British Museum

MEXICO

Human Skull, incrusted with Mosaic, representing Tezcatlipoca

MEXICAN
ARCHÆOLOGY

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ARCHÆOLOGY
OF THE MEXICAN AND MAYAN
CIVILIZATIONS OF PRE-SPANISH AMERICA.
BY THOMAS A. JOYCE, M.A. WITH MANY
ILLUSTRATIONS AND A MAP

NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
LONDON: PHILIP LEE WARNER
MDCCCCXIV

By the same Author:
SOUTH AMERICAN
ARCHÆOLOGY

PREFACE

The object of this small book is to summarize shortly the extent of our knowledge concerning the life and culture of the Mexican and Maya peoples of pre-Spanish America. It has no pretence whatever to finality; indeed, the time is not within sight when a complete elucidation of all the problems connected with this most fascinating area can be put forward. At the same time it is useful to pause occasionally and summarize results, if only because attention is thereby drawn to the more serious gaps in the data available, and it becomes easier to direct the course of future investigations. An ulterior motive lies in the hope that a little stimulus may be given to American studies in this country, which have languished sadly during the past few years. This fact is all the more to be regretted since Englishmen, such as Dr. A. P. Maudslay, have done so much in the past to unveil the mysteries of ancient American civilization, and the collection at the British Museum, though small, is rich in the finest collection in the world of Mexican mosaics. At present, as far as the Old World is concerned, the torch has passed to Germany, the labours of whose investigators, in particular of Dr. Seler, have done so much to place the study of American antiquities upon a thoroughly scientific footing. No part of the world, perhaps, has formed the subject of so many wild theories as ancient Mexico, and few present so many fascinating riddles to the expert. It has therefore been impossible in the present work to keep clear of controversial ground, but I have tried as far as possible to take a sane view of each problem, and to indicate in some measure the evidence for each conclusion. Many of the suggested solutions are purely tentative, and must doubtless be modified in the light of subsequent investigations. This remark applies especially to the scheme of dating which forms an appendix. I am quite prepared to be accused of rashness in presenting it, and I admit that it is purely provisional. But I think it may have its use as a frame-work for history, and it will at least serve the purpose of exciting criticism. Subsequent to its preparation a monograph on “Maya Art,” by Dr. Spinden, has made its appearance under the auspices of the Peabody Museum in America, in which the author provides a somewhat similar scheme. His table differs somewhat from mine, but I think that the reasons for my dating, which I give in the last chapter, render mine the more satisfactory, and I have therefore made no alteration. His full treatment of Maya art has however led me to curtail my remarks on that subject, since much of what I had written appears on his pages; and I have rather given emphasis to those points of difference which exist between us.

My original intention was to include in the present book a sketch of the archæology of Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, but the material proved too great, and I have thought it better to deal thoroughly with the related cultures of the Mexicans and Maya rather than to give an incomplete or over-compressed picture of the archæology of a wider area. Even as it is I fear that certain chapters may have suffered from over-condensation, more especially that on the Mexican gods. However Mexican religion is in itself rather an intricate subject, and requires studying in considerable detail if a proper view of the life and culture of the people is to be obtained. Religion amongst the Mexicans was the mainspring of all private and public life, and few of the archæological remains cannot be brought into direct relation with it. Yet even Mexican religion is not as complicated as it appears at first sight; it is in reality the language, with its fondness for long compound names, which renders it so difficult a study to the amateur in the initial stages. I had also intended to add a bibliographical note, similar to that with which I concluded my volume on South America. But in view of the existence of an admirable bibliography in Dr. Walter Lehmann’s little monograph, “Methods and Results in Mexican Research,” I judged it unnecessary.

I find it difficult to express to the full my thanks to the many friends whose encouragement and assistance are really responsible for such success as this book may achieve. Without the work of Dr. Maudslay and Dr. Seler its production would have been impossible, and I owe them both much gratitude for the great generosity which has led them both to place their illustrations at my disposal. Professor Holmes, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, has shown me similar kindness in permitting me to reproduce five of the charming illustrations in his admirable monograph, “Archæological Studies among the Ruined Cities of Mexico,” published by the Field Columbian Museum (now the Field Museum of Natural History) of Chicago. I am also deeply indebted to Sir Hercules Read, to Colonel Ward and to Mr. Cooper Clark for much advice and the use of valuable photographs, and also to the Trustees of the British Museum and the Director of the Peabody Museum for the loan of certain illustrations. To Dr. Wallis Budge I owe much for his kind encouragement; it is in fact to him that the inception of the present work is due. I must also express my gratitude to my wife for many hours spent in the preparation of line-drawings, and to my colleague, Mr. H. J. Braunholtz, of the British Museum, for assistance in the laborious task of proof reading. Finally I should like to thank my publishers for the consideration which they have always extended to me, as well as for their enterprise in producing a series of archæological works which will, I trust, do much to stimulate interest in the efforts of the present to unveil the past.

T. A. JOYCE.

London,

January, 1914

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

Mexican Archæology

INTRODUCTION

Ancient Mexico, the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, built upon an island situated in a great highland lake, the scene of the almost incredible exploits of Cortés, has long been familiar as a name to the western world, chiefly owing to the wonderful account compiled by Prescott. The story of the fall of Aztec civilization before the Spanish invaders has deservedly won a great hold upon popular imagination, for every page is redolent of romance, and indeed few, if any, writers of fiction have conceived a tale so full of incident, or have brought their heroes to victory in the face of greater odds. Moreover, the existence of Aztec civilization, an organized empire with cities built of stone and rich in gold and gems, burst upon the Old World as a thing almost beyond belief.

The purpose of the present work is to afford some connected account of this pre-Spanish culture, and to correlate the accounts of eyewitnesses and early visitors with the material remains which the investigations of later times have revealed. But in order to obtain a proper view of Mexican culture it is necessary to transcend the limits of Mexico itself. In the country to the south and east, in Guatemala and northern Honduras, are the remains of ruined buildings which are, both architecturally and artistically, superior to those of Mexico proper, and which had been deserted before the coming of the Spaniards. These were the work of the Maya, a people whose name is far less familiar to the general public than that of the Aztec, but who, as I hope to show, evolved a culture of their own when the Aztec were yet primitive nomadic hunters, and who furnished the latter people with the materials for that civilization which so astonished the followers of Cortés.

The actual area with which this book deals is, roughly, that portion of Mexico which lies between the tropic of Cancer and the northern strip of Honduras. It is divided naturally into two portions, a northern and western, and a southern and eastern, by the depression which cuts across the isthmus of Tehuantepec. The natural division corresponds very conveniently with the archæological; to the north and west lies the seat of Mexican culture, to the south and east, of the Mayan; but it must be remembered that the Maya-speaking people extended at the conquest practically throughout Vera Cruz, though they had by that time fallen under Aztec influence. I propose therefore to divide this book into two corresponding sections, dealing first with the “Mexican” area, and later with the “Mayan.” Both from the chronological and cultural points of view the Mayan area should come first, but, as will appear later, we are dependent to so great an extent upon our knowledge of Mexican civilization for our interpretation of Mayan archæology, that it will be more convenient to give the Mexican priority.

The main geographical features of the Maya country are given at the commencement of the section dealing with its archæology. The region immediately under consideration is shaped rather like an inverted pear, and consists in the main of a plateau bordered by two converging chains of lofty mountains, which are skirted exteriorly by a strip of low-lying coast. The uniformity of the plateau is broken in many places by steep ravines, or barrancas, formed by the slow action of rivers, and by occasional highland lakes, such as Chapala, Pazcuaro and Mexico. Much of the ground is volcanic, and the names of the volcanoes Popocatepetl and Iztacciuatl in Mexico province, and of Orizaba on the Puebla-Vera Cruz border, are familiar to everyone. The Mexican valley forms the apex of the triangular plateau, and the natural route thence to the south lies via Tehuacan and Teotitlan del Camino, a fact which should be kept in mind in studying the tribal migrations. The height of the mountain-chains and their proximity to the coast explain the fact that there are but few important rivers in Mexico; most of the streams on the plateau drain into land-locked basins, and practically the only rivers which pierce the mountain barrier are the Panuco on the east, and the Lerma and Rio de las Balsas on the west. Climate and vegetation are dependent upon elevation; the coast is tropical, but the elevation is so abrupt that the traveller passes with remarkable rapidity from palms, bananas, coconuts and rubber, according to locality, to slopes clad with fir and oak and plains of wheat and maize. In the same way, table-lands rise in successive terraces from Tehuantepec through Oaxaca and Puebla to Mexico which has an elevation of nearly 7500 feet above the sea-level, and enjoys a more temperate climate than New York or Chicago fourteen to sixteen hundred miles further north. The country is conveniently divided into three zones, according to its elevation; the so-called “tierra caliente” (hot country) runs from the sea-level to 3000 feet, the “tierra templada” (temperate country) from 3000 to 6000 feet, and the “tierra fria” (cold country) thence to the 9000 foot level. The most important vegetable product from the economic point of view was maize, which constituted the chief food of the natives. The varieties and development of the maize-plant as we know it imply centuries of settled life and patient cultivation, and it is an interesting fact that for years the identity of the wild plant from which it was produced remained a mystery. Other plants of economic importance were cacao, vanilla, tobacco and cotton, grown in the hot regions, and the agave or Mexican aloe which flourishes also in the higher country. The fauna includes jaguar (“tiger”), puma (“lion”), ocelot, deer, peccary, alligator, rattle-snake, turkey, humming-bird and the quetzal, the beautiful plumes of the latter being one of the most highly-prized articles of adornment. The distribution of these animals is not however constant throughout the whole area, but many of them are confined to the warmer countries. Little more need be said, for the purposes of this book, of the physical nature of the country, save that the rainfall is not excessive, being heaviest upon the Atlantic slope; and that, while the land appears to be rising gradually on the Pacific side, much has been lost to the Atlantic on the east. With these few words of introduction an attempt will now be made to describe the inhabitants of the country and the culture which they built up before they came in contact with the Old World at the beginning of the sixteenth century.[1]

