Surrounding the central head are four square divisions arranged in two separate parts, each of which includes what appears to be in one case the right, and in the other the left, conventionalized claw (forepaw?) of an animal armed with hooked nails, such as Mictlantecuhtli, the lord of the North, is represented with.
The square compartments contain symbols of the four elements so disposed that air and water are appropriately associated with the hand to the right (=male region) and fire and earth with the hand to the left side (=the female region) of the central head. But this is not all, for another carefully devised relation between the elements likewise appears upon careful examination. In the middle, carved above the central face and between the symbols for air and fire, is the conventionalized “ray of the Sun,” or pyramid which typifies “that which ascends or is above” the upper elements and the Above. As its opposite we find below, situated between the symbols of earth and water, a ring with a concentric circle representing the drop of water=“that which [pg 250] descends.” As the Moon was inseparably associated with water and the Below, it is doubtlessly included in the symbolism.
One more point which will receive due attention in my monograph remains to be briefly noticed. As the symbol for air=east is situated to the right of the symbol for north, and the earth=west is to its left, it is clear that the central face is conceived as looking down from above upon the spectator. It is only when the stone is considered as placed face downward that the symbols assume their proper positions as regards the cardinal points. This reversal, which is the natural result of the association of the east and south with the right hand of the middle personage, suggests that the monolith may have been originally designed to be let into the flat or slanting ceiling of a building. As a parallel instance I will state that, some years ago, Señor Troncoso pointed out to me a fact he had noticed, namely, that the relative positions of the cardinal points on the Féjérvary chart were reversed and that it must have been intended to be looked at from underneath.
Each of the element symbols is accompanied by four numerals placed in the angles of the squares, with one exception, where one numeral was obviously dislodged from its proper position by an encroaching emblematic ornament. The positions of these numerals and of their square enclosures are what recalled to my mind the opposite positions assumed by Ursa Major in its annual rotation around the axis of the heaven. Just as the central face primarily represented Polaris, so these squares figured the four contrapositions of the great constellation. The peculiar, almost cross-shaped figure resulting from the union and association of the symbols of the Centre, and of the Above, Below, Right, Left=Four Quarters, is a well-known conventional sign, generally known as a “nahui-ollin.” The accepted translation of this name is “four movements,” from olinia, verb=to move, and no name could be more appropriate for a symbol which, to my idea, like the swastika, actually represents the movement of the most conspicuous of septentrional constellations to four opposite places.
At the same time, as the nahui-ollin on the stone encloses symbols of the four elements, the union of which was believed by the native philosophers to be essential for the production and maintenance of life, I was led to observe also the fact that the words for life and heart, and the verbs to be alive, to live, to resuscitate, etc., are all derivatives from the root yuli, or yoli, which [pg 251] undoubtedly has a common origin with the verb olinia=to move. It therefore not only appears that, to the native mind, motion and life were indissolubly linked together, but that the name nahui-ollin must have signified four-fold life as well as movement. It likewise typified the four sides of the great pyramid which formed the nucleus of the capital and was crowned by two temples, respectively occupied by symbolical images of the “Divine Twins.” It is impossible not to realize that, in ancient Mexico, the pyramid constituted an image of the entire system.
Each of its sides obviously pertained to one of the four regions and was probably painted with its symbolical color.[71] It seems safe to assume that the pyramid was originally erected by the coöperation of people from the four quarters of the capital and state and was possibly added to at fixed intervals so that it represented not only the constitution of the commonwealth, but testified to its age and growth. The widely-prevalent primitive custom that each individual should add one or more stones to a heap of stones, as an individual contribution, may have been carried out in the building of pyramids, the origin of which will be discussed further on.
Although it is almost superfluous to do so, as by this time the set of associated ideas must be familiar to the reader, I shall briefly summarize some of the chief four-fold division or organization of which the nahui-ollin was the graphic symbol. It represented:
1. The four elements or substances and kinds of life.
2. The four regions of the heaven, each composed, in turn, of four sub-regions.
3. The four provinces of the state, each containing four districts.