TEOYAOMIQUE.
Mictlan, the Mexican hades, or place of the dead, signifies either primarily, or by an acquired meaning, 'northward, or toward the north,' though many authorities have located it underground or below the earth. This region was the seat of the power of a god best known under his title of Mictlantecutli; his female companion was called Mictlancihuatl, made identical by some legends with Tlazolteotl, and by others apparently with the serpent-woman and mother goddess.[IX-46] There has been discovered and there is now to be seen in the city of Mexico a huge compound statue, representing various deities, the most prominent being a certain goddess Teoyaomique, who, it seems to me, is almost identical with or at least a connecting link between the mother goddess and the companion of Mictlantecutli. Mr Gallatin says[IX-47] that the Mexican gods "were painted in different ways according to their various attributes and names: and the priests were also in the habit of connecting with the statue of a god or goddess, symbols of other deities which partook of a similar character. Gama has adduced several instances of both practices, in the part of his dissertation which relates to the statue of the goddess of death found buried in the great Square of Mexico of which he, and lately Mr Nebel, have given copies.[IX-48] Her name is Teoyaomiqui, which means, to die in sacred war, or 'in defense of the gods,' and she is the proper companion of Huitzilopochtli, the god of war. The symbols of her own attributes are found in the upper part of the statue: but those from the waist downwards relate to other deities connected with her or with Huitzilopochtli. The serpents are the symbols of his mother Cohuatlycue, and also of Cihuacohuatl, the serpent woman who begat twins, male and female, from which mankind proceeded: the same serpents and feathers are the symbol of Quezatlcohuatl, the precious stones designate Chalchihuitlycue, the goddess of water; the teeth and claws refer to Tlaloc and to Tlatocaocelocelotl (the tiger king): and together with her own attributes, the whole is a most horrible figure."
GAMA ON THE COMPOUND IMAGE.
Of this great compound statue of Huitzilopochtli (for the most part under his name of Teoyaotlatohua), Teoyaomique, and Mictlantecutli, and of the three deities separately Leon y Gama treats, in substance as follows, beginning with Mictlantecutli:[IX-49]—
The Chevalier Boturini mentions another of his names, Teoyaotlatohua, and says that as director and chief of sacred war he was always accompanied by Teoyaomique, a goddess whose business it was to collect the souls of those that died in war and of those that were sacrificed afterward as captives. Let these statements be put alongside of what Torquemada says, to wit, that in the great feast of the month Hueimiccailhuitl,[IX-50] divine names were given to dead kings and to all famous persons who had died heroically in war, and in the power of the enemy; idols were made furthermore of these persons, and they were put with the deities; for it was said that they had gone to the place of delights and pleasures there to be with the gods. From all this it would appear that before this image, in which were closely united Teoyaotlatohua and Teoyaomique, there were each year celebrated certain rites in memory and honor of dead kings and lords and captains and soldiers fallen in battle. And not only did the Mexicans venerate in the temple this image of many gods, but the judicial astrologers feigned a constellation answering thereto and influencing persons born under it. In depicting this constellation Teoyaotlatohua Huitzilopochtli was represented with only half his body, as it were seated on a bench, and with his mouth open as if speaking. His head was decorated after a peculiar fashion with feathers, his arms were made like trunks of trees with branches, while from his girdle there issued certain herbs that fell downwards over the bench. Opposite this figure was Teoyaomique, naked save a thin robe,[IX-51] and standing on a pedestal, apparently holding her head in her hands, at any rate with her head cut off, her eyes bandaged, and two snakes issuing from the neck where the head should have been. Between the god and the goddess was a flowering tree divided through the middle, to which was attached a beam with various crosspieces, and over all was a bird with the head separated from its body. There was to be seen also the head of a bird in a cup, and the head of a serpent, together with a pot turned upside down while the contents—water as it would appear by the hieroglyphics attached—ran out.
In this form were painted these two gods, as one of the twenty celestial signs, sufficiently noticed by Boturini, although as he confesses, he had not arranged them in the proper order. Returning to notice the office attributed to Teoyaomique, that of collecting the souls of the dead, we find that Cristóbal del Castillo says that all born under the sign which, with the god of war, this goddess ruled, were to become at an early age valorous soldiers; but that their career was to be short as it was brilliant, for they were to fall in battle young. These souls were to rise to heaven, to dwell in the house of the sun, where were woods and groves. There they were to exist four years, at the end of which time they were to be converted into birds of rich and beautiful plumage, and to go about sucking flowers both in heaven and on earth.
MICTECACIHUATL.
To the statue mentioned above there was joined with great propriety the image of another god, feigned to be the god of hell, or of the place of the dead, which latter is the literal signification of his name, Mictlantecutli. This image was engraved in demi-relief on the lower plane of the stone of the great compound statue; but it was also venerated separately in its own proper temple, called Tlalxicco, that is to say, 'in the bowels or navel of the earth.' Among the various offices attributed to this deity was that of burying the corpses of the dead, principally of those that died of natural infirmities; for the souls of these went to hell to present themselves before this Mictlantecutli and before his wife Mictecacihuatl, which name Torquemada interprets as 'she that throws into hell.' Thither indeed it was said that these dead went to offer themselves as vassals carrying offerings, and to have pointed out to them the places that they were to occupy according to the manner of their death. This god of hades was further called Tzontemoc, a term interpreted by Torquemada to mean 'he that lowers his head;' but it would rather appear that it should take its signification from the action indicated by the great statue, where this deity is seen as it were carrying down tied to himself the heads of corpses to bury them in the ground, as Boturini says. The places or habitations supposed to exist in hell, and to which the souls of the dead had to go, were nine; in the last of which, called Chicuhnauhmictlan, the said souls were supposed to be annihilated and totally destroyed. There was lastly given to this god a place in heaven, he being joined with one of the planets and accompanied by Teotlamacazqui; at his feet, there was painted a body that was half buried, or covered with earth from the head to the waist, while the rest stuck out uncovered. It only remains to be said that such was the veneration and religious feeling with which were regarded all things relating to the dead, that not only there were invented for them tutelary gods, much honored by frequent feasts and sacrifice; but the Mexicans elevated Death itself, dedicating to it a day of the calendar (the first day of the sixth 'trecena'), joining it to the number of the celestial signs; and erecting to it a sumptuous temple called Tolnahuac, within the circuit of the great temple of Mexico, wherein it was particularly adored with holocausts and victims under the title Ce Miquiztli.[IX-52]
MIXCOATL, GOD OF HUNTING.