XIPE TOTEC = “OUR LORD THE FLAYED”

(From Codex Borgia, sheet 49.)

(From the Sahagun MS., Bib. Laurenziana.)

FORMS OF XIPE.

ASPECT AND INSIGNIA

Codex Vaticanus B.—Sheet 92: Xipe is depicted in this codex as clothed in the flayed skin of the sacrificed human victim, which, after the dreadful rite, was drawn over the priest’s body and worn for a number of days. The slit eyes of the mask he wears shows that this also is composed of human skin. He wears a nasal rod and plate having the general appearance of the peculiar peaked cap with which he is sometimes represented. The ends of his loin-cloth are slit and coloured white and red. Sheet 62. As ruler of the fourteenth tonalamatl division and god of the fifteenth day-count, Xipe is represented on this sheet as a red Tezcatlipocâ. The limbless body is red, the costume of the same colour, but with a face-mask of yellow, tinted to represent dead human flesh, with the chapfallen jaw of the dead, narrow slit eyes, as on sheet 92, and a red streak running over the eye, the full length of the face, indicative, perhaps, of the place where the operation of flaying was commenced. Here the nose-cap is also reminiscent of Xipe’s peculiar peaked cap, its ends especially resembling those of that headdress. Two red and white bands, the colours of the roseate spoonbill, depend from the ear. The hair is bound by a fillet on which are twin ornaments of dull gold, and above this rise two rows of quetzal feathers.

Codex Vaticanus A.—Plate xiv, Duc de Loubat’s reproduction: As a back-device he wears the three banners which are also shown of him in the picture in Duran’s collection. As god of the fourteenth tonalamatl division, he holds a shield, banner, and a bundle of spears, while half of his shield is painted in dark and light red rings.

Codex Borgia.—Sheet 49: In the Codex Borgia, Xipe is shown in his character of the patron god of the warrior’s death by combat, or the stone of sacrifice. He wears a [[205]]wig made from the downy feathers of the eagle, which, however, does not altogether conceal his flame-coloured hair, two forelocks of which recall the hairdressing of Tlauizcalpantecutli, the god of the planet Venus. Underneath is shown his small petticoat or apron of green zapote leaves. From his mouth protrudes a double-jewelled string, which, perhaps, signifies the fertilizing rain, for as god of human sacrifice he has a connection with the gods of fertility. He is similarly represented on sheet 25, where he is also shown as ruler of the fourteenth tonalamatl division, and the picture indeed bears a close resemblance to that in Codex Vaticanus B, except that his breast-ornament, carved from a snail-shell, is attached to his variegated feather necklace. In this place he also wears a feather wig with a red crest made of the plumes of the roseate spoonbill, alternating with chalchihuitls on leather and the heads of rattle-sticks.

(Front.) (Back.)

STONE IMAGE OF XIPE.

Image of Xipe found at Castillo de Teayo, showing him dressed in the skin of the sacrificed victim.

Codex Borgia Group Generally.—In this group generally Xipe stands as the representative of the sign of the day quauhtli. His insignia are the same as those of the red Tezcatlipocâ, with striped face-painting, but executed in red and yellow without the human skin, or other special characteristics, and decorated only with the warrior’s headdress and Tezcatlipocâ’s ring-shaped breast-ornament. The head and neck are covered with cloth, on which are stuck downy feather-balls. He holds in some places a severed arm, which he appears to be smelling or about to devour.

Codex Borbonicus.—In this codex Xipe is represented as Tezcatlipocâ, and has the face-painting of the red phase of that god, with the smoking mirror at his temple, the characteristic white ring, and the peculiar form of feather back-ornament, which is to be seen in some other Tezcatlipocâ pictures of this codex. But he wears on his head-fillet, instead of jewelled disks, an ornament of beaten gold, the crown of roseate spoonbill feathers, the ends of the bands shaped in swallow-tailed fashion, and other insignia pertaining to his own regular dress. The quetzalcomitl on his back carries a banner painted in light and dark red, his especial colours, and he also bears a shield painted in light and dark red concentric [[206]]circles. In this codex he holds a fire-pan, painted with large patches of rubber gum, in which is inserted the rattle-stick with Xipe’s bands and loops coloured red and white, or light red and dark red with bifurcated ends.

