In ancient Mexico and possibly Peru, it obviously pertained to a set of ideas which, in some communities, might easily have degenerated and led to the institution of rites and ideas such as were prevalent in the Maya colony which had established itself at the mouth of the Panuco river, on the coast of Mexico, north of Vera Cruz, and from which the Huaxtecans of the present day descend. It is interesting to note that the name of the capital founded by the colonists, who seem to have emigrated owing to well-founded religious persecution, was Tuch-pan, a word which signifies in the Maya tongue “the umbilicus,” qualified by pan, meaning “that which is above or excels,” etc., but which was expressed in Nahuatl picture-writings by a rabbit=tochtli and a banner=pantli.
The opposite of the checkered or xotlac design, was the native water and air pattern which has been pointed out as encircling the mitre of the Lord of the Above or Heaven. It likewise figures in native pictures on the mantles of some of Montezuma's predecessors. The history of its origin and development is best learned from the following native illustrations. Fig. [42], nos. 1 and 2, represents sea-waves, the Maya name for which, by the way, is kukul-yaam, which admits of the interpretation “divine-water” or, if we connect kukul with the Mexican coliuhqui, “twisted or bent water.” A representation of water, as figured on a mantle in the “Lyfe of the Indians,” conveys the idea of water moved by the action of the wind, the blank curve reminding one also of the curves [pg 126] so often associated by native artists with serpents' heads, and with the wind and rain-gods. The well-known symbol of the air-god is accompanied, as already shown (fig. [26]), by an ornament which forms a solid frame for a hollow curve constituting an air-image. In the following image an analogous ear ornament is figured and it is surrounded by puffs of air or wind, conventionally drawn (fig. [43]).
Figure 43.
Whilst the foregoing illustrations amply prove that the natives associated the curved and rounded form with water as moved by air, it must be noticed that in Mexico and Yucatan, as well as in Brazil and Guiana, plain water was figured by a series of parallel zigzag or undulated lines. For these reasons I infer that the symbolical design, representing actual waves, always expressed the union of air and water, and was therefore emblematic of the cult of the upper elements, or the Above. It is unfortunate that, in Mexico, no vestiges remain of the circular temples which were particularly dedicated to Quetzalcoatl=the divine twin or lord of the twin upper elements=air and water. Doubtlessly they were appropriately decorated with horizontal bands exhibiting the sacred design. The ruined condition of Central American round temples scarcely justifies the hope that such a verification can be made. At the same time the round temple on a square base, with its peculiar ground plan, was, of itself, an image of the Above and of central rule extending to the four quarters (fig. [30], p. 97). That the air and water design was actually employed in America as a frieze on sacred edifices is proven, however, by more than one illustration [pg 127] in the Vienna Codex and other native MSS. (fig. 35, c). We also see the design decorating the painted drinking bowls named xicalli which were employed in the distribution of the sacred pulque or octli at certain religious festivals. As the Mexican name given to the design itself is xical-coliuhqui, it seems as though it was most popularly known as the “twisted or winding pattern” of the sacred drinking vessels.
Having originated, as I have shown, from the simplest observation of the action of air upon a surface of water, it is but natural that the same design should have independently originated in several localities. It is, nevertheless, worth mentioning here that the dome of one of the most beautiful of ancient Greek remains, the choragic monument of Lysicrates, or lantern of Demosthenes at Athens, is surrounded by a band or fascia, cut into the water design. It is evident that, seen against the sky, this graphically represented the curling waves of water “on summer seas,” and this was evidently the most primitive method of employing this form of symbolical decoration which is more familiar when executed in solid masonry stucco, as a frieze.
The identical process of development may be observed in Mexican architecture. In the Vienna and other native Codices, countless temples are depicted as surmounted with fasciæ cut into rectangular designs in such a manner that the blank space left between each solid projection figures its inverted image in the air (fig. [35], a-d). In these open fasciæ an intention to symbolize the solid or Earth, and the fluid or Heaven, is discernible, whilst the step-like projections seem to express or convey the idea of ascent and descent, perhaps the ascent of human supplication and the descent of the much-prayed-for rain. From the other examples of temple decorations (fig. [35], f and h) it is evident that, in solid friezes, a light and a dark color were employed in the same designs, to convey the same idea.
Evidence proving that the emblems on the roofs of the temples were replete with meaning is furnished by several representations of roofs, on which rows of upstretched hands or of human hearts are depicted. My horror at these seemingly ghastly emblems vanished as soon as I ascertained their actual meaning from a passage in Sahagun's Historia. Describing a certain sacred dance he records that “on the white garments of the girls who took part in it, hands and hearts were painted, signifying that they lifted their [pg 128] hearts and hands to heaven, praying for rain.” Not only does this explain the symbolism of the hands on the temples but also the native custom observed, by modern pilgrims in Mexico and Yucatan, of painting uplifted hands on the outer walls of sanctuaries as an act of piety and devotion.