CHAPTER I—MEXICO: TRIBAL HISTORY

At the time of the conquest by the Spaniards of the province of Mexico, the dominant people was the Aztec population of Tenochtitlan (Mexico city), inhabiting a town built on an island in the lake of Tezcoco, or rather that portion of it known as the lake of Mexico. The Aztec were confessedly immigrants, who had wandered south less than five hundred years before the conquest; by their superiority as fighting-men they had won the hegemony over the kindred tribes which they found settled in the valley of Mexico, and had extended their power to both oceans and as far at least as the isthmus of Tehuantepec. Both they and their immediate predecessors spoke the same language, called Nahua (strictly, Nahuatl), and they appear to be a branch of the great Shoshonean family which reaches as far north as the state of Montana. Beyond this, their ethnography and language would seem to connect them rather with the coastal tribes of the far north-west than with those to the east of the Rockies, but on this point little can be said at present. Immediately to the north and north-west of the settled peoples of the valley, the steppe country was inhabited by tribes who lived mainly by hunting, called Chichimec and Otomi, the former being almost purely nomadic, the latter to some extent settled. The Chichimec spoke for the most part a language which was essentially Nahua, but the name itself possessed for the Mexicans rather a cultural than a linguistic significance, and meant little more than “nomadic hunters.” The Otomi tongue was different, and extended down to the valley of Toluca, through the people known as Mazaua to the Matlatzinca. South of the last, among the Tlalhuica around Cuernavaca, Nahua again prevailed. In the hilly volcanic country around lakes Pazcuaro and Chapala, a third speech was found, the Tarascan, of which the exact affinities are still doubtful. The Rio de las Balsas appears to be about the southern limit of the Tarascan tongue, but its northern is less certain; it extends into Jalisco, and may at one time have reached up into Zacatecas where remains in Tarascan style have been discovered (at La Quemada). Roughly south of the Rio de las Balsas and a line drawn thence to Teotitlan is the Mixtec-Zapotec group of tongues; the Mixtec extending from Acatlan to Tototepec, and the Zapotec to the east, from the Nahua-speaking Teotitlan to Tehuantepec, the Mazatec occupying the northern portion of this strip. The Mixtec-Zapotec language bears many structural analogies to the Otomi group mentioned above. Along the east coast, from the Panuco valley southward, were two peoples, speaking dialects of yet another language, the Maya tongue. In the north were the Huaxtec, primitive Maya, extending as far south as Tuxpan, where they were in touch with the linguistically related Totonac. To the north they stretched beyond the Panuco, but the remains of this region are practically unknown. There is evidence too that they once extended far further west than they did at the conquest, but the expansion of the Nahua had penned them up in the narrow strip of coast, and an Aztec fortress was established as far east as Meztitlan to keep the border. The Totonac, inhabiting Vera Cruz to the south, had suffered similarly from Mexican encroachment, and the river Nautla formed a strip of Aztec territory which almost severed their country in two. At the time of the conquest their principal centres were Papantla and Zacapoaxtla. East of them, in Coatzacoalcos and Tabasco, were the peoples known to the Mexicans as Olmec, Xicalanca and Nonoualca, who, according to legend, were once settled in the neighbourhood of Tlaxcala, but were driven thence by the historical Tlaxcalans when they immigrated into the country.

The early history of these tribes is very difficult to elucidate from the tangled mass of migration myths, often contradictory, which have survived. What may be termed the historical period starts only with the election of the first Aztec king, some years after the settlement of the tribe at Tenochtitlan, and this takes us back only to about 1376, or not much more than a century before the Spanish conquest. The Aztec, when they arrived, found a number of Nahua-speaking “Chichimec” in occupation of the valley, and these “Chichimec” had themselves found the remains of a culture far above their own, to which they gave the name of Toltec. Now the “Toltec question” has been hotly debated from early times; to the Mexicans the Toltec were the people of a golden age, and their state was the prototype of peaceful civilization. Some writers have gone so far as to deny them actual existence at all, regarding them as a purely mythical people to whom the Mexicans conveniently attributed the invention of all useful arts of which they could not readily explain the evolution otherwise. Others have exalted their culture to a pitch far above, one might almost say, the human, and have credited them with a knowledge transcending that of latter-day civilization. I do not propose to plunge into the welter of controversial theories, but to regard the matter from a strictly practical point of view, which seems to me to be as follows. The Aztec and their immediate fore-runners the “Chichimec” were merely nomadic hunters when they settled in the valley, and their knowledge of arts and crafts, which need a settled life for development, had not advanced beyond a very primitive stage. They found the remains of a people who had for years been living as settled agriculturists, and ruined cities which their untutored minds regarded as something bordering on the marvellous. The agricultural population whom they subdued, more cultured but less warlike than they, told them stories of a powerful empire, stories which no doubt lost nothing in the telling. To this empire they gave the name of Toltec, from the city of Tulan (or Tollan) which was its reputed centre. Modern research has proved conclusively the existence, at those very localities especially associated with the Toltec, of pre-Aztec ruins, and of a relatively high culture which prevailed throughout the valley (and beyond) for a period considerably longer than that which elapsed between the Aztec immigration and the Spanish conquest. As a mere matter of evidence I cannot see that any name can be given to this pre-Aztec culture other than that of Toltec, and, further, that it is possible to deny at least a foundation in fact to the myths connected with this people. However, even so, the difficulties connected with the question are not entirely solved; Sahagun states definitely that the Toltec spoke Nahua, and relates a migration myth which brings them into contact with the Nahua peoples before their settlement in Tulan. Another legend makes the founder of their state a Chichimec, one Mixcoamazatzin, whose name bears a strong resemblance to that of the Chichimec hunting-god, Mixcoatl, compounded with the native word for the miraculous deer, mazatl, with which he was associated. Further, excavation has proved that before the “Toltec” culture, another of lower grade existed in the valley. This culture, at present the earliest of which traces can be found, strongly resembles that of the Tarascan, and it rather merges into that of the Toltec, while the latter is separated from that of the later Nahua by a definite line of demarcation. As far as the evidence goes at present, it is fair to draw the conclusion that the first settled agriculturists in the Mexican valley were of the same stock as the agricultural people around lake Pazcuaro; that upon them descended a Nahua tribe from the north, coming in sufficient strength to impose their language, who built up a culture which surprised the subsequent immigrants of similar race when, at a considerably later period, they followed in their footsteps. The tendency of rude hunting tribes to rapid development when they adopt settled life has not yet been fully recognized. There is no finer training for the human faculties than the pursuit of hunting; it hardens the body, sharpens the observation, and engenders a perpetual readiness to meet sudden emergencies. Agriculture on the other hand, while promoting the development of the useful arts to a certain pitch, is apt to result in stagnation. Students of African ethnography are well aware that nearly all the great kingdoms which have bloomed from time to time in Central Africa have had their origin in the descent of a nomadic tribe upon an agricultural, the former becoming sedentary and developing the arts which they received from the latter far beyond their previous limits. This point however is rather by way of illustration, for it does not wholly suffice to account for the Toltec civilization, though it helps to explain the rapidity with which the Aztec assimilated and developed the remains of it. The Toltec culture bears a definite relation to remains which occur at many sites in Oaxaca and Yucatan, these again are closely connected with the magnificent remains of the early Maya of Chiapas, Guatemala and Honduras. The exact relationship existing between the Maya and the Toltec can only be discussed after the archæology of the former has been considered, but it may be stated in anticipation that, as far as we can say at present, the finest Maya remains appear to antedate those of the Toltec, and therefore that the development of Toltec culture is in part due to Mayan inspiration filtered, I believe, through the early inhabitants of the Zapotec country.

The consideration of what may be called the mythical period of Mexican history is rendered all the more difficult by the fact that all the legends have been collected among later immigrants who wished as far as possible to trace some connection between themselves and the earlier settlers. Toltec descent, if it could be established, raised a family at once to a patrician status, and most of the immigrant tribes sought their rulers among the descendants of a Toltec house. There is therefore the danger of fictitious genealogies, such as exist among so many Sudanese tribes desirous of proving “Arab” descent; but apart from this we are confronted at the outset with a difficulty which is not easy of solution. Sahagun states that the first inhabitants, the Toltec, the other Nahua, the Olmec and the Michoacans, arrived at the Panuco valley and worked down the east coast before turning inland. Ixtlilxochitl represents the Toltec as coasting down lower California and Jalisco. Of the two writers Sahagun is by far the more trustworthy, but at the same time it is difficult to see what Ixtlilxochitl had to gain by deliberately transferring the scene of the migration from one coast to the other. The story of Sahagun is, in brief, as follows. The migrants penetrated as far as Guatemala, and then settled for a time at a place called Tamoanchan, mention of which occurs in nearly all migration legends. Here the wise men who led them departed, taking the god under whose guidance they travelled and the picture-writings which contained their lore, and sailing eastward over the sea. The rest remained behind, under the governance of certain lesser sages, of whom the chief were Oxomoco and Cipactonal, “awaiting the dawn for the administration of society.” The Olmec also split from the main stem at this point. From here the others went to Xomiltepec, and then to Teotihuacan, a site remarkable for extensive pre-Aztec ruins, where they elected rulers, and then to Coatepec, where the Otomi branched off. Later the tribes who still remained associated foregathered at Chicomoztoc, another locality mentioned in nearly all the myths, where they established cave-temples. Hence the Toltec departed to Tulanzinco, and subsequently to Tulan; after they had separated, the Tarascans also split off, finding their way to Michoacan. Later still the Nahua, including the Tepanec (founders of Azcapotzalco), the Acolhua (of Tezcoco), and the eventual populations of Chalco, Uexotzinco and Tlaxcala respectively. The Aztec alone remained wandering in the northern steppes until they too eventually reached the valley of Mexico. It is hardly worth while entering into the details of Toltec history as recorded subsequent to their settlement; the “Annals of Quauhtitlan,” a native tradition of considerable age and value, gives a list of five kings; Torquemada and Ixtlilxochitl furnish an entirely different list, the latter mentioning one king in addition to those quoted by Torquemada. All that need be said is that the Toltec were ruled by priest-kings, representatives of their god Quetzalcoatl, who, according to one legend, was their first ruler, and that the downfall of their power was heralded by the separation of the temporal and religious authority. The cause of that downfall seems to have been the gradual incursion of later Nahua immigrants; signs of degeneration are not wanting in the legends connected with the later reigns, in particular the introduction of human sacrifice. At the fall of the kingdom, a great emigration took place in the direction of the east, to Tabasco and beyond, and, so the story tells, via Tehuacan and Teotitlan to Soconusco. Many of the Toltec however remained behind, especially in Colhuacan, Cholula and Uexotzinco. The arrival of the Tlaxcalans, which probably occurred about this time, drove the Olmec further east in the path of the Toltec, with whom they claimed to be one and the same people. No doubt however the Tlaxcalans absorbed a large percentage of Toltec blood, a fact which intensified their friendship for the people of Uexotzinco and their ineradicable hostility to the Aztec. From a careful consideration of many points of evidence, I am inclined to think that the date given by the “Annals of Quauhtitlan” for the destruction of Tulan, viz. 1064, is not far wrong; how long the state had lasted is more difficult to say, but that it must have flourished for an extended period is obvious from the fact that the remains characteristic of the Toltec culture at Azcapotzalco form a stratum over three metres thick.

