Figure 28.
This figure of speech seems to have been prevalent in Mexico also and to be conveyed by the representation, in the Vienna Codex, of a double tau-shape to which the head, wings and claw, and tail of a quetzal are attached (fig. [28], no. 8). As I shall have occasion to demonstrate further on, the double tau signifies the Above and the Below and their union forming an integral whole. The following Nahuatl terms explain by themselves the symbolism of [pg 087] the bird-figure: cuitlapilli=the tail of an animal or bird, atlapalli=the wings of a bird, or the leaves of a tree, cuitlapalli atlapalli=vassals, the populace or lower classes, the laborers.
These words furnish irrefutable evidence that the lower class was familiarly known in Mexico as “the wings and the tail” of the commonwealth or state, or the leaves “on the trees” of the tribe. Sahagun states, on the other hand, that the Mexicans employed the metaphor of “a bird with wings and a tail” to designate a lord, governor or ruler. He also records that the terms hair, nails, a thorn, a spine, beard and eyelashes, were used to signify “someone who was noble, generous or of the lineage of the lords.” Such metaphors as these may well cause us to despair at arriving at a complete understanding of the native imagery and symbolism. The symbolism of the bird's claw yet remains to be looked into. The Nahuatl for the same is xo-maxaltic, xo-tzayanqui or cho-cholli.
In one of the ancient Mexican harangues, previously quoted, it is said of the supreme ruler that he had been given “fangs and nails” in order to inspire fear and reverence. Scattered evidence and the fact that in the Codex Mendoza the decorated claws of an eagle, for instance, appear as a military device on the shields of certain war chiefs, seem to indicate that the warriors were spoken of, metaphorically, as “the claws or nails” of the state. The following passage finally proves that the tlachtli or courtyard the shape of which was a double tau, as in fig. [28], no. 8, was regarded by the Mexicans as an image of the state itself. In another native harangue it was said of the newly-elected ruler: “He is now placed or put into the Tlachtli, he has been invested with the leathern gloves, so that he can govern and throw back the ball to the one who throws it to him in the game. For the business of governing very much resembles this game and the game of dice” (Sahagun, book vi, chap. xiii). The latter game alluded to, the patolli, was played on a mat in the shape of a cross, marked off with divisions, with stone markers, the moves of which were decided by the numbers obtained on casting the dice, which consisted of beans with marks on them. It is interesting to find that the word pat-olli seems to be connected with the verb pat-cayotia=to be substituted in the place of another, or to succeed another in office or dignity. The above comparison of the game to the business of governing indicates that a feature of the government was a methodical [pg 088] succession or rotation in office or dignity, a point to which I draw special attention, as I shall refer to it later.
The evidence that the Mexicans regarded the form of the courtyard, named tlachtli, as that of the state itself is noteworthy. On the other hand, the native map contained in the Codex Mendoza, p. 1, shows us that they figured their territory as a square, surrounded by water and divided into four equal parts by diagonal cross-streams or canals. As in the Maya map the centre of this is occupied by the well-known hieroglyph or rebus of Te-noch-ti-tlan, the ancient capital, which consisted of Mexico and Tlatelolco. In three of the four triangular divisions, two chieftains are figured, whilst in one there are four, the complete number of chieftains thus being ten. The incontrovertible evidence that the dominion of the Mexicans, as well as that of the Mayas, was figured and regarded as an integral whole has seemed to me to be of extreme importance, because it points to a fresh interpretation of the much-discussed meaning of the name Tullan, “the glorious centre of culture where the high priest Quetzalcoatl, had dwelt and whence he had been driven by the wiles of his enemies. It is a place that we hear of in the oldest myths and legends of many and different races. Not only the Aztecs, but the Mayas of Yucatan and the Kiches and Cakchiquels of Guatemala, bewailed in woful songs, the loss of that beautiful land and counted its destruction as the common starting-point in their annals.... According to the ancient Cakchiquel legends, however, ... ‘there were four Tullans, as the ancient men have told us.’ The most venerable traditions of the Maya race claimed for them a migration from Tullan in Zuyva.”... “When it happened to me,” says Friar Duran, “to ask a [Mexican] Indian who cut this pass through the mountains or who opened that spring of water or who built that old ruin? the answer was: The Tultecs, the disciples of Papa,” i. e., Quetzalcoatl. (See Brinton, American Hero-Myths, p. 88.) Considering that the identity of Tullan has not yet been satisfactorily established, that several Tullans are said to have existed and that a small town, about a dozen leagues to the northeast of Mexico, is named Tullan-tzinco=little Tullan, I should like to direct the attention of Americanists to the following Maya words: Tul-um=fortification, edifice, wall and enclosure. Tula-cal, Tuliz, adjectives=whole, entire, undivided, integral. Tul-ul, adjective=general, universal. Tul-tic, verb=to belong, to correspond to something. Tul=all [pg 089] around or full. Tul=in composition, to have abundance. Tulnah=to be too full, to overflow, to proceed, to issue, abound, high-tide. Tulaan=past participle of tul.
