CHAPTER IX.
GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.
The Mother or all-nourishing Goddess under various names and in various aspects—Her Feast in the Eleventh Aztec month Ochpaniztli—Festivals of the Eighth month, Hueytecuilhuitl, and of the Fourth, Hueytozoztli—The deification of women that died in child-birth—The Goddess of Water under various names and in various aspects—Ceremonies of the Baptism or lustration of children—The Goddess of Love, her various names and aspects—Rites of confession and absolution—The God of fire and his various names—His festivals in the tenth month Xocotlveti and in the eighteenth month Yzcali; also his quadriennial festival in the latter month—The great festival of every fifty-two years; lighting the new fire—The God of hades, and Teoyaomique, collector of the souls of the fallen brave—Deification of dead rulers and heroes—Mixcoatl, God of hunting and his feast in the fourteenth month, Quecholli—Various other Mexican deities—Festival in the second month, Tlacaxipehualiztli, with notice of the gladiatorial sacrifices—Complete synopsis of the festivals of the Mexican Calendar, fixed and movable—Temples and Priests.
Centeotl is a goddess, or according to some good authorities a god, who held, under many names and in many characters, a most important place in the divine world of the Aztecs, and of other Mexican and Central American peoples. She was goddess of maize, and consequently, from the importance in America of this grain, of agriculture, and of the producing earth generally. Many of her various names seem dependent on the varying aspects of the maize at different stages of its growth; others seem to have originated in the mother-like nourishing qualities of the grain of which she was the deity. Müller lays much stress on this aspect of her character: "The force which sustains life must also have created it. Centeotl was therefore considered as bringing children to light, and is represented with an infant in her arms. Nebel gives us such a representation, and in our Mexican museum at Basel there are many images in this form, made of burnt clay. Where agriculture rules, there more children are brought to mature age than among the hunting nations, and the land revels in a large population. No part of the world is so well adapted to exhibit this difference as America. Centeotl is consequently the great producer, not of children merely, she is the great goddess, the most ancient goddess."[IX-1]
THE MOTHER-NOURISHER.
Centeotl was known, according to Clavigero, by the titles Tonacajohua, 'she who sustains us;' Tzinteotl, 'original goddess;' and by the further names Xilonen, Iztacacenteotl, and Tlatlauhquicenteotl. She was further, according to the same author, identical with Tonantzin, 'our mother,' and, according to Müller and many Spanish authorities, either identical or closely connected with the various deities known as Teteionan, 'the mother of the gods,'[IX-2] Cihuatcoatl, 'the snake-woman,' Tazi or Toci or Tocitzin, 'our grandmother,' and Earth, the universal material mother. Squier says of Tiazolteotl, that "she is Cinteotl the goddess of maize, under another aspect."[IX-3]
She was particularly honored by the Totonacs, with whom she was the chief divinity. They greatly loved her, believing that she did not demand human victims, but was content with flowers and fruits, the fat banana and the yellow maize, and small animals, such as doves, quails, and rabbits. More, they hoped that she would in the end utterly deliver them from the cruel necessity of such sacrifices, even to the other gods.
With very different feelings, as we shall soon see, did the Mexicans proper approach this deity, making her temples horrid with the tortured forms of human sacrifices. It shows how deep the stain of the blood was in the Mexican religious heart, how poisonous far the odor of it had crept through all the senses of the Aztec soul, when it could be believed that the great sustainer, the yellow waving maize, the very mother of all, must be fed upon the flesh of her own children.[IX-4]
To make comprehensible various allusions it seems well here to sum up rapidly the characters given of certain goddesses identical with or resembling in various points this Centeotl. Chicomecoatl[IX-5] was, according to Sahagun, the Ceres of Mexico, and the goddess of provisions, as well of what is drunk as of what is eaten. She was represented with a crown on her head, a vase in her right hand, and on her left arm a shield with a great flower painted thereon; her garments and her sandals were red.
The first of the Mexican goddesses was, following the same authority, Cioacoatl, or Civacoatl, the goddess of adverse things, such as poverty, downheartedness, and toil. She appeared often in the guise of a great lady, wearing such apparel as was used in the palace; she was also heard at night in the air shouting and even roaring. Besides her name Cioacoatl, which means 'snake-woman,' she was known as Tonantzin, that is to say, 'our mother.' She was arrayed in white robes, and her hair was arranged in front, over her forehead, in little curls that crossed each other. It was a custom with her to carry a cradle on her shoulders, as one that carries a child in it, and after setting it down in the market-place beside the other women, to disappear. When this cradle was examined, there was found a stone knife in it, and with this the priests slew their sacrificial victims.
MEDICINE-GODDESS.