Vienna Codex.—Xipe is represented here in the flayed human skin and designated by the date “Seven Rain.”

Codex Nuttall (Zouche).—Sheet 83: In this codex there is a good representation of the god, especially as regards his headdress. He is depicted as the warrior secured to the stone of combat, whose eye sheds tears at the thought of approaching death, and he bears in his hands the bâtons with which the military victims defended themselves against their adversaries (see Festival).

Sahagun MS.—This describes him as having a brown face covered with the feathers of the quail, and with open lips (chapfallen jaw?). His crown has parted ends, and he wears a wig of curled feathers. He has golden ear-plugs. Round the hips he has a woman’s short skirt of zapote leaves, and shells decorate his feet. His shield is red, with concentric circles, and he carries a rattle-staff.

MASKS, VASES, ETC.

The well-known mask of Xipe in the British Museum represents the mask of the sacrificed victim. On the back or inside, the carving of the god shows him wearing his full insignia, with the peculiar headdress and rattle-staff. Another mask of Xipe in the Bauer collection is of a most individual character. It was found near Tezcuco, and bears both wind and serpent symbols. On a stone at Cuernavaca is incised a good representation of the shield, darts, and flag of Xipe, with date ce ocelotl (“one ocelot”). On a cup in the Aldana collection Xipe is seen wearing the flayed skin, with a necklace, evidently of intestines. His hair is dressed in a manner resembling that affected by the warrior caste, and he carries the rattle-staff.

STATUES

Representations of Xipe in statuary are considerably numerous. Several found in the Valley of Mexico are housed [[207]]in the Uhde collection, Berlin. Two of these represent the god as wearing the victim’s flayed skin and one of them is pitted with marks, evidently indicative of blood-spots. The crown with feathers of the roseate spoonbill is well exemplified in one of these, but in the other a mitre-like headdress superimposed upon a circular crown, from which depend large ribbons or paper ornaments, is noticeable. In another of these figures the headdress is a sort of barret-cap with knobs or studs. Still another figure of the same class shows the god with a very large stepped nose-ornament. All carry a rattle-staff and three bear a shield. A most striking statue of Xipe was discovered at the Castillo de Teayo site, at Vera Cruz. The head, which is round and bullet-shaped, bears an extraordinary resemblance to that of the well-known Egyptian figure of the Sheik-el-Beled in the Boulaq Museum. In this statue the god wears the skin of the victim, and the manner in which it was tied on to the priest is well illustrated by the knotting at the back. The faces, of course, are masks of the sacrificed victim.

ELEMENTS OF XIPE’S INSIGNIA

Although Xipe is so frequently portrayed as possessing the outward characteristics of a red Tezcatlipocâ, few of the Mexican deities possess insignia so individual, or so rich in manifold elements. The Xipe dress was a favourite one with Mexican kings and military chieftains, and, in the Codex Vaticanus A, King Motecuhzoma II is represented as wearing the costume on the occasion of his victory over Toluca. Tezozomoc also states that Axayacatl wore this dress,[44] and on the eve of a fierce engagement Tlacauepan, brother of Motecuhzoma, donned it at the latter’s special request. The elements of Xipe’s costume are as follows[45]:

(1) The painted crown of feathers of the roseate spoonbill, with bifurcated ends.

(2) The gilded timbrel. [[208]]

(3) The jacket of spoonbill feathers.

(4) The petticoat or apron of zapote leaves, overlapping each other like tiles.

(5) The jaguar or ocelot-skin scabbard.

(6) The round shield covered with red spoonbill feathers, showing concentric circles of darker tints, sometimes noticeably bisected, one-half of which is again subdivided obliquely into a smaller upper portion containing a chalchihuitl on a blue field, and a larger lower portion, covered with jaguar or ocelot-skin.

Xipe’s dress has three forms:

(1) That of the red god, of the colour of the roseate spoonbill.

(2) That of the blue god, of the colour of the blue cotinga.

(3) As a jaguar or ocelot.

(From the Sahagun MS.) Pottery Figure found near Tezcuco. Pottery figure. (Valley of Mexico.)