I am of opinion that, after carefully examining the foregoing words and their meanings, we must admit that an intelligible and satisfactory derivation and signification of the much-discussed Tula of the Mexicans, which has been vainly sought in the Nahuatl language, are obtained if we connect it with the Maya words for fortress, or stronghold, an enclosed place, an integral whole, an overflowing source of abundance and plenty. If we do this, then the problematic term Tolteca, given by Mexicans to the superior people from whom they had derived their culture and knowledge, means nothing more than such persons who had belonged (Maya verb tultic) or were members of a highly cultured commonwealth or ancient centre of civilization, such as had flourished during countless centuries, in Yucatan and the present Chiapas, Honduras and Guatemala.
Reserving this subject for future, more detailed, discussion, I point out that the name Ho, given to the capital, which is designated in the map as the “head of the land,” is obviously derived from the Maya hol, hool, or hoot, which means not only head but also chieftain. The circumstance that a single word, Ho, conveyed the triple meaning of a capital, a chieftain and a head, is particularly noteworthy, as it affords not only important clues to native symbolism, which I shall trace later on, but also shows that the presence of the syllable Ho or O, in certain native names of localities, may possibly indicate that it was a capital, the residence of a chieftain. Further light is shed upon the following native association of ideas when the following words are studied. The ancient Maya name for a pyramid or artificial mound was ho-m and the pyramidal elevations on which temples or palaces were built were designated as ho-mul or o-mul (see Vocabulary, Brasseur de Bourbourg). The title Holpop was moreover that of the “chieftain of the mat,” whose prerogative it was to sit on a mat and to beat the sacred drum during the public dances or ritual performances (Cogolludo). The ancient word for vase, vessel or cup in general was ho-och, whilst o-och meant food or maintenance (Arte de la lengua Maya, Fray Beltram de Santa Rosa, ed. Espinosa, Merida, 1859). If the foregoing data be summarized we find that the word ho, the ancient name of the head of the land, which is [pg 090] figured in its centre, is not only homonymous with capital and chieftain, but also with pyramid, vase or receptacle and maintenance, and finally with the numeral 5, also “ho.” We shall see that the identical ideas were similarly associated in ancient Mexico.
Referring once more to the ancient map of Yucatan and to the peculiarity that the head of the figurative bird, the capital, Ho, is supposed to occupy the centre of the state, I point out nos. 1 and 5 (fig. [28]) from the Bodleian and Selden MSS. as somewhat analogous representations of a central capital or chief, and nos. 3 and 6 as possibly being images of a territorial subdivision of the state, resembling a spider's web. In an unpublished Mexican MS., which has been recently brought to light, the middle of the concentric circles is painted blue and suggests the idea of a system of distribution or irrigation, proceeding from a central supply of water and radiating in all directions. An accentuation of centrality is brought into relief in fig. [28], no. 6, where the spider's web is placed in the middle, between the two peaks of a mountain. In no. 2 a small quadruple sign, which frequently occurs in the Vienna Codex, always painted in the colors of the four quarters and united by a cross-band across the centre (no. 4). also figures between two peaks, above two feet, the significance of which I do not venture to determine. A remarkable circular disc resembling the Maya map, and also divided into four parts by cross lines, but exhibiting footsteps denoting rotation, is represented in the entrance of a temple, in the Vienna Codex (fig. [28], no. 7). These figures will be referred to again further on.