Fig. 1.—Map of the Valley of Mexico. The black line shows the traditional route of the Aztec.

Certain of the manuscripts give the ancient home of the Aztec as Aztlan, and picture it as an island in the centre of a lake, with a city called Colhuacan on the opposite shore. From here the Aztec started in the year dated 1. tecpatl (“one stone knife,” i.e. 1168 A.D.), and at Colhuacan received their god, Uitzilopochtli, and joined themselves to eight other related tribes. Five of these ultimately formed the population of the following cities, chiefly in the Valley of Mexico, Uexotzinco, Chalco, Xochimilco, Cuitlauac, Malinalco (see the map of the Mexican Valley, Fig. [1]); the others being the Chichimec, Tepanec (founders of Azcapotzalco) and Matlatzinca. Later they arrived at Tamoanchan, the “House of descent,” a word probably meaning little more than the “place where the tribes separated,” for here the eight tribes left them to continue their journey alone. Hence they went to Chicomoztoc, and Cuextecatl Ichocayan, the “place where the Huaxtec weep,” where they are represented as having made prisoners from among this nation. After wandering in the steppes they came to Tulan, and then to Chapultepec; and, after having been reduced for some time to slavery in Colhuacan, settled finally in Tenochtitlan. It is difficult to estimate the amount of authenticity which may be attributed to this legend; the description of the ancient home seems to reproduce the geographical position of Tenochtitlan, situated on an island opposite a mainland town called Colhuacan, in a rather suspicious manner. Still it seems to have been a habit of the Nahua tribes to select such situations for their cities, in proof of which one need only mention such towns as Zumpango, Xaltocan, Cuitlauac, Xochimilco and Acocolco, a previous residence of the Aztec. Fig. [2] illustrates the portion of the Boturini codex which pictures the start from Aztlan to Colhuacan, the footsteps indicating the route, and the eight figures to the right accompanied by glyphs, representing the eight tribes mentioned above, reading from bottom to top. The situation of Aztlan, if the place is not entirely mythical, has given rise to a good deal of controversy; some have identified Colhuacan with Culiacan on the coast of Sinaloa, while Seler suggests that it was in fact the historical city of that name, Aztlan being the island of Acocolco whence the Mexicans were deported as slaves to Colhuacan, a historical fact. The term Colhuan was in historical times restricted to the inhabitants of this city, with whom the population of Xochimilco and Malinalco were closely connected. Chicomoztoc figures as a halting-place in practically all legends dealing with the Nahua immigration, and in some it is regarded as the starting-point. Besides the tribes above mentioned, the following are also represented as having made some stay there: the Huaxtec, Olmec, Xicalanca, Totonac, Michoacans, Tlalhuica, Acolhua (Tezcocans), Tlaxcalans, the inhabitants of Teotitlan and Tehuacan, and the Mixtec. Beyond this we shall see later that this place seems to be connected with the early history of certain Maya tribes whose migration legends have been preserved. Indeed it seems bound up with the mythical history of all the tribes of Mexico and the greater part of Central America, with one striking exception, the Zapotec, and as such must belong to an earlier movement of tribes than the actual Aztec migration from Aztlan. The Nahua-speaking tribes, including the Toltec, and the Michoacans, called themselves Chichimec, a term which, as mentioned above, possesses rather a cultural than a racial significance, and means wandering hunters. In fact the Aztec are shown in manuscripts as skin-clad archers on their migration, fighting with the inhabitants of the valley, who are represented as dressed in textiles and armed with the macquauitl, or wooden sword edged with obsidian. The first inroad of Chichimec after the destruction of Tulan (though no doubt that destruction was caused, at any rate in part, by the pressure of nomadic tribes from the north), is said to have taken place under the leadership of a chief called Xolotl, coming from a country named Amaquemacan via Chicomoztoc and Tulan. Xolotl established his court at Tenayocan, and proceeded to extend his power over the other cities round the lake, incorporating such of the Toltec as remained in his empire. Shortly after, another influx of Chichimec took place, under three chiefs, Acolhuatzin, whose immediate followers called themselves Tepanec, Chiconquauhtli, leading a band of Otomi, and Tzontecomatl, chief of the Acolhua (in the narrower sense). These chiefs allied themselves with Xolotl, and the first two were given his two daughters in marriage, receiving at the same time the towns of Azcapotzalco and Xaltocan respectively as residences. Tzontecomatl married a woman from Chalco and established himself at Coatlichan. Colhuacan at this time was ruled by Pochotl, a descendant of the last Toltec king, and Xolotl seems to have exercised a loose suzerainty over all. The invaders rapidly adopted the remains of civilization which they found in the valley, and applied themselves to agriculture; the old name of Chichimec was dropped, and that of Acolhua, in the wider sense, was adopted. From this point historical tradition has been so well reduced to order by Clavigero, whose work, translated into English, is still easily accessible, that I do not propose to give more than a mere summary of events. A list of the various “kings,” together with approximate dates which I suggest after a careful comparison of many sources, is given in Appendix III. The principal point to be noted is the transfer of the political centre from Tenayocan to Tezcoco, which took place in the reign of Xolotl’s third successor, Quinatzin, who removed his “court” thither; from this point dates what may be termed the “Acolhuan” domination of the Mexican valley. Meanwhile the Aztec had arrived, but being the latest of the migrants they were also the rudest, and were of little account. Even their prowess as fighters was counterbalanced by the comparative smallness of their numbers, and for years they lived under the protection of various rulers who employed their services in the wars which had already begun to break out between city and city. In the reign of Nopaltzin, Xolotl’s successor, they are said to have been settled at Chapultepec, but, being oppressed by the chief of Xaltocan, they removed to securer, though less comfortable, quarters on the group of islands called Acocolco at the south end of the lake. Here they remained for half a century, until they were transferred to Colhuacan by the ruler of that city. By this time their numbers had increased, while their fighting qualities had not deteriorated, and after giving proof of the latter fact by defeating the Xochimilca, with whom the Colhua were at war, they felt their position sufficiently strong to insist on leaving Colhuacan for Mexicaltzingo. Here however they did not reside for long, but moved north first to Iztacalco and finally to Tenochtitlan. Even yet they were not strong enough to stand entirely by themselves, probably partly because they were not yet under a single chief who could lay claim to kinship with the ruling houses of other cities, and they were now under the protection of Azcapotzalco, to the ruler of which they paid tribute. Not long after their settlement, dissensions broke out among themselves, and certain clans removed to the small island of Tlaltelolco adjoining Tenochtitlan on the north. The split however was not final, and the two sections remained in close alliance, though under separate administration. The question of the dates of these various events is by no means easy to determine. Tenochtitlan, according to the Mendoza codex, which gives a continuous chronicle from this point, was founded in the year 2. calli (two house), or 1325, and this date may, I believe, be taken as reasonably exact. We are told that the Aztec were subject to Colhuacan for about twenty-five years, and that they spent half a century before that on the islands of Acocolco. If we allow about twenty years spent at Chapultepec and in the migration from Colhuacan to Tenochtitlan, we get 1230 as the approximate date of their arrival at the former city. At this time, according to legend, Nopaltzin, the successor of Xolotl, was ruling at Tenayocan, and the commencement of his reign cannot be put much earlier than 1225, since we are told that Tlotzin, his successor (called Huetzin by Ixtlilxochitl), died in the year in which Tenochtitlan was founded. Xolotl, the founder of the “Chichimec” power, seems to have reigned long, and indeed the Mexican rulers as a whole seem to have been singularly long-lived. But in any case Xolotl cannot have led his followers into the Mexican valley much before the second half of the twelfth century. If the annals of Quauhtitlan are correct in assigning the year 1064 to the destruction of Tulan, then the statement that the Chichimec migration occurred some thirty years later must be an error. It is true that if the statements of Sahagun as to the length of the reigns of the Acolhuan and Chichimec kings be correct, the error is not nearly so considerable, but in that case the association of these kings with certain epochs of Mexican history becomes impossible. I am inclined to believe that far more reliance is to be placed on associations of this kind in tradition than upon mere numbers of years, and it is possible that some mistake may have arisen between Sahagun and his informants regarding the length of a king’s life on the one hand and the length of his reign on the other. I have therefore given premier importance to statements regarding associations in my scheme of dates. Moreover it seems far more likely from several points of view that at least a century must have intervened between the downfall of Tulan and the immigration headed by Xolotl, though there must have been a steady drift of “Chichimec” tribes southward during that period, having its commencement before the former event, to which it no doubt contributed.

Fig. 2.—Detail from the Boturini MS., showing the commencement of the Aztec migration. From left to right: Aztlan on an island; the Aztec crossing the water; the date 1. tecpatl; the city Colhuacan; eight other tribes, reading downwards, the Matlatzinca, Tepanec, Chichimec, Malinalca, Cuitlauaca, Xochimilca, Chalca, and Uexotzinca. (After Seler)

For the first half-century after their establishment at Tenochtitlan, the Aztec were ruled by a council, composed no doubt of the heads of clans; but in the year 1376 they elected a king. Nothing illustrates better the idea among the Mexicans that kingly power was inherent in certain families, than the fact that they elected Acamapitzin, whose mother was a daughter of the ruler of Colhuacan, Coxcoxtli, and therefore of Toltec descent. Simultaneously the inhabitants of Tlaltelolco elected a ruler, Quaquapitzauac, said to be connected with the ruling family of Azcapotzalco. At this time the most powerful cities in the valley were Tezcoco, whither Quinatzin had removed the Acolhuan court, which was now ruled by his successor Techotlala; Azcapotzalco, ruled by the Tepanec Tezozomoc, descended from Acolhuatzin; Coatlichan, where a member of Tzontecomatl’s family held sway; and Colhuacan, under the kingship of Coxcoxtli, of the race of Pochotl the son of Topiltzin the last Toltec king.

