[XII-56] Apostólicos Afanes, pp. 22-4.
[XII-57] This legend is taken from a MS kindly presented to me by Mr. Stephen Powers, and is a corrected version of the legend entitled 'Hilpmecone and Olégance' contributed by the same gentleman to the Overland Monthly, January, 1874. pp. 30-1.
[XII-58] 'El que tenia rodela horadada de saetas no podia mirar al sol.' Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., p. 265. This may perhaps mean that the humbler warrior, whose inferior shield was more likely to be pierced, could not look upon the majestic face of the sun, just as he had been interdicted from regarding the face of his king.
[XII-59] 'When the midwife speaks to a woman who has died in childbed, she refers to the noble manner in which she has used the sword and shield, a figure of speech which is probably intended to represent the high estimation in which they held her.' Id., tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 189.
[XII-60] 'Descendian acá á la tierra.' Ib. But it is just as likely that they used the weaving implements supplied to them at the grave, as those of the living. Brasseur de Bourbourg says that the inhabitants of this region had day when the inhabitants of the earth slept; but since the women resumed their work after the setting of the sun, it is more likely that they always had light up there, and that they never slept. Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., p. 497.
[XII-61] The humming-bird, the emblem and attribute of the war-god, offered on the grave in the month of Quecholli, probably referred to this transformation. Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., p. 164, lib. iv., pp. 264-5, tom. ii., lib. vi., pp. 188-9, lib. ix., p. 358; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 530. 'Nachher werden sie theils in Wolken verwandelt, theils in Kolibris.' Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 661. The transformation into clouds seems to refer to the Tlascaltecs.
[XII-62] Tlalocan is the name given by some old writers to the country between Chiapas and Oajaca. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., p. 496; Brinton's Myths, pp. 88-9. It may also be the place referred to under the names of Tamoancha, Xuchitlycacan. Explanation of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vi., p. 127.
[XII-63] Vol. ii., p. 336, this work.
[XII-64] Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 97; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 82, 529. The remarks of the above authors with reference to those who die of diseases may, however, refer to sufferers from ordinary afflictions, who were from all doomed to Mictlan. In Explanation of the Codex Vaticanus, in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vi., pp. 169-71, all who die of diseases and a violent death are consigned to Mictlan. Brinton's Myths, pp. 246-7; Alger's Future Life, pp. 475-6. Chevalier, Mex. Ancien et Mod., p. 91, who regards the sun as heaven, and Mictlan as hell, considers this an intermediate and incomplete paradise. Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., p. 264; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 5.
[XII-65] Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 260-1, tom. ii., lib. vi., p. 176; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 529; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., p. 571; Tezozomoc, Hist. Mex., tom. i., pp. 329, 331.