception of the hearts of victims, from quauh (tli) “eagle,” and xicalli, “cup.” [↑]
[14] Monarq. Ind., tom. ii, p. 73. [↑]
[15] Hist. Mex., English translation by C. Cullen (London, 1787), vol. i, bk. vi. [↑]
[16] Idea de una Hist., pp. 60–61. [↑]
[18] So Uitzilopochtli addresses his half-brother. “Uncle” among the ancient Mexicans was an honorific title. [↑]
[19] Bk. iii, c, i, par. i. [↑]
[20] Monarq. Ind., tom. i, p. 294. [↑]
[21] See chapter on Cosmogony. [↑]
[22] Sahagun, Appendix to bk. iii, c. ix. [↑]
[23] Hist. Nat. Ind. in Purchas his Pilgrimes, bk. v, c. xiii. See also Manuel Gamio, Proc. 19th Cong. Amer., Washington, 1915, for account of discoveries when the foundations of this temple were partly laid bare in 1913. [↑]
[25] Sahagun, bk. ii, c. xxxiv; Uitzilopochtli himself, as we shall see, was oracular. In this case I take it that the octli distilled from the plant conferred the boon of oracular speech. [↑]
[26] The first pulque or octli, which was called uitztli, was offered at this festival as first-fruits to Uitzilopochtli. The spirit distilled from the pulque is still known as mexcal or mescal, and is probably identical with the fiery fluid given to the braves in the service of the god before going into battle. [↑]
[27] Bull. of U.S. Bureau of Ethnology, No. 28, p. 210. [↑]
[28] Monarq. Ind., tom. ii, p. 41. [↑]
[29] The Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas calls Uitzilopochtli omitecilt. I think this should be read ome tecitl, “twice-wizard,” but it may read ome tecutli, “twice-lord.” But the latter is certainly a title of Tonacatecutli, the creative deity. [↑]
[31] Sahagun, bk. ii, c. xxiv. [↑]
[32] As does an Egyptian sun-god. [↑]
[33] The Centzonuitznaua appear to be the same as the Tzitzimimê, whom Tezozomoc calls the “gods of the air who bring the rains, floods, thunderclaps, and thunders and lightnings and had to be placed round Uitzilopochtli” in order to complete the construction of the great teocalli of Mexico. These “gods of the signs and planets,” in other words the stars, were regarded as demons of darkness, thinks Seler, “only because during a solar eclipse the [[87]]stars became visible in the day sky.” I think it much more probable that they were looked upon as demons of darkness because they peopled the darkness every night. “These,” says the interpreter of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, “are the sons of Citlalicue.” Now, Citlalicue means “Starry-skirt,” and I think that here we are not very far from Coatlicue, “Serpent-skirt.” We know, too, that Citlalicue, like Coatlicue, was connected with the cipactli, the earth-beast, and with Chicomecoatl (“Seven Serpents”). The later fusion of Citlalicue with her husband Citlaltonac or Tonacatecutli, lord of the heavenly vault, as has been shown in the remarks on these gods, would give her stellar attributes; hence the seeming discrepancy between her and Coatlicue. [↑]
[35] Hist. de los Indios de la Nueva España, tom. ii, p. 240. [↑]
[36] See Rendel Harris, The Ascent of Olympus, passim. In his Ascent of Olympus Dr. Rendel Harris has shown that the sacred oak of Zeus was regarded as “the animistic repository of the thunder, and in that sense the dwelling-place of Zeus … that the woodpecker who nested in it … was none other than Zeus himself, and it may turn out that Athena, who sprang from the head of the thunder-oak, was the owl that lived in one of its hollows” (p. 57).
