Ixtlilxochitl represents him in the month etzalli pictured with a cane of maize in the one hand, and in the other an instrument with which he is digging the ground, in which he places maize-leaves and a kind of food, like fritters, called etzalli.
Sahagun MS.—This states that the god’s face was entirely black with a few spots of salvia chia. The body was also of a dark colour. He wears a “mist” or “cloud” shirt without sleeves, in the Toltec fashion, falling to the knee, and a cloth is rolled round the hips. The crown is of heron-feathers, and the sandals symbolize the foam of water. The shield is inset with water-flowers or rushes, and the god carries a white rush staff.
STATUARY AND VASES
As has been said, the vases in the Uhde collection and in the Anthropological Museum at Berlin show the Tlaloc face, probably in its earlier state of development. In both of these a serpentine motif arches over the eyes and meets in a knot or twist which forms the nose, while a separate serpent [[242]]pattern forms the mouth in a moustache-like manner, the long teeth jutting out from underneath it. Another found in the Calle de las Escalerillas, Mexico City, is identical with these last. A stone slab found at Cerro de Zapotitlan, near Castillo de Teayo, and resembling a tombstone, shows the face of Tlaloc very clearly, the characteristic feather crown and the long tusk-like teeth being especially noticeable. Another stone figure found at Teayo is fully illustrative of the god’s facial characteristics, but the two serpents twining together to form the nose spring upwards and, after traversing the position of the eyebrow, end with their tails above this in a flourish. The back-fan is well represented in this figure, which has also a mantle and a waist-belt. In a relief found at Teayo in which Tlaloc is represented along with Xochiquetzal, we see once more the manner in which the serpentine motifs around the mouth and eyes have become unified through the exigencies of representation in profile. The usual insignia are represented here, such as the necklace, the back-fan, and the short tunic; but certain knots or bows on the dress lead me to think that what have been commonly taken for sprinklings of indiarubber gum (ulli) may be small ornamental knots of some textile material. Vases found at Tlaxcallan and in the Mixtec country show precisely the same characteristics.
MYTHS
The myth explanatory of the Tlaloquê is found in the Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas (c. ii),[5] which tells how the rain-gods lived in four chambers surrounding a great court in which stood four immense water-casks. In one of these good water was stored, which descended upon the grain when it was in process of growth. Bad water stood in the next, which produced fungus growth, causing the maize to turn black. When rain and frost came together it was thought that the third cask had been drawn upon, and the fourth was filled with such rain as was followed by no [[243]]growth, or by such growth as grew sere and withered. Tlaloc, we learn from this account, had created for the purposes of rain-making a number of dwarfs who made their homes in the four chambers of his house, and who carried sticks in their hands, and jars into which they drew water from the great casks. When Tlaloc commanded them to water a certain tract of country they poured water from the jars they held, and the lightning-flash was supposed to proceed from the cracking or breaking of their vessels. This myth is represented in the Codex Borgia, p. 27, as already described.
Another piece of mythic information is found in the Song of the Rain-god, the fourth canticle in Sahagun’s collection, which has been translated as follows:
I
Oh, Mexico has done service with the gods,
The paper flags fly over the four corners of the heavens,