The second place of bliss was Tlalocan, the abode of Tlaloc, a terrestrial paradise, the source of the rivers and all the nourishment of the earth, where joy reigns and sorrow is unknown,[XII-62] where every imaginable product of the field and garden grows in profusion beneath a perpetual summer sky. This paradise appears to have been erected on the ideal reminiscences of the happy Tollan, the cradle of the race, where their fathers reveled in riches and splendor. To this place went those who had been killed by lightning, the drowned, those suffering from itch, gout, tumors, dropsy, leprosy and other incurable diseases. Children also, at least those who were sacrificed to the Tlalocs, played about in its gardens, and once a year they descended among the living in an invisible form to join in their festivals.[XII-63] It is doubtful, however, whether this paradise was perpetual, for according to some authors the diseased stayed here but a short time, and then passed on to Mictlan; while the children, balked of their life by death or sacrifice, were allowed to essay it again.[XII-64]
MICTLAN.
The third destination of the dead, provided for those who died of ordinary diseases or old age, and, accordingly, for the great majority, was Mictlan, 'the place of the dead,' which is described as a vast, pathless place, a land of darkness and desolation, where the dead after their time of probation are sunk in a sleep that knows no waking. In addressing the corpse they spoke of this place of Mictlan as a 'most obscure land, where light cometh not, and whence none can ever return.'[XII-65] There are several points, however, given by Sahagun, as well as other writers, which tend to modify this aspect of Mictlan. The lords and nobles seem even here to have kept up the barriers which separated them from the contaminating touch of inferiors, and doubtless the good and respectable were classed apart from low miscreants and criminals, for there were nine divisions in Mictlan, of which Chicohnahuimictlan or Ninth-Mictlan, was the abode of the Aztec Pluto and his Proserpine. This name seems also to have been applied to the whole region, meaning then the nine Mictlans.[XII-66] The different idol-mantles in which the dead person was attired, determined by his profession and by his manner of death, would imply that different gods had control of these divisions.[XII-67] Whatever distinction there may have been was kept up by the humbler or richer offerings of food, clothing, implements, and slaves, made at the time of the burial, at the end of eighty days, and on the first, second third, and fourth anniversary of the death; all of which went before Mictlantecutli before being turned over to the use of the person for whom they were destined.[XII-68] In one place Sahagun states that four years were passed in traveling before the soul reached Mictlan, and on another page he distinctly implies that this term was passed within that region, when he says that the dead awoke from their sleep as the sun reached the western horizon, and rose to escort it through their land; Torquemada says that four days were occupied in the journey.[XII-69] The only way to reconcile these statements is by supposing that the soul passed from one division to another, until it finally, at the end of the four years, reached Mictlan proper, or Ninth-Mictlan, and attained repose. Their duties during this term consisting in escorting the sun, and working like their happier brethren in the Sun House, besides passing a certain time in sleep. The fact that the people besought the dead to visit them during the festival in their honor, implies that they were within Mictlan, though their liberty there, at that season, at least, was not so very restricted. 'As they helped to escort the sun, we must suppose that they also enjoyed the blessings of sunshine while terrestrial beings slept, and the expression of Tezozomoc, a place where none knows whether it be night or day, a place of eternal rest,' must refer to those only who have passed the time of probation, and lapsed into the final sleep. It may be however, that the sun was lustreless at night, for Camargo states that it slept after its journey.[XII-70] If so, the dim twilight noticed among the northern people, or the moon, the deity of the night, must have replaced the obscured brightness of the sun, if lights indeed were needed, for the escort and the workers could scarcely have used artificial illumination. The route of the sun further indicates that Mictlan was situated in the antipodean regions, or rather in the centre of the earth, to which the term 'dark and pathless regions' also applies. This is the supposition of Clavigero, who bases it on the fact that Tlalxicco, the name of Mictlantecutli's temple, signifies center or bowels of the earth.[XII-71] But Sahagun and others place it in the north, and support this assertion by showing that Mictlampa signified north.[XII-72] The fact that the people turned the face to the north when calling upon the dead,[XII-73] is strongly in favor of this theory; the north is also the dark quarter. These apparently contradictory statements may be reconciled by supposing that Mictlan was situated in the northern part of the subterranean regions, as the home of the heroes was in the eastern part of the heavens.
As the warrior in the Sun House passes after four years of perfect enjoyment into a seemingly less happy state, so the Mictlan probationer appears to have abandoned his work for a condition of everlasting repose.[XII-74] This condition is already indicated by the very signification of the name Mictlan, 'place of the dead,' and by the preceding statements; it also implied by the myth of the creation of man, wherein the god-heroes say to Xolotl: Go beg of Mictlantecutli, Lord of Hades, that he may give thee a bone or some ashes of the dead that are with him.[XII-75]
THE JOURNEY OF THE DEAD.