FORMS OF XIPE.

MYTHS

The interpreter of Codex Vaticanus A says of Xipe: “Amongst those who began to follow the example of Quetzalcoatl and his austerities by their own acts of penance, Totec is very famous, who, on account of his having been a great sinner, first stood in the house of sorrow called Tlaxipuchicalco, where, having completed his penance, he ascended the mountain Catcitepulz (‘the mountain which speaks’), which mountain was covered with thorns. There continuing his penance, he cried from thence very strongly, reproving his people of Tulan, calling to them to come and do penance with him for the enormous guilt which they had incurred in forgetting the services and sacrifices of their gods and having abandoned themselves so much to pleasure. They say that Totec was accustomed to go about clothed in a human skin and so it has been the custom till those times. In the festivals, likewise, which they celebrated to Totec, men clothed themselves in the skins of those whom they had slain in war and in this manner danced and celebrated the festival of the sign dedicated to him (for from him, they say, wars originated), and accordingly they paint him with these insignia, viz. a [[209]]lance, banner, and shield. They hold him in the utmost veneration, for they say that he was the first who opened to them the way to heaven; for they were under this error amongst others; they supposed that only those who died in war went to heaven, as we have already said. Whilst Totec still continued doing penance, preaching and crying from the top of the mountain which has been named, they pretend that he dreamed this night that he beheld a horrible figure with its bowels protruding, which was the cause of the great abomination of his people. On this, praying to his god to reveal to him what the figure signified, he answered that it was the sin of his people, and that he should issue an order to the people, and cause them all to be assembled, charging them to bring thick ropes, and to bind that miserable spectre, as it was the cause of all their sins, and that, dragging it away, they should remove it from the people, who, giving faith to the words of Totec, were by him conducted to a certain wild place, where they found the figure of death, which, having bound, they dragged it to a distance, and drawing it backwards, they fell all into a cavity between the two mountains, which closed together, and there they have remained buried ever since; none of them having effected their escape, with the exception of the innocent children who remained in Tulan.”

A few lines farther on the interpreter says: “The two masters of penance were Quetzalcoatle and Totec, who was called by another name, Chipe; who, having taken the children and the innocent people who remained in Tulan, proceeded with them, peopling the world, and collecting along with them other people whom they chanced to find. They further add that, journeying in this manner with these people, they arrived at a certain mountain, which not being able to pass, they feign that they bored a subterranean way through it and so passed. Others say that they remained shut up and that they were transformed into stones, and other such fables.”

The first part of this myth is, of course, merely ætiological of the practice of making vows to Xipe to capture and immolate [[210]]an enemy in his honour, as, we shall see in the paragraph dealing with his festivals, was done on that occasion. But I would point out that it possesses some importance as providing further evidence regarding the existence of the ascetic life in Mexico, most of the myths dealing with which, like that under discussion, are connected with the Toltecs, the people of Quetzalcoatl. Xipe, who plays the part of the Toltec Jeremiah, is here the subject of a tale which is also recounted of Tezcatlipocâ, with whom he is frequently confounded or identified, perhaps because both were great gods of the sacrificial stone, or for the reason that practically all Mexican cults tended to gravitate towards Tezcatlipocâ in late times.

That portion of the story which details the burial en masse of the Toltecs is, of course, the widespread tale of the disappearance of the old hero-race underground—the fate which overtook Charlemagne and his peers, King Arthur and “the auld Picts” at Arthur’s Seat, near Edinburgh, Barbarossa and his men, and many another group of paladins. The whole may allude, in the ultimate, to mound-burial. It is strange too—or quite natural, as we believe in, or doubt, the penetration of America by alien influences—to find in Mexico an incomplete variant of the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. I should not be surprised to find that Xipe piped the Toltec children into the Underworld, for Tezcatlipocâ, with whom he was identified, or at least the captive who represented that god at the Toxcatl festival, and who had a year of merriment in which to prepare himself for his fate, went through the city at intervals, playing upon a flute. This almost universal myth may allude to the ancient belief that the souls of the dead travelled with the wind, and were the cause of its sighing and whistling.[46] We know, too, that the whistling of the night wind through the mountains was regarded by the Mexicans as of evil omen, and that Yoalli Eecatl (The Wind of Night) was one of the names of Tezcatlipocâ.[47] [[211]]

The following song from the Sahagun MS. is in celebration of Xipe:

Wherefore dost thou disguise thyself, O Night-drinker?

