UIXTOCIUATL = “SALT WOMAN”
- Area of Worship: Originally the eastern sea-coast.
- Relationship: Elder sister of the Tlaloquê.
ASPECT AND INSIGNIA
Sahagun MS. (Biblioteca del Palacio).—The goddess is painted yellow and wears a crown of paper or cotton, adorned with quetzal-feathers and a golden ear-plug. Her overdress and skirt are painted with wavy lines of water and she wears sandals. Her shield is entirely white and she bears a rush staff in her hand, from which depend strips of cotton or paper.
FESTIVALS
Tecuilhuitontli.—“The seventh month” (says Sahagun, bk. ii, c. vii) “was designated tecuilhuitontli, the first day of which was dedicated to the goddess of salt, who was styled Uixtociuatl. She was termed the elder sister of the god Tlaloc. A woman was slain in her honour, robed with the same ornaments as were worn by the images of this divinity.
“The night preceding this festival, the women, old, young, and children, gave themselves up to singing and dancing, marching in a ring, linked by cords which they each held by an end, which they called xochimecatl, and which were garlanded with the absinthe flowers of the country, called iztauhyatl. Old men led the songs and dances, while in the midst of the ring stood the poor woman doomed to death, richly dressed in the manner of the image of the goddess. All the women, in company with her who was to die, watched, sang and danced the whole of the night preceding the festival. Day having dawned, all the priests assumed their ornaments, and partook in a solemn dance, all those who assisted carrying in their hands flowers called cempoalxochitl. Dancing all the way, they brought several captives to the temple of Tlaloc, in the midst of whom walked the woman who was to die, [[263]]dressed as the image of Uixtociuatl. Before she was sacrificed, the captives were first put to death.[37]
“Several other ceremonies were conducted during this festival and there were frequent scenes of debauchery.”
NATURE AND STATUS
The interpreter of Codex Telleriano-Remensis states that Yxcuina, as he names the goddess, was the protector of adulterers and “the goddess of salt and of dissolute persons.” He further relates that they put adulterers to death before her image. The interpreter of Codex Vaticanus A adds that she was the wife of Mictlantecutli, lord of the realm of the dead. One of the women given as consorts to the victim sacrificed at the principal feast of Tezcatlipocâ was called after the goddess.
The salt-supply was regarded as an indispensable alimentary feature in Mexico, and the relative importance of the worship of Uixtociuatl can readily be gathered from this circumstance. Her connection with lustfulness had probably a physiological basis, and perhaps owed its existence to the saline odour which emanates from the excretions of the privy parts. There is a distinct resemblance between her name and that of the absinthe plant.