CHAPTER VI
THE GODS OF RAIN AND MOISTURE
INTRODUCTORY
The gods of rain proper are clearly to be distinguished from the gods of grain and growth, although they were regarded by the ancient Mexicans as stimulating vegetable plenteousness. That they were paramount in the practical theology of the rain-cult[1] is evident, for, whereas Quetzalcoatl was regarded in one of his phases as the deification of the rain-making priest, Tlaloc and the Tlaloquê possessed the entire disposition of the rainfall. Sahagun’s remarks upon Quetzalcoatl make it clear that in this connection he was regarded as a wind-god who swept the way clear for the rain-gods, or ushered in the rains. Myth related how Quetzalcoatl, the first discoverer of the maize, was robbed of his find by Tlaloc, who afterwards had the governance over its growth and distribution. Although the high-priest of the Mexican hierarchy was called by the name of Quetzalcoatl, the prelate next in importance to him bore the name of Tlaloc.
Although Quetzalcoatl was above all regarded by the Aztecâ as a god of wind, evidence is not lacking that to some extent he was looked upon as a rain-god, or at least a rain-bringing god. But the overwhelming superiority of the Tlaloquê in this cult is witnessed to by the fact that out of eighteen great seasonal festivals, no less than five were dedicated to them.[2]
Those of the Tlaloquê, or gods of rain, whose names are [[235]]known were: Tlaloc, the father of all, Chalchihuitlicue, his wife and sister, Nappatecutli, god of the mat-makers, who used aquatic reeds in their work, Atlaua, “Lord of the Beaches” or lake shores, Uixtociuatl, goddess of salt, and Opochtli, god of fishers and fowlers, and inventor of the net.
Concerning the Tlaloquê Sahagun remarks: “The Mexicans take for gods all those high mountains from which the rain comes in the rainy season, and for each of these they imagine an idol.… They also believe that certain maladies proceeding from cold have their origin in the mountains and that these gods have the power to visit them upon them. Those who were attacked by such complaints made a vow to this or that mountain, whichever chanced to be in the neighbourhood, or that for which they entertained the most devotion. A similar vow was made by persons on the point of being drowned in the rivers or in the sea. The maladies for which they made these vows were gout in the hands, feet, or any other part of the body, impotence in any member, or in the entire body, rheumatism, the contraction of the members or cramp. Those who were visited with these maladies made a vow to raise a statue to the following gods: to the idols of the volcano called Popocatepetl in the Sierra Nevada, to a mountain named Poyauhtecatl, or any other to which the feeling of devotion inclined them. When they proposed to offer up to the mountain or gods, they made an image in human form, a mass called tzoalli.”[3] These the people did not make themselves, but called in the offices of those priests skilled in the making of idols, who moulded them out of the paste and gave them teeth of calabash pips and eyes of haricot beans. The rest of the process of manufacture is as described in the account of the festival of the atemoztli (see Tlaloc). These small figures were known as tepictoton, and, like the sacrificial victims to the rain-gods, their hair was dressed in two horns or whorls.