Put on thy golden garment.

O my god, thy rich sacrificial water descended;

The lofty cypress tree has become a quetzal;

That which was a serpent has become a quetzal.

The fire-serpent, the famine, has left me.

It may be that I shall go thence to perish,

I, the young maize-plant.

My heart is like a chalchihuitl;

But I shall yet see gold in that place.

I shall be satisfied when I can say

The warrior chief is born.

Let the maize be ready in abundance, O my god.

I look towards thy mountain, I, who worship thee.

I will be satisfied

When the maize ripens,

When the warrior chief is born.

I believe the god to have been called “Night-drinker” from the circumstance that, in the belief of certain barbarous peoples, vegetation is more greatly assisted in its growth by night than by day, that it “drinks,” or is saturated by, the mists and vapours of the night season, which are believed to emanate from the moon.[48] Indeed, dew is believed to be caused by the moon,[49] which is regarded as the great source of all moisture, as the sun is the great source of all heat.[50]

Xipe is here entreated by the young maize-plant to don his golden garment, the rain, as, indeed, one translation of this song states it to be, taking a reasonable liberty with the original. When the rain comes the cypress glitters like a quetzal-feather, a Mexican euphuism for a glittering gem, or anything very precious. The xiuhcoatl, or fire-serpent, is the terrible weapon of Uitzilopochtli, with which he slew his rebellious brothers and sister, the enemies of his mother Coatlicue, [[212]]as Indra slew those of his mother, both of these events occurring immediately after the birth of the gods thus compared. (In the case of Indra the weapon was a thunderbolt.) The fire-serpent in this place evidently symbolizes the scorching, torrid heat which brings about famine. If the rain continues not, the maize-plant, the young heart of which is green as jadeite, and from which the golden maize will emerge later, may perish. Finally the worshipper (?) states that he will remain unsatisfied until the plumed and full-grown plant, symbolic of the warrior and all that he fights for, has come to fruition.

My reading of this song differs considerably from those of other authorities, but I may, perhaps, be pardoned if I say that I prefer my own elucidation as at least more circumstantial and more in line with the facts of Mexican belief.

FESTIVAL

Tlacaxipeuliztli.—The best description of this festival is that of Sahagun (bk. ii, c. xxi) who tells us that on the last day of the month of that name the Mexicans celebrated a solemn festival to Xipe and Uitzilopochtli. On the afternoon of the day prior to that on which the feast was to take place they held a solemn areyto, or dance, and they watched all the night in the temple called calpulco[51] with those who were to be sacrificed on the morrow. They shaved the hair from the tops of their heads, at the same time drawing blood from their own ears to offer to the gods. When daybreak had come, they conducted the captives to the temple of Uitzilopochtli, where they were sacrificed and flayed, from which circumstance the feast took its name. Many of the victims were called Xipeme or Tototectin (plurals of the god’s name). The masters of the captives, or those who had captured them in war, formally handed them over to the priests at the foot of the teocalli, and these took them by the hair of the head to make them mount the steps more quickly. If they refused to walk to the stone of sacrifice they were dragged thence. When their hearts had been withdrawn they were offered [[213]]up to the gods, and the body cast down the steps of the teocalli, where other priests received it for flaying. The hearts of the unfortunates thus slaughtered were thrown into a tub of wood and took the name of quanochtli, or “nopal wood,” of which the tubs were made.

