The first month was called Atlcaualco, and the first day according to Sahagun, who wrote about the middle of the sixteenth century, corresponded with the 2nd of February. This month marked the cessation of the rains,[3] and it was represented in calendars by a figure of the god Tlaloc, to whom, together with Chalchiuhtlicue, the religious festivals of the month were especially dedicated. Large numbers of children were sacrificed to the rain-god, chiefly on mountains, but also at a certain deep hole in the lagoon, and it was considered a good omen if the small victims wept on their way to the place of sacrifice, since their tears were supposed to portend a plentiful rain-supply. A gladiatorial sacrifice was also made to Xipe during this month.
The second month, Tlacaxipeualiztli, commencing February 22nd, was dedicated to Xipe, and is indicated in MSS. by a figure of this god. Warriors who had taken prisoners in battle brought them to the temple of Uitzilopochtli, holding them by the hair. Here their hearts were offered to the god, their bodies cast down the temple steps and flayed, and their skins assumed by their captors. In the temple of Xipe, called Yopico, elaborate gladiatorial sacrifices were held during this month, in which captives, tethered one by one by a rope to the centre of a circular stone (Fig. [5, b]; p. 41), were attacked by four warriors in ocelot and eagle dresses. If the victim could defend himself against these, a fifth opponent attacked him, a left-handed man being selected for this purpose. When overpowered, the victim was sacrificed, either by having his heart torn out, or by being fastened to a frame-work and shot with darts (Fig. [5, a]). The gladiatorial sacrifice is symbolical of war, and the creation-myths relate how the gods called into being special bands of warriors whose blood and hearts should be devoted to the nourishment of the sun and the earth. War, therefore, was necessary, in order that the processes of nature might continue without hindrance, and war amongst the Mexicans had thus assumed a ceremonial character. The arrow-sacrifice was apparently introduced from the Huaxtec country, together with the worship of the earth-goddesses Ixcuinamé, of whom Tlazolteotl was the chief. It was practised also at Tlaxcala and Uexotzinco, as explained above. Both this and the flaying sacrifice partook of the nature of imitative magic, and had as their object the promotion of fertility, a matter which at this time of the year was of considerable importance to the Mexicans. For the ordinary form of sacrifice (Fig. [5, c]) the victim, stripped of his ornaments, was stretched on the sacrificial stone, which was slightly convex in shape. Five priests, called Chalmeca, held his arms, legs and head, while the sacrificer slashed open his breast with a stone knife, and, inserting his hand in the wound, tore out the heart, which was held for a moment to the lips of the idol, or offered to the sun, and then cast into a stone vase, called quauhxicalli, or burnt. Many of the so-called “calendar stones” are possibly elaborate quauhxicalli; a good example of the normal type is figured on Pl. [VII, 1]. In most cases the body was hurled down the steps of the temple to the court, where it was seized by certain priests and carried away to be dismembered. For sacrifice was sometimes accompanied by cannibalism, though it is interesting to note that at the festival just described the warrior who provided a captive for sacrifice was debarred from eating his flesh, since he was supposed to stand to the victim in the relation of father to son. At this feast, before the body was cast down the steps, the sacrificing priest inserted a tube in the cavity left after the removal of the heart, and extracted a bowlful of blood, which he gave to the victim’s master. The latter with this made the round of certain temples, smearing a little of the blood on the lips of the various images.
PLATE VII
British Museum
1
Photo. C. B. Waite
Mexico Museum
2