I will now revert to the terrible four days' journey,[XII-76] which those who were unfortunate enough to die a peaceful death had to perform before they could attain their negative happiness. Fully impressed with the idea of its hardships, the friends of the deceased held it to be a religious duty to provide him with a full outfit of food, clothing, implements, and even slaves, to enable him to pass safely through the ordeal. Idols were also deposited by his side, and if the dead man were a lord, his chaplain was sent to attend to their service. This maintenance of worship during the journey is also implied by the sprinkling of water upon the ashes with the words: Let the dead wash himself.[XII-77] The officiating priests, laid, besides, passports with the body, which were to serve for various points along the road. The first papers passed him by two mountains, which, like the symplegades, threatened to meet and crush him in their embrace. The second was a pass for the road guarded by a big snake; the other papers took him by the green crocodile, Xochitonal, across eight deserts, and over eight hills. Then came the freezing itzehecaya, 'wind of knives,' which hurls stones and knives upon the traveler, who now more than ever finds the offerings of his friends of service. How the poor soul escaped this ordeal is not stated. Lastly he came to the broad river Chiconahuapan 'nine waters,' which could be crossed only upon the back of a dog of reddish color, which was killed for this purposes by thrusting an arrow down its throat, and was burnt with the corpse. According to Gomara, the dog served for a guide to Mictlan, but other authors state that it preceded its master, and when he arrived at the river, he found it on the opposite bank, waiting with a number of others for their owners. As soon as the dog recognized its master, it swam over, and bore him safely across the rushing current. A cotton string tied round its neck when placed upon the pyre may have served to distinguish it from other dogs, or as a passport.[XII-78] The traveler was now taken before Mictlantecutli, to whom he presented the passports together with gifts consisting of candlewood, perfume-canes, soft threads of plain and colored cotton, a piece of cloth, a mantle and other articles of clothing, and was thereupon assigned to his sphere. Women underwent the same ordeal.[XII-79] Camargo mentions a paradise above the nine heavens, occupied by the goddess of love, where dwarfs, fools, and hunchbacks danced and sang for her amusement, but whether these beings were of human or divine origin is not stated.[XII-80] At times the old chroniclers consider Mictlan as a place of punishment,[XII-81] but the priests in their homilies never appear to have urged repentance for the purpose of escaping future punishment, but merely to avoid earthly inflictions, visited upon them or their children.[XII-82] The philanthropist whose whole life had been one continuous act of benevolence, the wise prince who had lived but for his country's good, the saintly hermit, the pious priest who had passed his days in perpetual fasts, penance, and self-torture, all were consigned to Mictlan, together with the drunkard, the murderer, the thief, and none were exempt from the terrible journey, or from the long probation which ends in eternal sleep. They may have accounted to themselves for the manifest unfairness of this system by means of their belief in predestination, which taught that the sign under which a man was born determined to a great extent, if not entirely, his character, career, and consequently his future.[XII-83] Mictlan cannot, therefore, be regarded as a hell; it is but a place of negative punishment, a Nirvâna, in which the soul is at last blown out and lost.[XII-84]
THE FUTURE OF THE TLASCALTECS.
The Tlascaltecs supposed that the souls of people of rank entered after death into the bodies of the higher animals, or even into clouds and gems, while common souls passed into lower animal forms.[XII-85] With the Mexicans they believed that little children who died were given another trial of earth-life.[XII-86] In Goatzacoalco the bones of the dead were so placed that the soul might have no difficulty in finding them.[XII-87] In the Aztec creation-myth we have seen that out of bone man was formed, and Brinton considers this, together with instances of the careful preservation of remains to be noticed in different parts of America, evidence of a widespread belief that the soul resided in the bones. This receives further confirmation in the Quiché legend which relates that the bones of certain heroes were ground to powder to prevent their removal.[XII-88] Yet the idea does not accord with the Mexican custom of placing a stone between the lips of the dead to serve as heart, and, doubtless, to hold the soul as the Quichés supposed. Either instance, however, implies a belief in several souls, although no reference is made to such plurality. The Tlascaltecs had guardian spirits which were embodied in the idols called tepictoton, and Camargo mentions angels who inhabited the air and influenced thunder, winds, and other phenomena, and who were doubtless the children of Tlalocan.[XII-89] A devil they could scarcely have had, for evil mingled too liberally in the nature of most of the Mexican gods to admit of its personification by one alone. The nearest approach to our Satan was to be found in a phantom called Tlacatecolotl, the 'owlish one'[XII-90] who roamed about doing mischief; to see an owl was accordingly held to be an evil sign, and much dreaded. Will o' the wisps were regarded as transformed wizards and witches, or animals.[XII-91] The Tlascaltecs supposed that the sparks which sped away from the craters of volcanoes were the souls of tyrants sent forth by the gods to torment the people.[XII-92]
FUTURE OF THE OTOMIS, MIZTECS, AND MAYAS.
The Otomís believed that the soul died with the body,[XII-93] while the Tarascos, according to Herrera, admitted a future judgment, with its accompaniments of heaven and hell, but to judge from their burial customs, with immolation of attendants, term of mourning, and so forth, it would appear that they had the same belief as the Aztecs.[XII-94]