The flaying process was undertaken by a caste of elderly and probably inferior priests, the quaquacuilton.[52] Before the bodies of the sacrificed were so treated they were carried to the temple, where the “master” of the captive had made his vow to capture and consecrate a victim to the god. The body was broken up at this place, and a leg was dispatched to court for the table of the king, the remainder being divided among the great, or the master’s parents. The dreadful repast was usually partaken of in the house of him who had taken the captive prisoner in war. They cooked the flesh with maize and gave a little to each in a small porringer. The dish was called tlacatlaolli, or “man and maize.” After having eaten, the feasters became intoxicated on octli. On the following day, having watched all the night, they went to amuse themselves by examining the other captives, and in watching them being baited on the stone of combat. These latter were known as uauantin, “the pierced,” with reference to the wounds they received.[53]

Before the sacrificial rites took place the captors of the victims gathered together, and when the victims had been dispatched the captors, or certain priests (it is not clear which), drew on the skins of the flayed victims, and took up positions on hillocks of hay or heaps of chalk or rubbish. Others approached them, and defied them to combat by words and pinches. A skirmish ensued, and those who were captured did not escape scot-free, being rather roughly handled. This mock combat over, the real business of the day began in terrible earnest. The wretched captive [[214]]was secured by one ankle to the temalacatl, or stone of combat, and wooden bâtons on which eagle-down had been stuck, in imitation of a maquahuitl, or obsidian-edged sword, were placed in his hands. Four warriors now came against the victim, two of the ocelotl corps of knights and two of the quauhtli or Eagle Corps, and having raised their shields and weapons to the sun, one of them attacked the captive tied to the stone. If he defended himself with address, two or even three of his opponents attacked him, and if he still made good his resistance, all four fell upon him, “intermingling their blows with dances and numerous poses.”

Prior to the combat a solemn procession was formed to the temalacatl. A body of priests, dressed in the insignia of one or other of the gods in whose honour the festival was held, issued from the yopico (“in Yopi land”), the temple of Xipe, followed by the tecutlis, or knights, already alluded to, who flourished their weapons and made a martial show. Arrived at the temalacatl, they marched round it, and seated themselves on carven stools called quecholicpalli (“perch of the strong bird”). The priest who took charge of the proceedings was called Youallauan (Night-drinker), one of the names of the god, and when all were seated, an orchestra of trumpets, flutes, and conch-shells struck up, mingled with whistling and singing. The performers wore on their shoulders streamers of white feathers mounted on long staves, which, as we have seen, was part of the Xipe dress, and sat between the priests and the stone of combat.

When the frightful overture had concluded, a captive was placed on the stone by the person who devoted him to sacrifice, and a beaker of octli was given him to hearten him to fight well. This he presented to the four points of the compass, and then sucked its contents through a reed. A priest then took up his stand in front of the doomed man, and holding a living quail before him as before a god, tore off its head. Another priest clad in a bear-skin secured the captive to the stone and handed him his weapons, and then his captor danced before him, as before a divinity. The combat then took place, and in the unusual event of a victim [[215]]overcoming the four well-appointed warriors who opposed him, a fifth, who must be a left-handed man, rushed in, raised the exhausted victor in his arms and threw him to the ground, where he was dispatched by the Youallauan.

The victim’s heart was then thrown into the wooden tub before alluded to, after it had been held up to the sun. Another priest now took a hollow reed and introduced it into the opening from which the heart had been removed. Having drawn off a sufficient quantity of blood, he went to offer it up to the sun. The master of the captive who had been slain then filled a bowl with the blood of his victim, which vessel was gaily decorated with feathers and which contained a tube, similarly ornamented. With this he went the round of the temples, smearing the blood upon the lips of the idols with the feathered tube. He next divested himself of the gay feather cloak he wore for the occasion and carried the flayed corpse of his captive, or what remained of it, to his house, after royal and other requirements had been met. As has been said, he feasted his family and friends on the body, but did not himself partake of it, as he was regarded as the ritual father of the deceased. “The skin of a victim also belonged to his captor, and this he gave to those who dressed themselves in skins (in consequence of a vow), and so attired, paraded the streets of the town. Others wore the heads of wolves.”[54]

“When the captive had been slain, all who were present, priests, warriors and others, began to dance the areyto round the temalacatl, the captors of the victims carrying the heads of the slain. This areyto, or dance, was called motzontecomaitotia (dance with decapitated heads). The cuitlachueue (old jackal[55]), godfather of the captives, took in his hands the cords which had held them to the temalacatl and raised them to the four cardinal points in sign of adoration. After that ‘he groaned, he wept for the dead.’

