Besides the attributes of the sparrow, flint, and snake, there are others which ascribe to Quetzalcoatl the same properties, but less prominently. As god of the air, he holds the wonderfully painted shield in his hand, a symbol of his power over the winds. As god of the fertilizing influence of the air, he holds, like Saturn, the sickle, symbol of the harvest—he it is that causes the grain to ripen. It used to be said that he prepared the way for the water-god, for in these regions, the rains are always preceded by winds. It was on account of this intimate connection with the rain, which had already procured him the snake attribute, that his mantle was adorned with crosses. We have already seen that such crosses represented the rain-god with the Mayas, and are symbols of the fructifying rain. Consequently they are well suited for the god who is only air-god in the sense of the air exercising its fructifying and invigorating influence upon the earth.
QUETZALCOATL AND THE TRADE-WINDS.
Another question, which has already occurred to us, must here be considered. Why did this god come from the east, depart toward the east, and why should he be expected from the east? The Toltecs have, according to almost unanimous statements, come from the north, and even Quetzalcoatl commences his rule in the north, in Tulla, and proceeds gradually on his journey from the north to the south-east, just like the Toltecs, who traveled southward from Tulla. It is plain that he departs for the east, because this is his home, from which he came and will return. His eastern origin is, no doubt, based upon the direction of the eastern trade-winds, which carry rain and, with it, fertility to the interior of Central America. The rains began three or four weeks earlier in Vera Cruz, Tampico, and Tabasco than in Puebla and Mexico. Another reason, which has, however, a certain connection with the above, may be the relationship of the god of air and the sun-god, who often assumed an equal position in nature and in worship. We know that the founders of the Peruvian and Muyscan cults come from the east, because they are sun-gods. Quetzalcoatl is not such a deity, it is true, but the fertilizing air-god is also in other places closely connected with the fructifying sun, as, for example Huitzilopochtli, Odin, and Brama. The sun is his eye. This connection with the sun, Montezuma referred to when he spoke in the presence of Cortés of the departure of Quetzalcoatl for the regions from which the sun comes. As the sun is the eye of heaven, to whom the heart of the victim sacrificed to the god of heaven is presented, so it is at night with the moon, to whom the same tribute was paid at the feast of Quetzalcoatl. I merely refer to this here to show the connection of the air-god with the great heavenly bodies.
Several other significations are attached to the idea of an air-god. It is natural that the god of heavenly blessing should also be the god of wealth. All wealth depends originally upon the produce of the soil, upon the blessing of heaven, however worldly the opinion of the matter may be. Gold is merely the symbol of this wealth, like the golden shower of Zeus. The image of Quetzalcoatl was, therefore, according to Acosta, adorned with gold, silver, jewels, rich feathers, and gay dresses, to illustrate his wealth. For this reason he wore a golden helmet, and his sceptre was decorated with costly stones. The same view is also the basis of the myths of the ancients about snakes and dragons guarding treasures. The fact that the merchants of Cholula worshiped the god of wealth before all others, and as their chief deity, requires no explanation.
His worship in Cholula was conducted as follows: Forty days before the festival, the merchants bought a spotless slave, who was first taken to bathe in a lake called the Lake of the Gods, then dressed up as the god Quetzalcoatl, whom he had to represent for forty days. During this time he enjoyed the same adoration as was given to the god: he was set upon a raised place, presented with flowers, and fed on the choicest viands. He was, however, well guarded during the night, so that he might not escape. During his exhibition through the town, he danced and sang, and the women and children ran out of their houses to salute him and make him presents. This continued until nine days before the end of the forty days. Then two old priests approached him in all humility, saying, in deep voice: Lord, know that in nine days thy singing and dancing will cease, because thou must die! If he continued of good spirit, and inclined to dance and sing, it was considered a good omen, if the contrary, a bad one. In the latter case they prepared him a drink of blood and cacao, which was to obliterate the remembrance of the past conversation. After drinking this, it was hoped that he would resume his former good humor. On the day of the festival still greater honors were shown him, music sounded and incense was burnt. At last, at the midnight hour, he was sacrificed, the heart was torn out of his body, held up to the moon, and then thrown toward the image of the god. The body was cast down the steps of the temple, and served the merchants, especially the slave-dealers, for a sacrificial meal. This feast and sacrifice took place every year, but after a certain number of cycles, as in the divine year, Teoxihuitl, they were celebrated with much more pomp. Quetzalcoatl had, generally, his human sacrifices during the Aztec rule, as well as the other gods.
QUETZALCOATL AS A HEALING GOD.
The power which reëstablishes the macrocosm, heals and rejuvenates the microcosm also: it is the general healing power. With the good weather thousands of invalids are restored, and refreshing rains not only revive the thirsty plains of the tropics, but man himself. Thus the air-god, the atmosphere, becomes a healing god. A Phœnician told Pausanius that the snake god, Æsculapius, signified the health-restoring air. If this god of heaven is also a snake-god, like Quetzalcoatl, the rejuvenating and reinvigorating power of nature is expressed in a clear parallelism.
The snake-god is also a healing god, and even the Greek Æsculapius cannot dispense with the snake. It is, thus, not to be wondered at that the sterile women of the Mexican peoples directed their prayers to Quetzalcoatl.[VII-37]
This concludes the able summing-up presented by Müller, and it is given as I give all theoretical matter, neither accepting nor rejecting it, as simply another ray of light bent in upon the god Quetzalcoatl, whose nature it is not proposed here to either explain or illustrate, but only to reproduce, as regarded from many sides by the earliest and closest observers.