THE TREE OF THE MIDDLE-QUARTER.
Uitznauac or Uitzlampa, “Region of Thorns” (the South), was, as its name implied, a place of rather evil omen, for it was sometimes thought of as inhabited by Mictlan, Lord of the Dead. The Mexicans, dwelling in a plateau country where climatic conditions were temperate, probably regarded the tropics to the south as a region fatal to health, and generally insalubrious in character.
Ciuatlampa, “Region of Women” (the West), was the place to which those women who died in their first childbed (Civapipiltin or Ciuateteô) went after death, and as such falls to be described in the section on “heaven and hell.” But it was also the home of the maize-plant, and of the deities producing it, and also of the Gods of Procreation. It was the Region of the Evening Star, Tlauizcalpantecutli, the planet Venus. In Codex Borgia (sheets 43–46) we seem to see a subdivision of the Western region into North, South, and West. This region may also be collated with Tamoanchan, the paradisaical land of abundant maize, where the maize goddess Tlazolteotl gave birth to her son Centeotl.
Mictlampa, “Region of the Dead,” also falls to be noticed in the section on “heaven and hell.” Symbolically it is the region of drought.
THE SUPPORTERS OF THE HEAVENS
Just as we gain light upon the subject of the Mexican idea of the universe from Maya sources, so do we find a similar correspondence in the beliefs of the two races as regards the conception that the heavens were supported by certain deities. Thus the Maya believed that the heavens were upheld by four gods called Bacabs, and we find pictures in the Mexican Codices which depict certain deities upholding both the heavens and the earth. On sheets 49–52 of Codex Borgia (upper half) are seen the gods of the four quarters and the four supporters of the sky, which last are Tlauizcalpantecutli, [[61]]the Sun-god, Quetzalcoatl, and Mictlantecutli. On sheets 19–23 of Codex Vaticanus B the four upholders of the heavens are given as Tlauizcalpantecutli, Uitzilopochtli, Quetzalcoatl, and Mictlantecutli, and the four terrestrial gods as Xipe Totec, Mictlantecutli, Xochipilli, and Centeotl. The first four are shown upholding the starry firmament, so that we are left in no doubt as regards the existence of such a conception as the support of the heavens by certain gods. The close correspondence between the personnel of the sky-bearers in the two MSS. proves a fairly universal acceptance of the belief, especially as Xipe Totec, and Tonatiuh the Sun-god have much in common.[32]
THE AZTEC HEAVENS
According to ancient Mexican belief various destinations awaited the dead. Warriors slain in battle repaired to the region of the sun, where they dwelt in bliss with the deity who presided over that luminary. Sacrificed captives also fared thence. These followed the sun in his daily course, crying aloud and beating upon their shields, and fighting sham battles. “It is also said,” writes Sahagun in his History of the Affairs of New Spain (Appendix to bk. iii, ch. 3), “that in this heaven are trees and forests of divers sorts. The offerings which the living of this world make to the dead duly arrive at their destination, and are received in this heaven. After four years of sojourn in that place the souls of the dead are changed into divers species of birds having rich plumage of the most brilliant colours.” These were known as tzintzonme[33] (“little bird which flies from place to place”), and they flitted from blossom to blossom on earth as well as in heaven, sucking the rich fragrance from the tropical blooms of the deep Valleys of Anahuac. This region is the Ciutlampa, and perhaps the Tamoanchan alluded to above.