The gods of Mexico

by Lewis Spence

Tlacaxipeuliztli.—The best description of this festival is that of Sahagun (bk. ii, c. xxi) who tells us that on the last day of the month of that name the Mexicans celebrated a solemn festival to Xipe and Uitzilopochtli. On the afternoon of the day prior to that on which the feast was to take place they held a solemn areyto, or dance, and they watched all the night in the temple called calpulco[51] with those who were to be sacrificed on the morrow. They shaved the hair from the tops of their heads, at the same time drawing blood from their own ears to offer to the gods. When daybreak had come, they conducted the captives to the temple of Uitzilopochtli, where they were sacrificed and flayed, from which circumstance the feast took its name. Many of the victims were called Xipeme or Tototectin (plurals of the god’s name). The masters of the captives, or those who had captured them in war, formally handed them over to the priests at the foot of the teocalli, and these took them by the hair of the head to make them mount the steps more quickly. If they refused to walk to the stone of sacrifice they were dragged thence. When their hearts had been withdrawn they were offered [[213]]up to the gods, and the body cast down the steps of the teocalli, where other priests received it for flaying. The hearts of the unfortunates thus slaughtered were thrown into a tub of wood and took the name of quanochtli, or “nopal wood,” of which the tubs were made.

The flaying process was undertaken by a caste of elderly and probably inferior priests, the quaquacuilton.[52] Before the bodies of the sacrificed were so treated they were carried to the temple, where the “master” of the captive had made his vow to capture and consecrate a victim to the god. The body was broken up at this place, and a leg was dispatched to court for the table of the king, the remainder being divided among the great, or the master’s parents. The dreadful repast was usually partaken of in the house of him who had taken the captive prisoner in war. They cooked the flesh with maize and gave a little to each in a small porringer. The dish was called tlacatlaolli, or “man and maize.” After having eaten, the feasters became intoxicated on octli. On the following day, having watched all the night, they went to amuse themselves by examining the other captives, and in watching them being baited on the stone of combat. These latter were known as uauantin, “the pierced,” with reference to the wounds they received.[53]

Before the sacrificial rites took place the captors of the victims gathered together, and when the victims had been dispatched the captors, or certain priests (it is not clear which), drew on the skins of the flayed victims, and took up positions on hillocks of hay or heaps of chalk or rubbish. Others approached them, and defied them to combat by words and pinches. A skirmish ensued, and those who were captured did not escape scot-free, being rather roughly handled. This mock combat over, the real business of the day began in terrible earnest. The wretched captive [[214]]was secured by one ankle to the temalacatl, or stone of combat, and wooden bâtons on which eagle-down had been stuck, in imitation of a maquahuitl, or obsidian-edged sword, were placed in his hands. Four warriors now came against the victim, two of the ocelotl corps of knights and two of the quauhtli or Eagle Corps, and having raised their shields and weapons to the sun, one of them attacked the captive tied to the stone. If he defended himself with address, two or even three of his opponents attacked him, and if he still made good his resistance, all four fell upon him, “intermingling their blows with dances and numerous poses.”

Prior to the combat a solemn procession was formed to the temalacatl. A body of priests, dressed in the insignia of one or other of the gods in whose honour the festival was held, issued from the yopico (“in Yopi land”), the temple of Xipe, followed by the tecutlis, or knights, already alluded to, who flourished their weapons and made a martial show. Arrived at the temalacatl, they marched round it, and seated themselves on carven stools called quecholicpalli (“perch of the strong bird”). The priest who took charge of the proceedings was called Youallauan (Night-drinker), one of the names of the god, and when all were seated, an orchestra of trumpets, flutes, and conch-shells struck up, mingled with whistling and singing. The performers wore on their shoulders streamers of white feathers mounted on long staves, which, as we have seen, was part of the Xipe dress, and sat between the priests and the stone of combat.

When the frightful overture had concluded, a captive was placed on the stone by the person who devoted him to sacrifice, and a beaker of octli was given him to hearten him to fight well. This he presented to the four points of the compass, and then sucked its contents through a reed. A priest then took up his stand in front of the doomed man, and holding a living quail before him as before a god, tore off its head. Another priest clad in a bear-skin secured the captive to the stone and handed him his weapons, and then his captor danced before him, as before a divinity. The combat then took place, and in the unusual event of a victim [[215]]overcoming the four well-appointed warriors who opposed him, a fifth, who must be a left-handed man, rushed in, raised the exhausted victor in his arms and threw him to the ground, where he was dispatched by the Youallauan.