Acamapitzin was followed in 1396 by Uitziliuitl, and he in 1417 by Chimalpopoca, Tlacateotl having succeeded to the rulership of Tlaltelolco in 1406. Meanwhile Techotlala had died, and Ixtlilxochitl had become ruler of Tezcoco about 1400. The Mendoza codex assigns the conquest of certain cities to these kings, but it is probable that in these expeditions they acted merely as allies of Tezcoco or Azcapotzalco. During this period the power of Azcapotzalco began to expand, and, aided by the Mexicans, Tezozomoc, the ruler of that city, attacked Ixtlilxochitl of Tezcoco. The obstinate war which followed was the commencement of the struggle between the Tepanec and Acolhua for the hegemony of the valley, but for the time the latter prevailed, and a hollow peace was made. This lasted but a short time, and Ixtlilxochitl was eventually killed in an ambuscade by the Tepanec, who had utilized the interval in winning over certain of his allies. The Tepanec thus became masters of Tezcoco in 1418, and Nezahualcoyotl, the legitimate heir, was driven into exile. Tezozomoc, the Tepanec ruler, did not however enjoy his success long, but died about 1425 at an advanced age. So old was he, it is related, that he was at last kept in a basket surrounded with wool for warmth, and his final years were embittered by dreams that Nezahualcoyotl in the form of an eagle devoured his heart, or, as a lion, sucked his blood. His death brought internal dissension upon Azcapotzalco; one of his younger sons, by name Maxtla, assassinated the heir-designate and seized the power. He seems to have been the most energetic of the members of the ruling house, but lacked his father’s political wariness, since he began to quarrel with Mexico. This was a fatal mistake, since it caused the Aztec, secretly at first, to intrigue with the exiled Nezahualcoyotl, who had, moreover, many friends among the cities where the Acolhuan element was strong. In 1417 Itzcoatl succeeded to power in Tenochtitlan; the Aztec had by this time increased considerably in numbers and prosperity, and the new ruler proved himself a man of action and an excellent general. He definitely espoused the cause of the exile, with the result that the latter, aided by the people of Tlaxcala and Uexotzinco, succeeded in recapturing Tezcoco and killing every Tepanec in the city. At the same time Coatlichan was stormed by the Chalca, who had also offered assistance to Nezahualcoyotl. These events brought matters to a head; Maxtla, refusing peace, rashly sent an expedition against Tenochtitlan, and the populace in terror wished to submit. But Itzcoatl succeeded in inspiring them with courage, and, aided by Quauhtlatoa, who had just been elected to the kingship of Tlaltelolco, they inflicted a signal defeat upon the invading force. Nor was this all, Itzcoatl followed up his success by attacking Azcapotzalco, which was successfully stormed and Maxtla was killed. Meanwhile the forces of Tlaxcala and Uexotzinco had captured Tenayocan, and the Tepanec domination was at an end. The Aztec were now actually the paramount power in the valley, but Itzcoatl was too wise to insist upon the fact. He recognized Nezahualcoyotl as his equal, and contracted with him an alliance on equal terms, by which means he won the support of the large Acolhua population. He also conciliated the favour of the defeated Tepanec; Azcapotzalco, it is true, was reduced to the level of a subordinate city, but over Tlacopan, another Tepanec town, he placed Totoquiuatzin, a descendant of Tezozomoc, as ruler and admitted him to the confederacy on the terms that the booty which was won by the allied arms should be distributed in the following proportions; to Tenochtitlan two-fifths, to Tezcoco two-fifths, and to Tlacopan one-fifth. The one essential of power Itzcoatl retained for himself; he stipulated that the military policy of the allies should be directed from Tenochtitlan.

But if the political power was concentrated in Tenochtitlan, Tezcoco under the wise rule of Nezahualcoyotl became the intellectual and artistic centre of the valley. The government was reformed, and a code of laws drawn up which was regarded as the pattern of all legislation; schools were instituted for the study of poetry, astronomy, music and painting, and the city was embellished by the construction of temples and gardens. However the fall of the Tepanec did not bring peace to the valley; many cities began to be jealous of the Aztec and their newly-acquired hegemony, and the Mendoza codex gives a list of cities which were conquered during the reign of Itzcoatl, among them Quauhtitlan, Cuitlauac, Xochimilco, Chalco, and Quauhnauac (Cuernavaca). Yet these “conquests” were not on the same scale as that of Azcapotzalco; from this time forward the Aztec were content with exacting merely a nominal submission from the towns which they subdued, and imposing tribute. As long as the latter was paid punctually no interference was made either with the local rulers or their administration, though theoretically the heir of a “king” who died was supposed to seek confirmation in his office at the hands of the ruler of Tenochtitlan.

Photo. C. B. Waite

Mexico Museum

1

British Museum

2

MEXICO

1. Colossal stone head of Coyolxauhqui

2. Stone figure of Chalchiuhtlicue

(Scale: 1, ¹⁄₂₅th; 2, ⅓rd)

With the advent to the throne of Montecuzoma, the first of that name, in 1440, the Aztec continued to extend their power beyond the valley. After a short campaign against the Chalca, in order to obtain prisoners to sacrifice at his coronation, this king proceeded to attack the region around Cuernavaca, subduing, among other towns, that of Tepoztlan, where a temple still remains inscribed with his name (S.S.W. of Cuernavaca), Yauhtepec and Tlaxco (Pl.[ XIV, 2]; p. 174). Further south, he conquered Coixtlahuaca in Mixtec territory, but his operations to the east were more extensive. In 1458 he sent an expedition into the Panuco valley, against the Huaxtec, and in 1461 he won Cotaxtla in the Totonac district, penetrating as far as Cozomaloapan and overrunning also the region of Tuxpan. His foreign conquests were not undisturbed by troubles in the valley, and the same must be understood of the later rulers also. Revolt was frequent, and encouraged rather than otherwise by the religious beliefs of the Mexicans, as will be explained later. In particular those cities which contained a large percentage of some formerly dominant people were perpetually seceding, and among them Chalco and Xochimilco were frequent offenders. To the east the population of Tlaxcala and Uexotzinco were a perpetual thorn in the side of the Aztec, and were never reduced to subjection. The Tlaxcalans in particular succeeded in holding their own, and their hostility to Tenochtitlan, of more than half a century’s duration, proved of inestimable value to the Spaniards. This people, who as we have seen were of “Chichimec” origin, had originally been settled on the east shore of the lake, but, owing to quarrels with their neighbours, decided to move their residence. A few went north and settled in Tulanzinco, but the majority migrated east through Cholula to the region of Mount Matlalcue, whence they drove the Olmec and Xicalanga. No doubt a certain amount of intermingling took place between the peoples, and it was partly the large infusion of Toltec blood which rendered them so implacably hostile to Aztec rule, and usually on such good terms with the Cholulans. With the Uexotzinca their relations were variable, but more often friendly than not. As has been related, they assisted in the overthrow of the Tepanec power, but the expansion of Mexico under Montecuzoma was by no means to their liking, and friction soon arose. With the Uexotzinca they assisted the northern Mixtec against Montecuzoma, and succeeded at first in checking the Aztec advance in this direction. However, in twenty-nine years Montecuzoma extended the influence of Tenochtitlan, on the east to the Mexican gulf, on the south-east and south to the northern portion of the Mixtec territory and the Cuernavaca region, while on the west and north-west he penetrated into the Toluca valley and the country of the Otomi. At home he built the great Uitznauac temple and, on the advice of Nezahualcoyotl, constructed the ten-mile causeway from Atzacoalco to Iztapalapa in order to guard against inundation, besides adding many buildings to the city and enlarging the code of laws. He died in 1469, preceded in 1464 by Quauhtlatoa the king of Tlaltelolco, who was succeeded by Moquiuix. Axayacatl now became lord of Tenochtitlan, and events moved fast in the valley. Totoquihuatzin, ruler of Tlacopan, died the next year, and was succeeded by Chimalpopoca,[2] while the long life of Nezahualcoyotl came to an end in 1472, and Nezahualpilli assumed the power in Tezcoco. The following year Moquiuix intrigued with the Chalca and others against Axayacatl, and the latter stormed Tlaltelolco and killed the traitor. From this time Tlaltelolco was definitely united to its neighbour, and placed under a governor, the kingship being abolished. This reign was signalized, as far as external affairs were concerned, by an expedition to the Zapotec territory, as far as and beyond Tehuantepec, and though no doubt the province cannot be said to have been absolutely conquered, yet it had the effect of opening up the road to the fertile district of Soconusco, rich in cacao, feathers and gems. Archæologically considered the Zapotec country constitutes an extremely interesting region, if only for the reason that they and the smaller tribes immediately in their neighbourhood possessed no legends hinting at immigration, but claimed that their ancestors issued from caves, rocks or trees in the locality. Similar myths were found among the Mixtec also, but immigration legends are not wanting. For instance, one story relates that the first lords entered the country from the north, after the Mexican migration, and settled between Achiutla and Tilantongo. The relationship which exists between the Mixtec and Zapotec languages suggests a strong common element, but it seems probable that the former people had received an element of some immigrant nationality, possibly akin to the Toltec or Chichimec. This element was not strong enough to influence the local dialects, but gave the Mixtec that superiority in arms which enabled them to encroach upon the Zapotec district. East of the Zapotec were the uncultured Mixe and Zoque, from whom the Zapotec in their turn had won territory, including Tehuantepec.

