He was dealt with, therefore he wept.
Not so, not so (shall it be) (saith he)
The God was dealt with, therefore he wept.
I have followed Seler’s translation of this hymn, but, like him, can glean little from it. It seems to me to allude vaguely to the cutting of the agave-plant, and the consequent withdrawal of the sap from which octli is made.
A report on the Huaxtec territory dated 1579 evidently relates to the octli-gods. It states that:
“They related another fable, that they had two other effigies as gods, one called Ometochtli, who is the god of wine; the other Tezcatlipocâ, which is the name of the most exalted idol worshipped by them, and with these they had painted the figure of a woman named Hueytonantzin, that is, ‘our great mother,’ because they said she was the mother [[287]]of all those gods or demons. And those four above-mentioned male demons, they related, had killed this great mother, founding with her the institution of human sacrifice, and taking her heart out of her breast and presenting it to the sun. Similarly, they related that the idol Tezcatlipocâ had killed the god of wine with his consent and concurrence, giving out that in this way he gave him eternal life, and that if he did not die, all persons drinking wine must die; but that the death of this Ometochtli was only like the sleep of one drunk, that he afterwards recovered and again became fresh and well.”
FESTIVAL
The principal festival of the octli-gods was ome tochtli (“two rabbit”), and this calendrical name became in a measure deified as a separate god, who was the same as Tepoxtecatl.[4] Sahagun says of this festival:
“In the sign ce maçatl, on the second day called ome tochtli, they made a great feast to the god Izquitecatl, who is the second god of wine, and not only to him, but to all the gods of wine, who were very numerous. They ornamented his image in the temple, offered him food, and made songs and played on instruments in his presence. They placed a great jar of octli in the court of the temple, and whoever wished drank from it. The duty of replenishing the jar was given to the men who cut the maguey. They carried to the house of the god the first-fruits of the first sap, which they drew from it.”