“The foreigners with whom Motecuhzoma was at war [[216]]came to assist secretly at the spectacle. These were the men of Uexotzinco, Tlaxcallan and Nonoualco, Cempoallan, and many other places. The Mexicans pretended not to see them, and they were thus able to behold the fate reserved for captives in Mexico. When all was over, everyone ate a tortilla called uilocpalli, or pigeon-seat, a kind of little paté made with uncooked maize. Next day everyone assisted at an areyto of great solemnity, which was commenced in the royal palace. All were dressed in their best and carried tamallis and tortillas of roasted maize, called momochtli, which they wore instead of collars and garlands. They carried also red feathers and stalks of maize. The areyto ceased at midday, and the nobles ranged themselves three and three in the royal palaces. The king appeared, having upon his right the King of Tezcuco and on his left the Lord of Tacuba. A solemn dance then took place, which lasted until the sun went down, after which they commenced another dance, in which everyone took hands and danced in a serpentine figure. The old soldiers and recruits came to this dance, bringing with them female partners and even public women. This lasted also on the place where the captives had been slain till nearly midnight, and they continued to celebrate these feasts for nearly twenty days, until they had arrived at the kalends of the month which they called tozoztontli.”

Twenty days after the festival those who wore the skins of the slain removed them, but it would seem, from what Sahagun says, that certain devotees wore these from the festival of tlacaxipeuliztli at the end of that month to the beginning of the following tlacaxipeuliztli. Persons afflicted with skin diseases or weak sight frequently made a vow to be present at this ceremony. The devotees then performed ceremonial ablutions in a bath in the temple, in which water was mixed with maize flour, or, more strictly speaking, they were bathed by others. They then shampooed their heads and did penance for the death of the captive. After this the captor erected a tripod in the court of his house, on the top of which was a petlatl, or mat rolled into a ball, on which he placed [[217]]all the paper ornaments which the captive had worn at his sacrifice. “He then chose a courageous young man who wore those papers, and who took a shield in one hand and a cudgel in the other, and went through the streets as if looking for an evil-doer. Everyone was afraid, and cried, ‘Behold the telzompac (noble one) comes!’ If he caught anyone he took his mantle, and all the spoil he took he brought back to the captor. The captor then placed in the middle of the court of his house a joist in the form of a column, which indicated that he had made captives in war, and which was the blazon of his honour. Then he took the thigh-bone of the captive, ornamented it with the papers, and attached it to the top of the column in his courtyard. He then invited his parents, friends, and the men of his quarter, in presence of whom he hung the bone up, and then he gave them to eat and drink. Family songs were sung. All these things were done in the twenty days before they arrived at the uei tozoztli.

The goldsmiths, of whose caste Xipe was the patron, probably because the yellow human skin in which he was represented as being clad typified an overlay of gold-foil, held a festival during tlacaxipeuliztli in the yopico temple sacred to the god, sacrificing and burning victims to him, and covering a human representative of him with ornaments and precious stones, a crown of feathers, golden necklaces and earrings, and scarlet sandals. They then placed him upon a throne and offered him the first fruits and flowers of the season, together with bunches of maize-seed.

The mode of sacrifice by shooting to death with darts or arrows was employed in connection with Xipe as well as in the case of Tlazolteotl (q.v.). A captive was secured to a scaffold and shot with darts, so that his blood might fall upon the ground. This usage may be regarded as of the nature of sympathetic magic to secure rainfall.

TEMPLES

At least three buildings were erected to the honour of Xipe at Mexico.[56] The first of these, known as yopico (“in Yopi [[218]]land”), has already been alluded to, and was probably the principal place connected with his worship. It was at this temple that the ceremonies of the tlacaxipeuliztli festival took place. The second, called yopico calmecac, appears to have been situated in the quarter of Tlatelolco, and, as its name implies, was evidently a monastery or place of instruction. At another edifice, the yopoci tzompantli, the heads of the victims slain at the festival of the god were exhibited. In front of the first of these stood the temalacatl, the stone to which the captives were secured when they fought with the Mexican warriors before they were finally sacrificed.