To return to the conquests of Axayacatl, this king completed the reduction of the Toluca valley, and reconquered the region of Cotaxtla which had revolted, so that his successor Tizoc, who seems also to have sent an expedition to the Mixtec country, was able to lay claim to an empire extending over the valleys of Toluca and the Rio de las Balsas, and the highlands of Mixteca, Huaxteca, Orizaba, Cotaxtla and Teotitlan. Axayacatl died in 1469, and Tizoc in 1482, and Auitzotl became the Aztec ruler. He continued the strenuous foreign policy of his predecessors, and proved a vigorous conqueror, though he was passionate and often cruel in administration. His armies conquered many cities in the Zapotec country, including Mitla (1494), Teozapotlan (1495) and Tehuantepec, and after seizing Tonala, the key to the country further south and east, pursued their victorious course through Soconusco, via Mapaxtepec, Escuintla and Huiztla, as far as Huehuetlan. Other expeditions penetrated Chiapas, and even subdued certain cities in Guatemala. Probably however there was nothing like an effective occupation of the country beyond the city of Oaxaca, where a Mexican colony was established. In particular Chiapas can never be said to have been conquered. Still, in this reign the Aztec power reached its furthest extent, and the influence of Tenochtitlan was felt from the Panuco valley to northern Guatemala, and from Tuxpan to Acapulco. In the city itself Auitzotl completed the great pyramid-temple to Uitzilopochtli, the tribal god of the Aztec, which his predecessor had commenced, and also constructed an aqueduct which supplied water from Coyoacan. A severe inundation took place in his reign, and as he was escaping from the lower floor of a building which had become flooded, he struck his head against the lintel, causing an injury from which he eventually died. Montecuzoma, the second of that name, succeeded in the year 1502; Nezahualpilli was still ruling in Tezcoco, but Chimalpopoca of Tlacopan had died in 1489 and Totoquiuatzin the second was now the ruler there. Montecuzoma had been trained as a priest as well as a soldier, and though his military abilities enabled him to maintain the empire much in the same condition as he received it, he was particularly superstitious and amenable to sacerdotal influence. Abroad he quelled a rebellion among the Zapotec and Mixtec, and carried on operations in Soconusco and Vera Cruz. Nearer home he seized the opportunity of a quarrel between the Tlaxcalans and Uexotzinca to espouse the cause of the latter and to carry on a vigorous campaign against the former. For many years the Aztec had been able seriously to obstruct Tlaxcalan trade with the coast, so much so in fact that salt was a rarity in that province, but Montecuzoma made an energetic attack upon their territory. Undismayed, the Tlaxcalans fortified the approach to their dominions with a wall six miles long, and succeeded in withstanding the invasion and even in inflicting defeats upon their foes. Meanwhile Nezahualpilli, ruler of Tezcoco, died in 1515, and his son Cacamatzin was elected in his place. A younger son, Ixtlilxochitl, laid claim to the power and succeeded in attracting a number of supporters. He was still haunting the neighbouring mountains and carrying on a guerilla warfare with the confederate troops when the arrival of the Spaniards in 1519 brought the development of aboriginal American civilization to an abrupt close. Montecuzoma had emphasized the aristocratic aspect of Mexican government, and under him the court ceremonial had been greatly elaborated. He surrounded himself with a state, and the rich tribute which now poured into Tenochtitlan enabled him not only to undertake many important works for the beautifying of the city, but to model his personal service on a scale which surpasses even the “Arabian Nights.” The magnificent “calendar-stone,” figured on [Pl. VIII, 1], p. 74, was brought by him from Coyoacan to serve probably as a sacrificial altar to the sun in the enclosure of the great temple of Uitzilopochtli. He was a strong personality, and though his superstitious training led him to adopt a fatally hesitating policy when the Spaniards landed, he displayed under all circumstances a personal courage and dignity which lend additional pathos to his fate.

Of Zapotec and Mixtec history, apart from that of Mexico, we know practically nothing. We hear of a mythical Mixtec king named Dzahuindanda, who possessed a magic sack which he was wont to take to a desolate mountain and shake, after appropriate incantations, producing thereby as many soldiers as he required. Less legendary are the Zapotec Zociyoeza and his son Zociyopi, the former of whom ruled at Teozapotlan, the latter at Tehuantepec. Zociyoeza in fact opposed the Mexican advance, and held out against the invading troops for four years entrenched in Quiengola, until at last he was able to conclude an honourable peace. Between the Mixtec and Zapotec, hostilities seem to have been not uncommon, and from a story told by Burgoa it would appear that the Zapotec did not form a very large state. The principal ruler was the chief of Teozapotlan, but his resources could not have been great, since he asked a Mixtec king for troops to defend his city while he was absent upon a campaign against the Mixe in Tehuantepec. The same author relates that after being successful in his operations the chief rashly laid claim to certain Mixtec territory, a demand which resulted in the seizure by the Mixtec of a large slice of the Oaxaca region, and the founding of the Mixtec town of Xoxocotlan.

The history of the Pazcuaro plateau seems to have been very similar to that of the Mexican valley. Originally the shores of the lake were occupied by a population of agriculturists and fishers, probably akin to the pre-Toltec inhabitants around the lake of Tezcoco. Upon them descended, from the hills around Zacapu, certain tribes of wandering hunters led by a tribal hero Ticatamé. The new-comers mingled and intermarried with the original population and adopted their habits, but friction arose, Ticatamé was killed and the idol of the immigrants, Curicaveri, was captured. Sicuirancha, son of Ticatamé, called upon the god for aid, the foe were smitten with a pestilence and the idol recaptured. In course of time the immigrants became a ruling class, and to the whole population the name Tarascan was given, from Taras, another hunting-god who was identified with the Chichimec Mixcoatl. It is possible that this ruling class was originally of Chichimec stock, and its descent upon Pazcuaro was part of that general movement southward which took place among the hunting tribes of the north towards the end of the Toltec rule. If this is so they must have abandoned their own language in favour of the tongue of the original agricultural population with whom they intermarried. It is interesting to find in Michoacan a definite story of a Toltec immigration. A body of Toltec, specified as skilled workers in gold, stone and feather-work, are said to have travelled from Vera Cruz via Tehuacan, Coyoacan and Tenochtitlan to Xiuhquillan (Tzitzipu, on L. Pazcuaro), where they settled. The Tarascan of later date bore a high reputation as stone-cutters, mosaic-workers and feather-workers, and this fact, together with the presence in Michoacan of a peculiar class of pottery with polychrome champ-levé ornament, which is also characteristic of the pre-Aztec remains of the valley, suggest that Toltec influence had in fact penetrated into Michoacan.

Totonac history is as deficient as that of the Zapotec. Tradition related that they were immigrants into the country where they were found by the Spaniards, and lived there for about six and a half centuries in complete independence. Less than two centuries after their immigration, certain “Chichimec” tribes of lower culture settled on their north-western borders, and in course of time considerable intercourse, and even intermarriage, sprang up between them. Eventually civil war broke out among the Totonac, much of the country was laid waste and sections of the population emigrated from the district. It is quite possible that the “Toltec” who are said to have found their way to Michoacan may have been a body of Totonac emigrants who left their country at this period. The result of the civil strife was that a great portion of Totonac region fell under “Chichimec” domination. Three kings of this nationality held sway, until, in the reign of the last, the Aztec conquered the country and reduced it to the status of a province as related above.

Much light is shed upon the interrelation of the various tribes who combined to form the population of Mexico by the study of their various gods; and since religion formed the mainspring not only of all public but also of private life, it will be as well to deal as shortly as possible with this complicated subject before proceeding to discuss the manners and customs of the pre-Spanish inhabitants and their archæological remains which have been found scattered throughout the country.

Photo Prof. Seler

Mexico Museum

MEXICO

Colossal Stone Figure of Coatlicue

CHAPTER II—MEXICO: THE GODS

The question of the religion of the Ancient Mexicans is by no means easy to approach. At the time of the Spanish conquest the Mexican pantheon was still in a state of great confusion, and the number of tribal cults of which it was composed had not yet been reduced to a homogeneous whole. Gods whose functions were similar or associated had been invested with the attributes one of the other, and there is reason to suspect that the names of deities whose importance was relatively recent had been incorporated in the earlier myths by a priesthood jealous of the dignity of its own particular god. The history of the valley of Mexico, as far as it can be traced, consists, as we have seen, of the conquest from time to time of the sedentary agricultural population by ruder and more warlike tribes from the hills. The victors, conscious of their cultural inferiority, in adopting to the best of their ability the mode of life of the conquered, were careful also to propitiate the local gods, whom they regarded as responsible for the superior culture of the latter; though they attempted, as far as they dared, to subordinate them to their own chief deity. These hill-tribes of primitive hunters seem to have worshipped each a god of its own, who was regarded as its personal leader, who presided over war and the chase and who appears to have been connected with the stars and occasionally with the sun. This connection with the sun was, I am inclined to think, an afterthought, and not universal, arising from the belief that war was instituted in order to provide the sun with blood-offerings. To this class of deities belong Curicaveri, Tiripemé and Taras, worshipped by the Tarascans, Mixcoatl of the Otomi, Chichimec and Matlatzinca, Camaxtli of Tlaxcala and Uexotzinco, Amimitl and Atlaua of the Chiampanec, and the Mexican Uitzilopochtli (Fig. [3, f]). The connection is especially close between Mixcoatl, Camaxtli and Uitzilopochtli, in fact they are occasionally identified. Their attributes consist of a spear-thrower and net bag, or bow and arrows, and the arrows are sometimes shown as tipped with down, in allusion to the fact that they are gods of sacrifice, such being the insignia of prisoners destined for the sacrificial stone; Uitzilopochtli is usually shown in the dress of a humming-bird (Uitzitzilin) in punning allusion to his name, and with him is associated a minor deity, Paynal, believed to be his messenger. According to a widespread legend Uitzilopochtli is said to have been conceived by his mother, Coatlicue, from a ball of down which fell from heaven and which she placed in her bosom; her other sons, the Centzon Uitznaua (Four hundred Southerners, the number meaning “innumerable”), at the instigation of their sister Coyolxauhqui (Pl. [II, 1]), accused Coatlicue of improper conduct, and attempted to kill her; but Uitzilopochtli, springing from his mother’s body, defeated them, decapitating Coyolxauhqui with the xiuhcoatl or “fire-snake” with which he was armed. Coatlicue was an earth-goddess, patron of flower-sellers, and, as her name implies, is distinguished by a skirt woven of snakes (Pl. [III]); the brothers are identified with the stars of the southern heaven. Very similar is the legend of Mixcoatl (Fig. [4], a), according to which this god was attacked and killed by the Centzon Mimizcoa (also stellar deities), but was avenged by his son Ce Acatl, who slew the latter with the tezcacoatl (“mirror-snake”). In the person of Mixcoatl we find a direct connection with the Tarascan Curicaveri, whose symbol was a stone knife kept in a box by the priest, since the same legend relates that Mixcoatl always carried with him a stone knife as a fetish. It may also be mentioned in passing that the date of Uitzilopochtli’s (and Camaxtli’s) movable feast was 1. tecpatl (tecpatl being the stone-knife day-sign), and, as will be explained later, gods were often known by calendrical names. Mixcoatl’s knife was said to be a symbol of the peculiar female deity Itzpapalotl (“obsidian butterfly”), a star-goddess associated with fire and lightning, and occasionally identified with a mythological two-headed deer called Itzcueye which figures in the legends of Mixcoatl and Camaxtli as the captive and wife of the god. This two-headed deer was again identified at Cuitlauac and Xochimilco with the Colhuacan earth and warrior goddess Ciuacoatl (Tonantzin or Quilaztli), invoked in childbirth, whose symbol was an obsidian knife; but, and here is a good instance of the confused nature of the myths with which we have to deal, Ciuacoatl was regarded as the mother of Mixcoatl (as also the other earth-goddess Coatlicue the mother of Uitzilopochtli), and as sister of the Mimizcoa. The planet Venus was a war-god in Michoacan, and, under the name Urendequa Vecara, was the especial deity of Curinguaro, a town hostile to the votaries of Curicaveri. In Mexico this planet was known as Tlauizcalpantecutli, and was connected in some respects with prisoners destined for sacrifice. Representations of Uitzilopochtli are very rare in Mexican art of pre-Spanish date, but we are told that his face-paint consisted of blue and yellow horizontal stripes. Mixcoatl and Camaxtli are usually shown with black paint around the eye, rather in the form of a highway-man’s mask, and Uitzilopochtli also appears with this occasionally. The distinguishing feature of Tlauizcalpantecutli is a series of five dots, arranged quincunx fashion on a dark ground, with the central spot on the nose (Fig. [4, c]).