The victim’s heart was then thrown into the wooden tub before alluded to, after it had been held up to the sun. Another priest now took a hollow reed and introduced it into the opening from which the heart had been removed. Having drawn off a sufficient quantity of blood, he went to offer it up to the sun. The master of the captive who had been slain then filled a bowl with the blood of his victim, which vessel was gaily decorated with feathers and which contained a tube, similarly ornamented. With this he went the round of the temples, smearing the blood upon the lips of the idols with the feathered tube. He next divested himself of the gay feather cloak he wore for the occasion and carried the flayed corpse of his captive, or what remained of it, to his house, after royal and other requirements had been met. As has been said, he feasted his family and friends on the body, but did not himself partake of it, as he was regarded as the ritual father of the deceased. “The skin of a victim also belonged to his captor, and this he gave to those who dressed themselves in skins (in consequence of a vow), and so attired, paraded the streets of the town. Others wore the heads of wolves.”[54]

“When the captive had been slain, all who were present, priests, warriors and others, began to dance the areyto round the temalacatl, the captors of the victims carrying the heads of the slain. This areyto, or dance, was called motzontecomaitotia (dance with decapitated heads). The cuitlachueue (old jackal[55]), godfather of the captives, took in his hands the cords which had held them to the temalacatl and raised them to the four cardinal points in sign of adoration. After that ‘he groaned, he wept for the dead.’

“The foreigners with whom Motecuhzoma was at war [[216]]came to assist secretly at the spectacle. These were the men of Uexotzinco, Tlaxcallan and Nonoualco, Cempoallan, and many other places. The Mexicans pretended not to see them, and they were thus able to behold the fate reserved for captives in Mexico. When all was over, everyone ate a tortilla called uilocpalli, or pigeon-seat, a kind of little paté made with uncooked maize. Next day everyone assisted at an areyto of great solemnity, which was commenced in the royal palace. All were dressed in their best and carried tamallis and tortillas of roasted maize, called momochtli, which they wore instead of collars and garlands. They carried also red feathers and stalks of maize. The areyto ceased at midday, and the nobles ranged themselves three and three in the royal palaces. The king appeared, having upon his right the King of Tezcuco and on his left the Lord of Tacuba. A solemn dance then took place, which lasted until the sun went down, after which they commenced another dance, in which everyone took hands and danced in a serpentine figure. The old soldiers and recruits came to this dance, bringing with them female partners and even public women. This lasted also on the place where the captives had been slain till nearly midnight, and they continued to celebrate these feasts for nearly twenty days, until they had arrived at the kalends of the month which they called tozoztontli.”

Twenty days after the festival those who wore the skins of the slain removed them, but it would seem, from what Sahagun says, that certain devotees wore these from the festival of tlacaxipeuliztli at the end of that month to the beginning of the following tlacaxipeuliztli. Persons afflicted with skin diseases or weak sight frequently made a vow to be present at this ceremony. The devotees then performed ceremonial ablutions in a bath in the temple, in which water was mixed with maize flour, or, more strictly speaking, they were bathed by others. They then shampooed their heads and did penance for the death of the captive. After this the captor erected a tripod in the court of his house, on the top of which was a petlatl, or mat rolled into a ball, on which he placed [[217]]all the paper ornaments which the captive had worn at his sacrifice. “He then chose a courageous young man who wore those papers, and who took a shield in one hand and a cudgel in the other, and went through the streets as if looking for an evil-doer. Everyone was afraid, and cried, ‘Behold the telzompac (noble one) comes!’ If he caught anyone he took his mantle, and all the spoil he took he brought back to the captor. The captor then placed in the middle of the court of his house a joist in the form of a column, which indicated that he had made captives in war, and which was the blazon of his honour. Then he took the thigh-bone of the captive, ornamented it with the papers, and attached it to the top of the column in his courtyard. He then invited his parents, friends, and the men of his quarter, in presence of whom he hung the bone up, and then he gave them to eat and drink. Family songs were sung. All these things were done in the twenty days before they arrived at the uei tozoztli.

The goldsmiths, of whose caste Xipe was the patron, probably because the yellow human skin in which he was represented as being clad typified an overlay of gold-foil, held a festival during tlacaxipeuliztli in the yopico temple sacred to the god, sacrificing and burning victims to him, and covering a human representative of him with ornaments and precious stones, a crown of feathers, golden necklaces and earrings, and scarlet sandals. They then placed him upon a throne and offered him the first fruits and flowers of the season, together with bunches of maize-seed.