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This song I would interpret as follows: The game of tlachtli, a description of hockey, is in some measure associated with the maize-gods. The quetzalcoxcoxtli bird is Xochipilli, the Flower-god, with whom Cinteotl is closely associated, and who is connected with games of all kinds, stone effigies of him being set up in the tlachtli courts. Cinteotl is a god who emanates from the west, and is associated with the twilight. At his festival a piece of skin was stripped from the thigh of the female victim and made into a mask for his priest. The place where the roads meet is evidently the haunting-place of the Ciuapipiltin or Ciuateteô, women who died in childbed, of whom Tlazolteotl, Cinteotl’s mother, was the patroness. The god complains that he has a difficulty in finding his way at the cross-roads. This was the precise reason for which they were made, that the Ciupipiltin or haunting mothers should be puzzled by them, or “wandered,” as the Scottish expression is. Witches all the world over are baffled by cross-roads, and formerly the bodies of suicides were buried beneath them, so that, did their spirits arise, they would be puzzled by the multiplicity of directions and be baffled in their intent to haunt the living.
FESTIVALS
The first festival with which Cinteotl was associated was the uei tozoztli, held in April. After a four days’ fast, the houses were decked with irises and sprinkled with blood drawn from the ears and the front of the legs, and the nobles and wealthier folk decorated their houses with the boughs of a plant called axcoyatl.[15] Search was made in the fields for the young stalks of maize, which were decked with flowers and placed before the gods, along with food. The goddess Chicomecoatl was also revered at this festival. At the ochpaniztli festival, too, in honour of his mother Tlazolteotl, Cinteotl was peculiarly venerated, and a full account of the proceedings will be found in the pages referring to Tlazolteotl. It is necessary, however, to refer in passing to one custom, that in connection with which the thigh-skin of the female [[177]]victim was stripped off and carried to the temple of Cinteotl, where it was made into a mask which the priest of the god placed over his face.[16] He also wore a jacket and hood of feathers, resembling the naualli or bird-disguise of the god—the coxcoxtli, which seems to have represented both Cinteotl and Xochipilli, and to have formed a kind of bond between them. The crest of the hood resembled the comb of a cock, and whilst possibly having the significance of a bird’s comb, was also held to symbolize the sharp-cutting flint knife of sacrifice (see Tlazolteotl). Lastly, the horrible relics of the festival were conveyed by the Cinteotl priest and a picked body-guard to a hut on the frontier, where they were left, for what purpose I am able to form no definite opinion.[17]
TEMPLES
Several temples appear to have been dedicated to the worship of Cinteotl at Mexico, but as the names of these sometimes imply a collective dedication to the maize-gods, it is somewhat difficult to ascertain precisely which of the edifices was peculiar to Cinteotl. However, the Iztac cinteotl iteopan, or temple of the deity of white maize, at Mexico, more probably refers to Cinteotl’s place of worship, as Sahagun states, than to that of any other deity. Here, says the friar, were sacrificed leprous captives, who were slain during the days of fasting in honour of the sun, when that luminary was at its greatest height.[18] In the Cinteopan was to be seen a statue of Cinteotl, before which captives were sacrificed on the occasion of his festival.
The temple of Tlatauhqui Cinteotl (red maize) appears to have been the preserve of the maize-gods collectively.
PRIESTHOOD
That Cinteotl had a separate and distinct priesthood is manifest from allusions to it in accounts of his festivals. [[178]]Among the Totonacs two high-priests were especially dedicated to him. These were widowers over sixty years of age, who wore jackets made from the skins of jackals, were not permitted to eat fish, and whose duty consisted in the preparation of manuscripts and the deliverance of oracular messages. The Totonacs thought human sacrifices unnecessary to him, and offered up birds and small animals at his shrine, regarding him as their protector from the more sanguinary deities, says Clavigero.[19]