PATECATL = “HE FROM THE LAND OF THE MEDICINES”

THE OCTLI GODS.

TEPOXTECATL.

(From Codex Magliabecchiano, 1 fol., sheet 37.)

ASPECT AND INSIGNIA

Codex Borgia.—Sheet 57: He sits opposite Tlazolteotl and wears a crescent-shaped Huaxtec nasal ornament, and on his breast a remarkable comma-shaped curved ornament which is, perhaps, a piece of a large spiral snail’s shell, and which is peculiar to Patecatl and Tlazolteotl. He has the half-black, half-light face of the octli-gods. He wears Quetzalcoatl’s fan-like nape adornment, the fillet of unspun cotton distinctive of Tlazolteotl, and an ear-plug of the same material. He holds a stone hatchet, which is the symbol and weapon of the octli-gods, painted blue to indicate nephrite or some such stone. Sheet 13: He wears a fillet which affects the form of the Mexican royal crown, consisting of white fur with an ape’s head set on the frontal side, evidently a barbaric ornament peculiar to the district whence he came.

Codex Fejérváry-Mayer.—Sheet 35: Here he wears a wedge-shaped Huaxtec cap, painted blue and red, and a disk-shaped shell on his breast. His earring is formed of a trapeze-and-ray motif, like those on the stone head of Coyolxauhqui. The ends of his loin-cloth are rounded like Quetzalcoatl’s. Sheet 90: He wears a breast-ornament consisting of a black, leaf-shaped, obsidian knife. [[293]]

Aubin Tonalamatl.—He holds in his left hand some spikes of the agave-leaf, and in his right hand Quetzalcoatl’s throwing-stick, which is involuted snail-fashion at the end and painted with a stellar design. An eagle and jaguar stand before him holding paper flags, these symbols of the warrior signifying the courage-giving nature of octli drink. They are in sacrificial array, with the sacrificial cord round their necks and the sacrificial flag in their claws. The half-night and half-day symbol is above them, signifying the time of the octli orgies.