ITZPAPALOTL.
(From Codex Borbonicus, sheet 15.)
ITZPAPALOTL.
(From Codex Telleriano-Remensis, sheet 18, Verso.)
PRIESTHOOD
The Cinteotzin (Lord of Maize), says Sahagun, had charge of affairs at the festival of Xilonen (see Cinteotl).
NATURE AND STATUS
Xilonen appears to be nothing more than a deification of the young, tender ear of the maize-plant. Her name, the season at which her rites took place and the youth of the xalaquia who represented her would seem to bear this out. She was originally a goddess of the Huichol tribes, and, by some circumstance of evolution or imagery, came to symbolize for the Nahua the maize in the earlier stages of its ripeness, thus to some extent resembling Cinteotl. Payne and also Seler in some places seem to confound her festival [[223]]with that of Chicomecoatl, and offer no reasons for thus traversing the statements of the older authorities, which are definite enough and which in this instance I prefer to follow.