In the same way, it may be that the maguey plant may have been regarded by the Mexicans as a repository of thunder and the heavenly fire. Octli, its sap, was connected with fire (see octli gods, “Nature and Status”), and Uitzilopochtli was the humming-bird who dwelt among its leaves. He springs from his mother’s body fully armed, as does Athena from the head of Zeus. A similar train of thought appears to be present in both ideas. [↑]
[37] Manuel de Ministros, p. 35. [↑]
[38] Commentary on Codex Vaticanus B, p. 91. [↑]
[39] Maguey is an Antillean word imported into Mexico by the Spaniards, but the use of a post-Columbian word does not exclude the possibility of a synonymous pre-Columbian form. [↑]
[40] Manuel de Ministros, p. 37. [↑]
[41] Myths of the New World, pp. 129 ff. [↑]
[42] Hist. Nat. Ind., c. ix, bk. v (English translation from Purchas his Pilgrimes). [↑]
[43] Obviously an error for tlachialoni. [↑]
[44] More probably like a jaguar, one of the forms of the god. [↑]
[45] See précis in chapter on Cosmogony. [↑]
[46] The Morelosia huañita of the family Styraciñes. [↑]
[51] Hist. Gen., bk. i. c. iii. [↑]
[52] Hist. Nat. y Moral, c. ix. [↑]
[53] Hist. Mex., English translation, vol. i, bk. vi, p. 243. [↑]
[54] Hist. Gen., bk. iii, c. vi–ix. [↑]
[55] These both mean the same thing, “shield of precious stones.” [↑]
[56] Diccionario Universal, Appendix, s.v. [↑]
[57] See ante, Aspect and Insignia. [↑]
[58] Commentary C. Fejérváry-Mayer, p. 34. [↑]
[59] See the Stone of Tizoc for examples of this practice. [↑]
[60] This figure conventionally represents the turkey and strikingly exhibits the large red wattles and lobe of that bird. In most of the MSS. it wears Tezcatlipocâ’s smoking mirror at the temple, the warrior’s headdress of heron-feathers, and in Codex Borbonicus it appears as a naualli or disguise of the god, having his crown painted with stars and his anauatl or ring of mussel-shell. On sheet 6 of Codex Fejérváry-Mayer the bird appears as an image of Tezcatlipocâ and is represented along with the signs of mortification and blood-letting, as it is on sheet 17 of the Aubin tonalamatl, where it wears the bone-piercer in its ears and a red robe edged with blue and brown. Indeed, it represents the blood-offering connected with the worship of Tezcatlipocâ. The turkey-cock’s foot, too, is sometimes symbolic of the god, and the interpretative codices tell us that “of the demons we often see nothing more than a cock’s or eagle’s foot.” The turkey-cock is to be conceived as representative of rain, which was believed by the Nahua to be nothing else than the magically altered blood he shed in penitence or sacrifice. It may be that the red wattles and lobe of the turkey suggested the idea of blood, and that the shades in his plumage were equally suggestive of water. Thus it would come to be regarded as the blood shed by the stone knife of sacrifice. It is also obvious that Tezcatlipocâ’s patronage of slaves, who were strictly regarded as his property, arose out of the idea that those unfortunates, whenever used for the purposes of sacrificial ritual, constituted the “food” of the obsidian knife. [↑]
[62] Bernal Diaz also states that the eyes of Tezcatlipocâ’s idol were “mirrors.” See ante, “Aspect and Insignia.” [↑]
[63] In the myth which recounts his discomfiture of the Toltecs it will be recalled that he rained stones upon them. See also Introduction for identification of obsidian with wind and breath. [↑]
[64] Gomme, Ethnology in Folklore. [↑]
[65] Myth, Ritual, and Religion, vol. i, p. 266. [↑]
[66] See Itzlacoliuhqui, pp. 341 ff. [↑]
[67] See my article on “Cherokee Religion” in vol. iii, Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics. [↑]
[68] Brinton, Myths of the New World. [↑]
[69] Sahagun, bk. xii, c. iv. [↑]
[73] Seler, The Wall-paintings of Mitla, Bull. 28, Bureau of American Ethnology. [↑]
[74] “The swift ones who serrate the teeth.” [↑]
[75] “Mount of the crier.” [↑]
[76] Sahagun’s statement that the draught would make Quetzalcoatl remember those evils is obviously a slip which even his copyist Torquemada is capable of avoiding. [↑]
[78] The names throughout the myth merely describe the incident which took place at the locality alluded to. [↑]
[79] Sahagun, bk. iii, c. xii, xiii, xiv. [↑]
[80] Monarq. Ind., tom. ii, pp. 48–52. [↑]
[81] Monarq. Ind., tom. i, pp. 254–256. [↑]
[83] Hist. Ecles., pp. 82, 86, 92–93, 97–98. [↑]
[85] A Lacandone Indian tribe near Palenque. [↑]
[87] The myths relating to him under the name of Tohil appear to me to identify Tohil more with Tezcatlipocâ. See Brassuer, Le Vuh Popol, passim. [↑]
[88] The circumstance that the two high-priests of Mexico, the pontiffs of the cults of Uitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, had the name Quetzalcoatl prefixed to their official descriptions merely indicates that it had passed into a sacerdotal title. They were in no special sense attached to the worship of the god. [↑]
[89] He was, of course, all of these, but as regards the two latter, in a subsidiary sense only. [↑]
[90] Spanish, hurican; French, ouragan; English, hurricane. [↑]
[91] Sahagun reverses the process by calling Quetzalcoatl “a man who became a god,” bk. i, c. v. [↑]
[92] See my article on these books in vol. iii of Hastings’ Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics. [↑]
[93] This, too, accounts for his identification with the planet Venus, which also had a calendric connection, and therefore as the herald of the dawn, and the child of the virgin goddess Chimalman or Chalchihuitlicue in her guise as Moon-goddess. [↑]
[94] Votan was likewise a builder of subterranean houses and was worshipped in caves. The god of the rain-cult is, indeed, regarded as master of the streams which flow under the earth. See Brinton, Nagualism, p. 41. [↑]