PRIESTHOOD

The Xipe yopico teohua, or priesthood dedicated to the service of Xipe, is enumerated among the various classes of priests charged with the service of the gods,[57] and held in their keeping Xipe’s insignia and the accessories for his festival. They resided in the yopico calmecac or monastery.

NATURE AND STATUS

Xipe is pre-eminently a god of seed-time and planting.[58] He is the Tlaltecutli, or “Lord of the Earth,” and in a secondary sense, the god of the warrior’s death on the stone of combat, because of the association between the food-supply and military service for the purpose of gaining captives. There can be no question that Xipe was of Zapotec origin; indeed, that is manifest from the name of his temple, Yopico, which means the “land of the Yopi” or Tlappeneca, a people of Zapotec affinities, and his cap was known as yopitzontli, “the Yopi head.” One of his names was Anauatl itecu, or “Lord of the Coastland,” and we know from Herrera[59] that he was especially worshipped in the district of Teotitlan, [[219]]which commands the road to Tabasco. Both Sahagun and the interpreter of Codex Vaticanus A uphold his alien origin.

Just as the Egyptian priests of Ammon at Thebes once a year killed a ram, flayed it, and clothed the image of their god in the skin, just as the Celtic priest wore the skin of a bull at certain festivals, so the Mexicans slew and flayed a man, in whose skin they clothed their priests and those who desired to be closely associated with the god. The idea underlying this practice would appear to be the renewal of the life of the deity. It seems to have some bearing on the phenomena of the system known as “totemism,” regarding the real significance of which we know so little, despite the seeming erudition which has of late years been lavished upon its consideration, for, as we have seen, the captor of the slain victim was not permitted to eat of his flesh, although that may only have been taboo to him because he stood to the doomed man in the relation of a sponsor. Xipe represents the earth “flayed,” that is bare, and ready for sowing. The flaying of the captive and the dressing of the god’s representative in the skin may have been of the nature of sympathetic magic, as a suggestion to the earth to rehabilitate itself in its covering of yellow maize.

It is precisely the agricultural god whom in Mexico we must expect to find clothed in all the attributes of the warrior, and truly Xipe does not disappoint us in this respect. He is armed cap-à-pie, and his dress was the favourite harness of Mexican royalty when it went forth to battle, as witness the Spartan suggestion of Motecuhzoma to his brother on the eve of a great combat.[60] The Codex Vaticanus A calls him “il guerreggiatore attristato.” Thus at his feast the sacrifice takes the form of a combat. Indeed, he represents the warrior caste, by the efforts of whom the altars of Mexico were supplied with human victims, and the maize-crop was consequently secured.

Xipe is in some measure associated with that sacred bird [[220]]the quail, which has been connected with sacrifice in many lands. This bird frequently takes refuge in the last sheaves of grain in a harvest-field, and thus, perhaps, came to symbolize the corn-spirit driven from its last stronghold. In Normandy in the harvest-field the reapers pretend to catch a quail and dispatch it.[61] The quail was sacrificed to the Tyrian Baal,[62] and is associated by Robertson Smith with the god Eshmun-Iolaos.[63] The bird-like character of Xipe’s dress may assist us in the belief that he was partially evolved from some bird of the quail species commonly found in the maize-field. He bears a strong resemblance to the Maya god F.

Xipe was probably a maize-god of the Yopi who came to partake of the character of an Aztec grain-and-sacrifice deity, his own type of immolation, the shooting by arrows, being partially superseded by the warrior’s death upon the temalacatl. It would seem that, as the god of a people of Nahua race, but older in their occupation of the land than the Aztecâ and Chichimecs, he probably took much the same line of development after his worshippers settled in the Yopi country as Tezcatlipocâ and Uitzilopochtli took in a more northern environment, that the resemblance was recognized by the Aztecâ (as is shown by his affinity with Tezcatlipocâ, with whom, indeed, he is identified as Tlatlauhqui Tezcatlipocâ, or “the Red Tezcatlipocâ”), and that under their guidance his festival took a similar form to that of the gods in question. His festival is certainly a mytho-dramatic performance explanatory of the preparation of the earth for the sowing of grain, the soil being rehabilitated by the death of the captive warrior. [[221]]

[[Contents]]