[[Footnote 16]: Anales del Museo Nacional, Tom. ii, p. 257.]
[[Footnote 17]: Sahagun, Historia. Lib. vi, caps. ix, xi, xii.]
[[Footnote 18]: Señor Alfredo Chavero believes Tezcatlipoca to have been originally the moon, and there is little doubt at times this was one of his symbols, as the ruler of the darkness. M. Girard de Rialle, on the other hand, claims him as a solar deity. "Il est la personnification du soleil sous son aspect corrupteur et destructeur, ennemi des hommes et de la nature." La Mythologie Comparée, p. 334 (Paris, 1878). A closer study of the original authorities would, I am sure, have led M. de Rialle to change this opinion. He is singularly far from the conclusion reached by M. Ternaux-Compans, who says: "Tezcatlipoca fût la personnification du bon principe." Essai sur la Théogonie Mexicaine, p. 23 (Paris, 1840). Both opinions are equally incomplete. Dr. Schultz-Sellack considers him the "Wassergott," and assigns him to the North, in his essay, Die Amerikanischen Götter der Vier Weltgegenden, Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Bd. xi, 1879. This approaches more closely to his true character.]
[[Footnote 19]: Torquemada, Monarquía Indiana, Lib. XIV, cap. XXII.]
[[Footnote 20]: The chief authorities on the birth of the god Quetzalcoatl, are Ramirez de Fuen-leal Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas, Cap. i, printed in the Anales del Museo Nacional; the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, and the Codex Vaticanus, both of which are in Kingsborough's Mexican Antiquities.
[[Footnote 21]: The names Cipactli and Cipactonal have not been satisfactorily analyzed. The derivation offered by Señor Chavero (Anales del Museo Nacional, Tom. ii, p.116), is merely fanciful; tonal is no doubt from tona, to shine, to warn; and I think cipactli is a softened form with the personal ending from chipauac, something beautiful or clear. Hence the meaning of the compound is The Beautiful Shining One. Oxomuco, which Chavero derives from xomitl, foot, is perhaps the same as Xmukane, the mother of the human race, according to the Popol Vuh, a name which, I have elsewhere shown, appears to be from a Maya root, meaning to conceal or bury in the ground. The hint is of the fertilizing action of the warm light on the seed hidden in the soil. See The Names of the Gods in the Kiche Myths, Trans. of the Amer. Phil. Soc. 1881.]
[[Footnote 22]: The name Chichimeca has been a puzzle. The derivation appears to be from chichi, a dog, mecatl, a rope. According to general tradition the Chichimecs were a barbarous people who inhabited Mexico before the Aztecs came. Yet Sahagun says the Toltecs were the real Chichimecs (Lib. x, cap. xxix). In the myth we are now considering, they were plainly the stars.]
[[Footnote 23]: Popol Vuh, Le Livre Sacré des Quichés, p. 193.]
[[Footnote 24]: See H. de Charencey, Des Couleurs Considérées comme Symboles des Points de l'Horizon chez les Peuples du Nouveau Monde, in the Actes de la Société Philologiques, Tome vi. No. 3.]
[[Footnote 25]: These frightful beings were called the Tzitzimime, a word which Molina in his Vocabulary renders "cosa espantosa ó cosa de aguero." For a thorough discussion of their place in Mexican mythology, see Anales del Museo Nacional, Tom. ii, pp. 358-372.]