Fig. 3.—Mexican deities from various MSS.

• A. Tlazolteotl.
• B. Tlaloc.
• C. Xiuhtecutli.
• D. Ciuapipiltin.
• E. Tezcatlipoca.
• F. Uitzilopochtli.

Fig. 4.—Mexican deities from various MSS.

• A. Mixcoatl.
• B. Mictlantecutli.
• C. Tlauizcalpantecutli.
• D. Quetzalcoatl as Eecatl.
• E. Tonatiuh.
• F. Ome Tochtli.

For the sedentary tribes of the valleys, dependent chiefly upon agriculture and fishing for a livelihood, the deities presiding over vegetation, rain and earth were the most important; and after the Aztec had become settled and devoted themselves to intensive cultivation, they readily adopted these gods and gave them a high place in their pantheon. Most important of all was Tlaloc, the god of rain and thunder (Fig. [3, b]); his worship appears to have been extremely widespread, and his images are found in numbers among the remains of pre-Aztec date at Teotihuacan (where he is the only god who can be identified with certainty), in the Huaxtec country, at Teotitlan, at Quiengola in the Zapotec district, and at Quen Santo in Guatemala. It is even related that when the Acolhua first arrived in the valley in the reign of the first Chichimec ruler Xolotl, they discovered on a mountain a figure of this god, which remained an honoured object of worship until it was broken up by order of the first bishop of Mexico. Tlaloc is one of the most easily recognizable of Mexican deities, since he is represented with snakes twined about his eyes (the snake being throughout practically the whole of America the symbol of lightning and rain), with long teeth, and often with a trunk-like nose. According to legend he was one of the first gods created, and lived in a kind of paradise, situated in the east, called Tlalocan, where he presided over the souls of the drowned and those who in life suffered from dropsical affections. He was supposed to be assisted in his duties by a number of subsidiary rain-gods, called Tlaloque, who distributed the rain from magical pitchers and caused the thunder by striking them with rods. In the courtyard of Tlaloc’s palace four great jars were supposed to stand, which contained rain of varying quality. In the first was the good rain which produced fertile crops; in the second, rain which gave being to cobwebs and mildew; in the third were stored ice and sleet; and in the fourth, rain after which nothing matured or dried. Thus Tlaloc combined two aspects, a beneficent and a terrible; and this is not unnatural, for rain in Mexico is more often than not accompanied by thunder, and the fertilizer is therefore also the smiter. As the god of fertility maize belonged to him, though not altogether by right, for according to one legend he stole it after it had been discovered by other gods concealed in the heart of a mountain. The great importance of Tlaloc and the Tlaloque in the worship of the Ancient Mexicans may be gathered from the fact that no less than five of the twenty month-festivals were dedicated to them, and that Tlaloc shared with Uitzilopochtli the great pyramid at Tenochtitlan. The most important of the Tlaloque was Opochtli, a fishing and hunting god, the inventor of nets and the bird-spear. Closely connected with Tlaloc was his wife Chalchiuhtlicue (Pl. [II, 2]), goddess of running water, said also to be sister of the Tlaloque and mother of the Mimizcoa. This goddess, under the name Matlalcue, was especially worshipped at Tlaxcala, and is easily recognized by her tasselled headband and cape, and often by a stepped nose-ornament. The most important festivals to these deities took place on mountain-tops, for it is there that the rain-clouds gather before they sweep over the plain, and closely associated with them was the worship of mountains represented by small figures called Tepictoton, with hair dressed in two horns, whose sacrificial victims were similarly adorned. The valley-dwellers of Michoacan around Pazcuaro revered a goddess of fertility and rain, named Cueravahperi, casting the hearts of her victims into certain hot springs which were supposed to give birth to the rain-clouds. In connection with her worship we are first brought into contact with a strange and gruesome rite, peculiar to this part of America, and performed exclusively in honour of agricultural deities. The victim was flayed, and the priest performed a ceremonial dance wrapped in the fresh skin. The practice seems to be symbolical of vegetation in the early spring, apparently dead, but containing within the germ of life and fertility, and no doubt was originally intended to assist by imitative magic the process of nature in renewing the food-supply. Corresponding to this goddess, and, like her, regarded as the mother of the gods, was the Mexican Teteoinnan or Tozi, a deity held in especial reverence by the Tlaxcalans and Olmec, and perhaps borrowed from the latter people. She was in particular the goddess of ripe maize and healing herbs, patroness of doctors, midwives and bath attendants (for the steam-bath played an important part in childbirth) and diviners. She too was connected with the flaying-sacrifice, and was sometimes pictured as clad in the victim’s skin; otherwise her attributes are the same as those of Tlazolteotl (see below) and she carries a broom. The maize-god par excellence was Cinteotl, her son (though occasionally mentioned as a female deity), who appears originally to have been a Totonac god. He is usually shown with a vertical line leading down his cheek, probably representing tears and symbolizing the fertilizing rain. On certain occasions his priest wore a mask made from the skin of the thigh of the victim sacrificed in honour of Teteoinnan. At first sight it is a little surprising to find this god appearing as one of the tutelary deities of the lapidaries of Xochimilco, but no doubt the reason of this is that the ripe maize-cob, nature’s mosaic, recalled the incrusted work which formed one of their principal manufactures. Closely associated with all these deities was a maize-goddess, Chicome Coatl, sister of Tlaloc, who presided over agriculture and was honoured with a flaying-sacrifice; while the young maize-ear had an especial protector in the goddess Xilonen, perhaps the same as the Chichimec Xilo worshipped by the inhabitants of the Amantlan district of Mexico. Another goddess who seems to be connected with maize was Ilamatecutli, also called Cozcamiauh (maize-necklace), though she appears to have been a star-goddess as well. She, Teteoinnan and Xilonen were associated in a peculiar form of sacrifice in which the victim was decapitated, and which perhaps represented the reaping of the maize-ear. The sacrifice by decapitation seems to be particularly connected with the earth-goddesses, who are sometimes shown in the MSS. with head almost severed from the body, and with two snakes, perhaps representing streams of blood, issuing from the trunk. Of such a representation the colossal figure in the Mexican Museum (see Pl. [III]) is an example. This deity is either Chicome Coatl or Coatlicue, probably the latter, to judge from the skirt of serpents which she wears. In this case the two snakes which spring from her decapitated body are placed snout to snout, and from the two profiles is compounded a grotesque face, or rather two such faces, one in front and one behind. It is worthy of note that the mask of the goddess Ilamatecutli, apparently another fertility goddess, is said to have been double-faced.

British Museum

1, 2. Stone mask representing xipe; the reverse shows the entire figure of the god

Tezcoco

(Scale: ⅓rd)

The god who above all others was connected with the flaying-sacrifice is Xipe, who is invariably depicted as clad in the victim’s skin (Pl. [IV]). He was believed to have been borrowed from the Oaxaca tribes, was worshipped in Jalisco, and finds a parallel in the sea-god of the Tarascans. Both Xipe and the latter are characterized by red and white paint (though Xipe’s skin dress is yellow), and the victims of both were forced to fight for their lives in a gladiatorial combat. At the great feast of Xipe those warriors who had taken captives in war offered them to the god, and wore their skins during the ensuing month. He was a god of sowing, but being connected with the warrior’s death by sacrifice was also a war-god, and his livery, including a drum as back-device, was worn in battle by the Mexican kings. In invocations his ceremonial name was “Night-drinker,” and he was prayed to give moisture to the crops. “Put on your golden garment; why does it not rain? It might be that I perished, I, the young maize-plant.” In this connection another form of sacrifice was practised in his honour; a captive was tied to a scaffold and shot with darts so that his blood streamed down upon the ground (Fig. [5, a]). This proceeding may be regarded in the light of imitative magic, to secure fertilizing rain for the earth. It was first performed, so the legend says, in honour of the earth-deities, and occurred also in South America among the tribes of Colombia. In the illustration, the victim is shown wearing the peculiar form of head-dress associated with Xipe. A particular emblem carried by the water and fertility deities is the chicauaztli, or rattle-staff (see Pl. [IV, 1]), often seen in the hands of Xipe, Chicome Coatl and Cinteotl, and associated in invocations with Tlaloc. This instrument, like the rattle-staves of West Africa, may almost certainly be regarded as a charm to bring rain by imitating its sound. Besides the functions already mentioned, Xipe also exercised that of protector of goldsmiths, since the yellow skin in which he was clad was supposed to typify an overlay of gold foil.

Fig. 5.—Mexican methods of Sacrifice.

