The gods of Mexico

by Lewis Spence

Acosta says of his appearance: “The chiefest idoll of Mexico was, as I have sayde, Vitziliputzli. It was an image of wood like to a man, set upon a stoole of the coloure of azure, in a brankard or litter, in every corner was a piece of wood in forme of a serpent’s head. The stoole signified that he was set in heaven. This idol had all the forehead azure, and had a band of azure under the nose from one ear to another. Upon his head he had a rich plume of feathers like to the beak of a small bird, the which was covered on the top with gold burnished very brown. He had in his left hand a small target, with the figures of five pineapples made of white feathers set in a cross. And from above issued forth a crest of gold, and at his sides hee hadde foure dartes, which (the Mexicaines say) had been sent from heaven which shall be spoken of. In his right hand he had an azured staff cutte in the fashion of a waving snake. All those ornaments with the rest hee had, carried his sence as the Mexicaines doe shew.”[3]

Solis writes of his aspect as follows: “Opposite … sat Huitzilopochtli, on a throne supported by a blue globe. From this, supposed to represent the heavens, projected four staves with serpents’ heads, by which the priests carried the god when he was brought before the public. The image bore upon its head a bird of wrought plumes, whose beak and crest were of burnished gold. The feathers expressed horrid cruelty, and were made still more ghastly by two strips of blue, one on the brow and the other on the nose. Its [[69]]right hand leaned, as on a staff, upon a crooked serpent. Upon the left arm was a buckler bearing five white plums, arranged in the form of a cross, and the hand grasped four arrows, venerated as heaven-descended.”[4]

Herrera says that his idol was a gigantic image of stone, covered with a lawn called nacar, beset with pearls, precious stones, and pieces of gold. It had for a girdle great snakes of gold, and a counterfeit visor with eyes of glass.[5]

Torquemada writes: “In his right hand a dart or long blue pole, in the left a shield, his face barred with lines of blue. His forehead was decorated with a tuft of green feathers, his left leg was lean and feathered, and both thighs and arms were barred with blue.”[6]

The Sahagun MS. states that “he wears a panache of yellow parrot feathers stuck together, and having a bunch of quetzal-feathers at the tip. His espitzalli is over his forehead. The face or mask is striped in various colours, and the ear-plug is made of the feathers of the blue cotinga. On his back is the fire-snake dress and on his arm he has a quetzal-feather. At the back he is girded with a blue net cloth, and his leg is striped with blue. Bells and shells decorate his feet, and he is shod with sandals of the type usually worn by persons of high degree. His shield is the teueuelli with a bundle of arrows without points stuck in it, and in one hand he holds a serpent-staff.”

Sahagun (c. xxii, bk. iv) describes the insignia employed at the god’s festival of ce tecpatl. These were the quetzalquemitl, or mantle of green quetzal-feathers, the tozquemitl, the mantle made of the yellow feathers of the toztli, a bird of the parrot species, the Uitzitzilquemitl, or mantle of humming-bird’s feathers, “and others less rich.”

FESTIVALS

The first festival of Uitzilopochtli was the tlaxochimaco, of which Sahagun says: “The ninth month was styled [[70]]tlaxochimaco. A festival was held on the first day of this month in honour of Huitzilopochtli, god of war, when he was offered the first flowers of the year. The night before this festival everybody killed chickens and dogs with which to make tamalli and other things good to eat. Very soon after the first glimmerings of dawn on the day of the festival, the attendants of the idols adorned the statue of Huitzilopochtli with flowers. The images of the other gods were decked with garlands and wreaths of flowers, and the same was done to all the other idols of the calpulli[7] and telpochcalli.[8] The calpixque,[9] the principal people, and the macehualli[10] covered the statues in their houses with flowers. These preparations being completed, the viands prepared during the previous night were partaken of, and shortly after this repast a dance was engaged in, in which the nobles mingled with the women, taking them by the hand, and even going the length of embracing them by placing their arms round their necks. The usual movements of the areyto[11] were not performed, the dancers moving step by step, to the strains of the musicians and singers, who stood, some distance away, at the foot of a round altar called momoztli. They sang thus until night, not only in the courts of the temples, but also in the houses of people of rank and of the macehualli, while the aged of both sexes indulged deeply in pulque; but young people were not permitted to touch it, and anyone allowing them to drink it was severely punished.”

Toxcatl.—For this festival see under Tezcatlipocâ, to whom it was also and more especially sacred.

Panquetzalitztli.—The following account of this festival is summarized from Sahagun’s pages: For twenty-four days prior to the incidence of the festival the priests did penitence. They hung branches upon the oratories and shrines of the gods of the mountains, and green reeds and leaves of the maguey-plant. At the end of the quecholli festival everyone [[71]]took to dancing and singing, especially to the song or hymn of Uitzilopochtli. Nine days before the sacrifice those doomed to die bathed in the fountain called Uitzilotl (humming-bird water) in the village of Uitzilopochco. The old men went to seek nine bunches of the leaves of the tree called aueuetl (“old one of the waters”—the Cupressus distica). The faces of the doomed ones were painted in the colours of the god, yellow and blue in transverse bands, and adorned with his insignia.