He corresponds to the hour before sunrise, which makes it clear that his prehistoric precedence to the sun was insisted upon in the list of the day-hours. The texts dwell upon his antiquity, for he is, indeed, the Old God, the god who existed before the foundations of the world, father and mother of [[279]]the gods, and in this I think I see a reference to the shaping nature of fire, its moulding or creating influence, as observed in many mythologies. But in most pantheons fire-gods undertake the work of the smith, and this seems to have given rise to the idea of their creative capacity. That particular craft, however, was unknown in Mexico, and I am therefore at a loss to understand this particular phase of Xiuhtecutli, unless it be that as fire was regarded by the Mexicans as a symbol of renewal or rebirth (from the fact that fresh fuel was capable of adding renewed life to a dying fire), and that the idea of creation had no place in their minds except as a renewal of the universe, it may have been that they regarded that element as a vehicle or a symbol of recreation. Out of this conception, too, arose the belief that Xiuhtecutli renewed the year, from which circumstance he takes his title “Lord of the Year.” Izcalli, too, the name of one of his festivals, means “growth,” or perhaps “continuance,” and seems to be connected in some manner with this belief.

His rulership of the ninth day and the ninth week, of which the symbol is atl, water, seems directly opposed to all our ideas of his character, but, as Seler points out, the Mexicans thought of water “primarily as a derivative concrete element, which originally means something like ‘the shooting thing,’ derived from the verb a, which was in fact used in the sense of ‘to shoot, to throw the spear.’ ” It is also connected with the symbol tlachinolli, which Seler[12] states means “spear-throwing and firebrand,” that is, “war.” In the Codex Borgia group, too, where the Fire-god is pictured as ruler of the ninth day, we find equivalents to this symbol, which undoubtedly connect him with the destruction which follows upon war, and there are also pictorial indications, such as the throne with the jaguar-skin covering, which associate him with the idea of justice, of law-giving, and, again, with that of sustenance.

As Lord of the Middle, of the Centre, too, he is undoubtedly ruler of the domestic hearth, which in the houses of the [[280]]Mexicans was situated in the middle of the dwelling. He was also thought of as the “Lord of Wealth,” especially that hoarded in the house by careful housekeeping and foresight, and diligent workmanship in the fields.[13]

[[Contents]]

CHANTICO = “IN THE HOUSE”

ASPECT AND INSIGNIA

Sahagun MS.—The lower half of her face is black, daubed with rubber, and the upper half is red. She has a golden ear-plug. She wears a red garment and her hair is bound up in a fillet of cotton rags. On her back she wears the arrow-like device meiotli. Her overdress is “the colour of spring flowers.” In one hand she holds a feather staff, the paper covering of which is painted with the acute-angled figure which denotes cotton, and in the other she bears the shield with the device of the eagle’s foot. Sahagun says her priest had to keep in readiness for her festival red and black pigments, a robe, white sandals, and small shells.

Codex Borgia.—In this MS. she is represented with a yellow face and a yellow body. She wears a red tippet, white skirt, and a step-shaped nose-ornament, while her head is wrapped round with a red cloth edged with white shell disks, a feather decoration surmounting the cloth. [[281]]

Codex Vaticanus B.—Here she has a yellow face with two red cross-lines like the narrow black stroke on the face of the Fire-god.