“All these thirteen days were bad, for they affirmed that if evidence should be adduced in these days it would be impossible to arrive at justice, but they imagined that justice would be perverted in such a manner that unjust condemnations would ensue, which was not the case in the days immediately following, when if evidence was adduced they supposed that justice would be made apparent. They believed that those who were born on the sign dedicated to him would be sinners and adulterers.”
NATURE AND STATUS
This deity is a variant of Tezcatlipocâ in his character of the obsidian knife, the god of the stone and therefore of blood, avenging justice, of blinding, of sin, of cold. The obsidian stone was regarded as the instrument of justice, as has already been stated in the section on Tezcatlipocâ. The figure became a general symbol of all things hard, and is therefore explained by the authors of the Interpretative Codices as “the god of cold.” Frost, ice, or low temperature is in the Sahagun MS. symbolized by a man wearing the headdress of this deity, which was also worn by Uitzilopochtli at the ochpanitztli festival, when the knife of sacrifice had such free play. The manner in which the god is represented in Codex Borbonicus as blindfolded is probably a late conception of him as the god of justice. But he seems also to have had a stellar connection which is a little vague.
PAYNAL = “THE HASTY”
- Area of Worship: Mexico, Tlaxcallan.
- Relationship: Precursor or forerunner of Uitzilopochtli.
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ASPECT AND INSIGNIA
Sahagun MS.—He has the stellar face-painting, and wears a many-pointed crown of yellow feathers, the lower part of which is white. The front of this white portion ends in three small globes or bells. At the back is a bow, and he is furnished with an ear-plug and nose-plug of turquoise. On the head he wears a shell ring like Uitzilopochtli and Quetzalcoatl, and he holds a narrow striped banner ending in a sort of fleur-de-lis motif. The shield is blue, inlaid with turquoise mosaic. He has a peculiar skirt with a train marked with cross-hatchings. The banner he carries is a golden one, and he also bears the fire-drill. On his face is painted a chaffinch, which composes his face-mask.