QUETZALCOATL.
(From a wall-painting at Mitla.)
TONACATECUTLI-TONACACIUATL.
(From Codex Borgia.)
STATUARY
A statuette of the god from the Valley of Mexico exhibits him in a high cap, ornamented round the lower portion with a serpentine motif, and wearing the sliced snail-shell dress-ornament. A caryatid found in the Calle de las Escalerillas, Mexico City, on the 16th of October 1900, represents him with a long, pointed beard, which might, however, be interpreted as the mouth-mask of the Wind-god lowered down to show the upper part of the face more clearly, and it would seem from this statue that the beard with which Quetzalcoatl is represented in some places in Mexican art is nothing more or less than the mouth-mask pushed down over the chin and neck, although it must be admitted that his mask is frequently depicted with what is undoubtedly a beard. A relief excavated at the Castillo de Teayo shows Quetzalcoatl wearing the feathered-serpent helmet-mask, which in this representation is most elaborate, and the sliced snail-shell dress-ornament. Two figures of Quetzalcoatl found near Texcuco exhibit considerable differentiation from other forms. In both he is seated on the top of a teocalli or temple, and behind him is seen the solar emblem, represented as a large, flaming disc. He wears a high cap which reminds one of the crown of Upper Egypt, as seen in Egyptian representations, except that it is flanked on either side by two large [[122]]studs or knobs and is surrounded at the base by the serpent-motif, as in the specimen from the Valley of Mexico. He also wears his usual breast-ornament. In a round sculpture found at Puebla we perhaps see Quetzalcoatl as a butterfly, and can only identify this figure as the god because of the wind-mask it wears.
WALL-PAINTINGS
In several of the wall-paintings at Mitla, and especially in those on the north side of Palace I, Quetzalcoatl is depicted as wearing the insignia usually connected with him in Mexico. In one of these he wears the Huaxtec cap with jaguar-skin markings, having the sacrificial implements stuck in it, and the wind-mouth mask, with beard. The snail-shell ornament adorns his shield. In another the facial insignia is less easily seen, but the large nape-fan with which he is frequently adorned is well depicted. Immediately behind this is a figure, which, though partially destroyed, is still interesting because of its high degree of conventionality. We have here the cap and panache of Quetzalcoatl, together with the strip running from brow to eye and from eye to jaw, which is part of the face-painting of the Moon-god. Moreover, in the corner we have the symbol of the moon, a pot-shaped bone, so that here, I think, we have a symbol of Quetzalcoatl as the Moon-god. In the preceding figure, too, we have also the lunar emblem, in this place in shape like the nose-plug of the octli-gods, but containing the stellar eye, and flanked by balls of feather-down. It would thus seem that the symbol has some reference to Quetzalcoatl in his variant of the planet Venus. Moreover the eye appears as gouged out. This eye-gouging is seen in the Maya Books of Chilan Balam, in the case of the god Itzamná. These two latter paintings, Seler thinks, are symbolic of the Uiyatao, or the high-priests of Mitla, who were regarded as incarnations of Quetzalcoatl.[73] [[123]]