ILAMATECUTLI = “THE OLD PRINCESS”

ASPECT AND INSIGNIA

Codex Borgia.—Sheets 9, 11: In this representation the goddess is shown with hair composed of heron-feathers and wearing a white garment. In the pictures of this codex the contracted corners of her mouth, due to old age, are indicated by a ring-shaped ornament worn below the upper lip.

Codex Borbonicus.—She has a skeleton’s head, which differs from that of the Death-god in that it is coloured yellow, with red lines instead of black, but shows a similarity to it in the ruffled “night-hair” with which it is covered. In most of the pictures of her in this codex her blue dress is dotted with [[230]]circular white spots which are perhaps intended for stars. This garment is completed with thongs, from which depend snail-shells, a decoration also seen in the rattling girdle ornaments (citlalicue) characteristic of the Earth and Underworld goddesses.

MYTHS

According to the myth related by Motolinia,[72] Ilamatecutli or Ilancuêyê, as he designates her, was the wife of Iztac Mixcoatl (q.v.), with whom she dwelt in Chicomoztoc, “the land of the seven canes,” the mythical officina gentium of the Mexican tribes, whence the aboriginal ancestors of the several races of Mexico were supposed to have had their being. By a second wife, Chinamatl, or Chimalmat, Iztac Mixcoatl became the father of Quetzalcoatl.

FESTIVAL

Tititl (“Stretching of Limbs”).—This festival was held in the Kalends of the seventeenth month, probably about December 19.[73] A female slave was bought by the authorities and dressed as follows: She wore an upper garment or peplum of white stuff and a skirt of the same colour, beneath which showed the citlalicue, or star-skirt, of the goddess, a dress sprinkled with stars, cut at the ankles in the shape of many thongs, from each of which hung a small shell, so that when she walked these came together and made a rattling sound. Her sandals were white and she bore a shield whitened with chalk, having a design of eagle’s feathers in the centre. Fringes of heron’s feathers terminating in eagle’s plumes hung from the lower edge of the shield. In the other hand she carried the tzotozopaztli, a wooden knife, used for pressing cloth. Her face was painted black and yellow. Her hair was dressed in the form known as tzompilinalli, or “hair tied at the temples,” and eagle’s plumes fell from it behind.

Before the victim was dispatched they made her dance to the sound of instruments played by old men, which mingled [[231]]with the chanting of the priests. The wretched woman wept and sobbed as she danced, and as evening approached she was taken to the temple of Uitzilopochtli, accompanied by all the priests wearing their insignia and the masks of their gods, one of which was that of Ilamatecutli. On arriving at the summit of the teocalli, or pyramid-temple, she was immediately slain, her heart was torn out and she was decapitated. The head was given to the priest attired in the insignia of the goddess, who held it in his right hand by the hair, and engaged in a dance, raising and lowering the horrid trophy, and in this solemn measure he was accompanied by the priests who represented the other divinities. They then descended the steps of the teocalli in procession, and sought their quarters.