• A. Arrow sacrifice.
• B. Gladiatorial sacrifice.
• C. Ordinary sacrifice.

(Zouche MS., British Museum)

Among the fertility gods must be mentioned the goddess of flowers, love and pregnancy, Xochiquetzal (Pl. [IX, 6]; p. 82), especially worshipped by the Tlalhuica (also at Tlaxcala), and mentioned as the wife of Cinteotl, though one legend makes her the first wife of Tlaloc, stolen by Tezcatlipoca, the Mexican Jupiter. Her distinguishing insignia are two large feather plumes upon her head, and she seems to be akin to the Tarascan goddess of Tzintzuntzan, Xaratanga, who was associated with Curicaveri as his wife. The functions of this deity however were rather more extended, since she was also regarded as an earth- and maize-goddess, and was connected with the game tlaxtli. Xochiquetzal was the especial patroness of weaving and embroidery, of which arts she was the supposed inventor. The male equivalent to this goddess was Xochipilli, god of flowers, dance, song and games (Pl. [V, 1]). He is figured with the high crest of the coxcoxtli bird on his head, a white butterfly painted on his mouth, and occasionally with the tear face-paint. He appears to have been introduced from the Xelhua district on the Oaxaca border, and in one of his manifestations was known by the calendrical name of Macuil Xochitl (Five Flower), in which case he bears a hand painted across his mouth (a constant feature of gods into whose name the number five enters). He was further regarded as identical with, or as the son of, Pilzintecutli, a sun-god, who again was thought to be the son of Mictlantecutli, the lord of the underworld. During recent excavations in Mexico city, a stone figure of Xochipilli was found with a large number of miniature musical instruments in stone and pottery.

1

2

British Museum

MEXICO

1. Stone figure of Xochipilli (the characteristic high crest of the head-dress is missing)

2. Stone with figure of a Xiuhcoatl (fire-snake in relief)

(Scale: 1, ⅛th; 2, ⅑th)

Among the gods of fertility must be reckoned those who presided over octli (Fig. [4, f]), the intoxicating drink obtained from the maguey (the American aloe, Agave americana). These deities were connected with the harvest, and also bore a relation to the moon; they were regarded as innumerable, a fact explained by an early chronicler as typifying the countless forms of drunkenness, and were spoken of collectively as Centzon Totochtin or the “Four hundred (i.e. innumerable) Rabbits.” Many names of these gods have come down to us; they were all regarded as brothers, and it is possible that each one represents a section of the Mexican population, especially as their names seem taken from the names of places. If so their number would point to an early date for the discovery of octli. Tezcatzoncatl is said by some to be the chief, by others Izquitecatl, or again Ome Tochtli, (Two Rabbit, a calendrical name taken from the date of the principal feast). The two former are Chichimec gods, and Coatlicue was assigned to both as wife. Tepoztecatl was the octli god of the Chichimec inhabitants of the Amantlan quarter, while Patecatl was connected with the Huaxtec, a people popularly supposed to be especially given to drunkenness. Indeed one legend makes the tribal father of this people the first drunkard. In invocations the Totochtin were related to Colhuacan. Their principal insignia consisted of red and black face-paint, and a semi-lunar nose-ornament which appears also on their shields, while Tepoztecatl, the god to whom most probably the temple at Tepoztlan was erected, carries an axe. As sister of the Totochtin we have Mayauel, the agave goddess, wife of Patecatl, who, like the Ephesian Diana, was supposed to have four hundred breasts. An interesting myth attaches to Tezcatzoncatl, who was fabled to have been killed and revived by Tezcatlipoca, by which action the sleep of the drunken, so similar to death, became harmless for men. No doubt it was this awakening after heavy sleep, as much as anything else, which connected the octli gods with the waxing and waning of vegetation and the moon. The Tarascans of Cumachan also worshipped an octli god, who was believed to be lame, since he disgraced himself by becoming intoxicated in heaven, and was thrown thence to the earth. The supremacy which Tlaloc was supposed to exercise over the deities of fertility is well seen in the fact that at the great feast to the mountains four women and a man were sacrificed to him, named after five of these divinities, Matlalcue, Mayauel, Tepexoch, Xochitecatl (the two latter connected with flowers), and the male god of snakes, Milnauatl. One other goddess connected with the food-supply deserves mention here, namely Uixtociuatl, the deity of salt, who bore a certain relation to Chalchiuhtlicue.

The earth-goddesses Teteoinnan and (to a less degree) Chicome Coatl have already been mentioned, but another most important female divinity, an earth-goddess, but not associated with vegetation, was Tlazolteotl (Fig. [3, a]). This deity seems originally to have come from the Olmec, and was identified with the Huaxtec Ixcuina. She is at times identified also with Teteoinnan, and was occasionally honoured with a flaying-sacrifice, but her chief province was the superintendence of carnal sin, confession and penitence. She is shown with a black mouth and chin, a semi-lunar nose-ornament, and a cotton headband in which are stuck two spindles. The cult of this goddess was practised by the Huaxtec, Olmec and Mixtec, but not by the Chichimec or Tarascans.

We must now consider one of the most interesting and important gods of the Mexican pantheon, Tezcatlipoca (Fig. [3, e]). It is difficult to give a short, and at the same time clear, account of his manifold functions and manifestations, since there were few departments of native life with which he was not intimately connected. In the first place he was the all-powerful god of the Nahua-speaking tribes, worshipped by them in common; as such he was superior to the tribal war- and hunting-gods such as Mixcoatl and Uitzilopochtli, and in actual practice he seems to have been regarded with even greater awe. In typical form he appears with face banded with yellow and black, a shell ring breast-ornament, and a mirror from which a spire of smoke issues. This smoking mirror is his especial sign, and constitutes the rebus of his name; in it he was supposed to see all that was occurring on earth, for one of his main functions was the distribution of rewards and punishments. He bears this mirror on his head, or very often in place of one of his feet, a peculiarity explained by the idea that in his capacity of god of the setting sun he lost his foot owing to the premature closing of the doors of the underworld. Sometimes the missing foot is replaced by a stone knife, and in this manifestation he was known as Itztli, the knife-god. He is thus brought into intimate relation with the hunting deities, of whom this weapon was a symbol. Besides this, attempts seem to have been made by the various tribes to dignify their respective gods by actual identification with the supreme deity. One legend states that he became Mixcoatl, and in this personality invented the production of fire from flint. Or again, he appears under two forms, a red and a black Tezcatlipoca, and the latter is identified with Camaxtli and Uitzilopochtli. This distinction of colour recalls the yellow and black Tiripemés of the Tarascans, of whom the former was identified with Curicaveri. One of the many names of Tezcatlipoca was Yoalli Eecatl, the night-wind, and he was supposed to wander through the streets after dark in search of evildoers. Seats were placed for him at cross-roads, and a cross-road is often shown as one of his attributes in the manuscripts. When portrayed with bandaged eyes he bore the name of Itztlacoliuhqui, and presided over sin and cold.

As the god of divine punishment he was also a god of confession, and as such was associated with Tlazolteotl, while his connection with war is seen in the fact that he was regarded as the especial patron of the warrior-school, or Telpochcalli. In his dual capacity as a night- and warrior-god he was supposed to appear in all sorts of grisly shapes in order to test the courage of those he might meet. To flee from one of these phantoms was fatal, but the brave man who seized the apparition and wrestled with it until it gave him one or more spines of the maguey, was rewarded with a similar number of prisoners in his next battle. One of the forms which the god assumed on such occasions was a headless body with two doors in its chest which opened and shut, making a noise like the sound of an axe upon a tree. At the same time this deity possessed a lighter side; as Omacatl (a calendrical name, “Two Reed”) he was the god of banquets and festive entertainments, and as Tlamatzincatl he was regarded as endowed with perpetual youth. His relation to the produce-goddesses is seen in the fact that the four women given as wives to the victim, identified with the god himself, who was destined to be sacrificed at his principal feast, bore the ceremonial names of Xilonen, Xochiquetzal, Uixtociuatl and Atlatonan, the last-named being a goddess associated with Teteoinnan and honoured with a flaying-sacrifice.

