In examining the characteristics of these deities we find:
(1) That they were among the oldest of the Mexican divinities. Tonacatecutli is called, among other names, “Lord of the Steppe,”[4] which does not necessarily indicate that he was a deity of the Chichimec or hunting tribes, who from generation to generation raided the Mexican valley, but may apply to his stellar or heavenly significance. Reference is also made in the Anales de Quauhtitlan to the circumstance that he and his female counterpart were gods of the ancient Toltecs, and that their cult was founded by Quetzalcoatl, the typical Toltec priest-king.
(2) That these gods were regarded by the Mexican priesthood in more modern times at least, as abstractions, ideal beings who arose out of philosophic speculation. That they had become rather neglected in the popular Mexican faith is clear from the circumstance that they had no temples and that no offerings were made them. Tonacatecutli represented, indeed, that great invisible and intangible figure which at all times and in all religions has loomed behind most pantheons—the great god behind the gods—the principle of causality, that first cause beyond which the speculations of theology cannot proceed.
(3) They presided over the food supply. Although other deities occupied the positions of maize and vegetable gods, the creative deities were in the ultimate the great givers of all food. Thus they were designated “Lords of Food Supplies” and “Lords of Superabundance.” [[151]]
(4) They must be regarded as the direct creators of the spirit of man. To the Mexican man flesh was merely maize in another form. But apart from this conception the pair typified the first human couple, and as such they are represented in all the MSS. lying side by side and cross-legged under a blanket, in the attitude of procreation. They are, indeed, the great initiators of life, and must be comprehended as sending the human soul to occupy the body made by human procreation, giving warmth and breath to the infant before birth.[5]
(5) They commence the series of twenty day-signs, and this alone symbolizes their creative and original nature.
(6) They represent the sign cipactli, the animal from which the earth was made.
(7) They are gods of the Omeyocan, the highest or thirteenth heaven, which fact further illustrates their supreme character.
CONCLUSIONS
From these facts we may be justified in concluding: