COLOSSAL STATUE OF COATLICUE. (Back.)
The deification of the grain is so universal a phenomenon as to require but little explanation, especially in regard to a country where it formed the staple alimentary supply. It appears to have received divine honours in many districts in Mexico and to have been worshipped under a variety of names, but there was little difference between the characters [[15]]of these several cults, and the absence of this is well exemplified by the readiness with which they amalgamated and the fusion of their central figures.
The deification of the rain, as apart from the idea of a mere rain-god, is perhaps a circumstance of more novelty to the student of Comparative Religion. Tlaloc, the god of rain or moisture, is one of the most striking examples of this process in any mythology. A god of great antiquity, his pluvial character is obvious and undoubted. But he is also the life-giver, the nourisher, who from his home in the green uplands of Tlalocan sends the vivifying rains to fill the deep fissures in the hard, cracked soil of the Valley of Anahuac. In the courtyard of his dwelling stood four jars of water, typifying the four different “kinds” of rainfall which corresponded to the four quarters of the heavens, and these were distributed by his progeny, the Tlaloquê. There is the best evidence that the aspect of Tlaloc was evolved from the idea of the rain itself. His face is formed from the interlacings of two serpents, his face-paint is black and blue, or dirty yellow like the threatening cloud which holds the thunder-shower. The garments he wears are splashed with ulli rubber-gum, evidently intended to symbolize rain-spots. Indeed, his robe is called the anachxechilli or “dripping garment,” and is frequently depicted as set with green gems to represent the sparkling raindrops. Few rain-gods, even the Vedic Indra himself, whom Tlaloc somewhat resembles, are so frankly symbolic of the moisture which falls from above.[16] But his serpentine or dragon-like form renders it probable that, although he was regarded in later times as a personification of the rain, in earlier times he was looked upon as the “Water Provider,” the great serpent or dragon which dwelt among the hills and which must be defeated by a hero or demi-god ere it will disgorge the floods which ensure the growth of vegetation.
EVIDENCE OF PRIMITIVE INFLUENCES
We may now examine the elements just described for traces [[16]]of the early constituents of religion. The conception that the earth itself was a monster gifted with life is evidently the outcome of a belief in “animism” or “personalization,” and merits little further notice because of its obvious character. Although the grain was also personalized, there are evidences of its “fetishtic” nature in early times. The great stone figure of Coatlicue already alluded to, besides affording evidence of the dragon-like character of the Earth-mother, exhibits many of the attributes of the primitive fetish manufactured from bundles of maize, large beans representing the eyes and pumpkin pips the teeth, while strips of paper form the mouth and labret. True, these early characteristics have been overlaid by the abounding symbolism of later and more complex ideas—the skin of the sacrificial victim, the serpent-heads, representing perhaps the spouting of that victim’s blood from the severed trunk and the skirt of serpents with which myth credited the goddess—but in the clumsy amorphousness of this wondrously carven block we can readily perceive the outline of the maize-sheaves from which its idea was drawn. Indeed the ears and leaves of the maize-plant descend from underneath the skirt of serpents and decorate the knot which secures it behind.[17]
STATUE OF COATLICUE (Front.)
(Found in the Calle del Calisco, Mexico.)