Another important deity, whose relations are peculiarly difficult to unravel, was Quetzalcoatl ([Pl. VI, 2]). He was the especial god of the Toltec, inventor and patron of the arts and crafts, and originator of the calendar and priestly ritual. In studying the extremely confused legends concerned with this divinity it is important to remember two facts which have probably given rise to much misunderstanding. First that the high-priest of the god bore his name, secondly that the last Toltec king, in whose reign occurred the fall of Tulan and the scattering of the Toltec, was called Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl. The relation of this god to the Maya deity Kukulkan, whose name is an exact equivalent (quetzal = kukul, the quetzal bird; coatl = kan, snake), is discussed below (p. 226). It is said that after giving laws to the people he departed eastward, and on reaching the sea put off his feather dress and turquoise snake-mask and immolated himself upon a funeral pyre, his soul becoming the morning star; or, according to another account, he sailed away eastward, promising to return in a year of similar date. As a god of the morning star he bore the calendrical name of Ce Acatl (“One Reed”), one of the dates marking the periodical appearances of Venus. It will be remembered that we have seen a deity named Ce Acatl as a warrior-god, slaying the Mimizcoa who had killed his father Mixcoatl. But this deity is certainly not to be identified with Ce Acatl Quetzalcoatl, who was essentially a god of peace, averse to human sacrifice. Among the hunting peoples, as can be seen especially from a study of the Tarascan tribes, the morning star was a war-god, while the association of Quetzalcoatl with this planet was due to the fact that it was the regulator of the solar calendar as explained subsequently. In the second legend the promise of the god to return in a year ce acatl had very far-reaching effects. Quetzalcoatl was regarded as white and bearded, and the arrival of the Spaniards in a year bearing this date seemed to the Mexicans to possess a religious sanction which proved of inestimable service to the invaders. Indeed, but for this legend it is more than doubtful whether the almost incredible exploit of Cortés would have been successful. Quetzalcoatl is usually shown with black paint, the priestly colour, and wearing a pointed head-dress of the form associated with the Huaxtec, and hook-shaped ear pendants. As Eecatl the wind-god he bears a mask with a long snout, and a spirally marked shell breast-ornament, typifying the eddies of the wind (Fig. [4, d]). In this capacity he was associated with the rain-gods, for whom he was said to sweep the road, and in one place he is given the same title as Tezcatlipoca, Yoalli Eecatl, the night-wind. As a god of ceremonial purification he is generally shown with the bone implement for piercing the ears, sometimes stuck in his head-dress, and, as a patron of education, children were presented to him at the public school or Calmecac. His legendary connection with Tezcatlipoca is interesting. In one myth the two are mentioned as creating-gods, who raised the heavens after they had fallen upon the earth at the end of the last mythical period. In another they are shown as foes, and it is Tezcatlipoca who by his machinations drives Quetzalcoatl from Tulan. The latter story probably represents the retirement of the Toltec before the advancing waves of Nahua migration. As might be expected, Quetzalcoatl is closely associated with the peoples of the eastern coast, he wears Huaxtec dress, and the Olmec are mentioned as his children; further, he was worshipped at Tlaxcala and Uexotzinco, and especially at Cholula, cities in which the Toltec at their dispersal had settled in numbers. Cholula was in fact the centre of his worship in later times, and his great pyramid there, greater even than that of Uitzilopochtli in Mexico, was regarded with particular veneration by the surrounding peoples, even by the Aztec conquerors. One legend makes Quetzalcoatl the chief agent in the final creation of man. According to this story he goes to the underworld to fetch bones; as he returns he falls, the bones drop to earth and quails gnaw them. Finally Ciuacoatl pounds them up and makes a paste from which men are formed. The same myth shows him as the discoverer of maize, which was concealed in the mountain Tonacatepetl. All the gods were searching for it, but the way was known to the ants alone. Quetzalcoatl turns himself into a black ant, and a red ant guides him thither, but the mountain is too heavy to lift, so the god Xolotl (in his manifestation as Nanauatzin) splits it open. This god Xolotl, who will be mentioned later, is closely associated in dress and attributes with Quetzalcoatl, as also are the octli-gods, and he is sometimes given as the hero of the creation-myth quoted above. But the maize was not destined to remain the possession of Quetzalcoatl, for it was stolen by Tlaloc, to whom since that time it belongs. In many of the invocations given by Sahagun, Quetzalcoatl is mentioned as a creator-god. A peculiar point in connection with this deity is seen in the practice of professional thieves, who were accustomed to make an image of Quetzalcoatl which they carried with them when they set out to rob a house. The explanation may be sought in the fact that the wind-god was naturally typical of mutability, and so was patron of sorcery and might be supposed to aid the magical precautions taken by robbers to cast sleep upon the inmates of the house which they wished to attack, as related below. A peculiar legend accounts for the feather-work garments and mask worn by Quetzalcoatl; from two sources we learn that this god was extremely ugly, and one of them adds that when Tezcatlipoca showed him his reflection in his mirror, Quetzalcoatl was so ashamed that he adopted these aids to concealment. The other states that his image was always kept covered.

Besides Tezcatlipoca, there were also other high gods, whose functions related to creation and generation, but, like many high gods among primitive peoples, the amount of active worship paid them was relatively small. Such were Tonacatecutli and his wife Tonacaciuatl, dwellers in the highest heaven, who were said to be Toltec deities, and were identified with Ometecutli and Omeciuatl, also associated with Tulan. The creation once over, they received little direct worship, save that appeals were made to them in invocations relative to pregnancy and birth. Tonacatecutli was also identified with Chicome Xochitl (“Seven Flower,” a calendrical name), in which manifestation he appeared as a fertility-god, and Tonacaciuatl was at times likewise identified with Xochiquetzal and Chicome Coatl. Attention has already been called to the manner in which the Aztec tried to add to the dignity of their tribal god by transferring to him the functions of other deities, and it is not therefore surprising to find in one passage that Uitzilopochtli is identified with Tonacatecutli. Connected with the creator-deities are two interesting personalities, Oxomoco (male) and Cipactonal (female). These were the prototypes of all magicians, patrons of the magical arts, assistants in the creation of men and in the discovery of maize, and general advisers in the migration of the Nahua tribes. The material attributes of these personages are not clear, and it is difficult to find a pictorial representation which can be said with certainty to portray either of them. As regards Mictlantecutli, the god of the underworld, the case is quite otherwise; he is very frequently shown, and nearly always takes the form of a skeleton, often with a stone knife in place of his nose (Fig. [4, b]). Skulls and bones are his inevitable accompaniments, the owl is his bird, and his feminine partner was named Mictlanciuatl. Other elemental divinities, of rather nebulous attributes, were the sky-gods Citlalicue and Citlaltonac, who were associated with the creator-gods, the sun and the morning star; and also Yoaltecutli and Yoalticitl, night-deities, of whom the former seems to be identified with the sun and the constellation Gemini, and the latter with Teteoinnan.

Photo. Prof. Seler

Vienna Museum

1

British Museum

2

MEXICO

1. Sculptured stone vase

2. Stone Figure of Quetzalcoatl

(Scale: ¼th)

We now come to a deity of great importance, the sun, called by the name of Tonatiuh, and the calendrical name of Naui Olin (“Four Movement,” Fig. [4, e]). This god is easily recognizable by the sun-disc, set about with divergent rays, which he carries, and by his nose-ornament and long quetzal-feathers. Mexican legend recognizes no less than four previous suns, each marking a world period, and each terminating in a convulsion of nature which resulted in a universal destruction. Accounts differ as regards the order of these suns, but the authentic version is probably that which is supported by the so-called “calendar-stone” figured on Pl. [VIII, 1], and Fig. [8]. According to this version, when all was dark, Tezcatlipoca transformed himself into the sun to give light to men. This sun, known by the calendrical name of Naui Ocelotl (Four Ocelot), terminated in the destruction of mankind, including a race of giants, by jaguars. Quetzalcoatl became the second sun, called Naui Eecatl (“Four Wind”), and the age terminated in a terrible hurricane, during which mankind was transformed into monkeys. The third sun, Naui Quiauitl (“Four Rain”), was Tlaloc, and the destruction came by means of a rain of fire. The fourth was Chalchiuhtlicue, Naui Atl (“Four Water”), and mankind was finally destroyed by a deluge, during which they became fishes. The present sun, Naui Olin (“Four Movement”) is destined to conclude with an earthquake.

Fig. 6.—The moon.

(Borgia MS., Rome)

A fuller account of the birth of the historical sun runs as follows. All the gods were assembled at Teotihuacan, waiting for the appearance of the planet and performing penance. A great fire was prepared, into which, after some hesitation, the syphilitic god Nanauatzin (a manifestation of the dog-headed sun- and lightning-deity, the patron of twins, Xolotl) leaped, reappearing later as the sun. Fired by his example, Tecociztecatl leaped after him, but he failed to spring into the glowing heart of the fire and he reappeared as the moon, the surface of which is clouded with the black ashes of the pyre. A variant myth makes Quetzalcoatl cast his son into the fire to become the sun, while Tlaloc throws his son in later and he becomes the moon. The sun once created, some nourishment had to be found for him, and various gods sacrificed themselves so that he might obtain sustenance from their blood and hearts. A variant legend narrates the special creation of the Centzon Mimizcoa who by fighting might provide the sun with the necessary blood-offerings. The connection of the sun with the war-gods is therefore very close, for war in Mexico was in the main of a ceremonial nature, undertaken with the express purpose of obtaining prisoners for sacrifice, and not necessarily with the intention of inflicting mortal hurt upon the foe. It is in this sense that in a ceremonial invocation to Uitzilopochtli, the warrior-god, the deity is made to exclaim “Through me has the sun risen.” From this point of view the sun is closely connected with the souls of warriors perishing in war or on the sacrificial stone, who escorted the orb from the eastern horizon to the zenith; and also with the souls of women dying in childbirth, the female counterparts of the warriors, who accompanied it from the zenith to its setting. These female souls were deified under the name of Ciuapipiltin or Ciuateteo, and were supposed to descend to the earth on certain dates and inflict maladies on children (Fig. [3, d]). They are included under the general term of Tzitzimimé, lightning-demons, of whom Itzpapalotl was one, and whose advent to destroy the world was greatly feared during eclipses and at the end of each fifty-two-year period. Associated with the sun as escort was Xolotl, the dog-headed god of twins and monstrosities, and, in invocations, the earth-god Tlaltecutli, who, like him, was supposed to be nourished with the blood of warriors killed in fight and sacrifice. The creation of the moon, Meztli, in the person of Tecociztecatl has already been mentioned, but other deities were connected with it, especially those associated with vegetation. The waxing and waning of the moon was supposed to typify the process of nature, and the moon was supposed to exercise an influence over vegetable growth; it is even possible that the phases of this satellite may have possessed a calendrical significance before the invention of the solar year. Consequently we find the earth-goddess Tlazolteotl associated with Meztli, and also the harvest-gods, the Totochtin. Probably the connection with the Totochtin was emphasized by the fact that the Mexicans, instead of the “man in the moon,” saw the figure of a rabbit (tochtli) in the disc (Fig. [6]). Both Tlazolteotl and the Totochtin wear semi-lunar nose-ornaments, exactly similar to the outline of the moon as shown in manuscripts, which often portray it as a curved bone filled with water. A more or less constant emblem of the moon-god is a spiral sea-shell, which he bears partly in his capacity as a god of birth.

Another elemental god of great importance in domestic as well as public worship was the fire-god, known to the Aztec under the name of Xiuhtecutli (Fig. [3, c]). His worship probably dated from a very early period, and he also bore the name of Ueueteotl, “the old-old god.” Among the Tarascans, this deity was the centre of the domestic cult, and the Tepanec and Otomi worshipped him under the name of Otontecutli. Under this name he was invoked in historic times by the inhabitants of the Tepanec cities of Azcapotzalco and Tlacopan and of Colhuacan. At Xochimilco the fire-deity appears as a goddess, under the name of Chantico or Quaxolotl. Xiuhtecutli is generally shown with a horizontally-banded face (in this respect the illustration in Fig. [3, c], is not typical), and his prevailing colour is yellow. On his back he bears the fire-snake, xiuhcoatl (see Pl. [V, 2]), and a butterfly, papalotl, frequently appears in his hair. It may be mentioned that in general horizontal face-paint seems to be characteristic of the gods of the immigrant hunter tribes, the vertical of the agricultural gods of the sedentary tribes of the valley. The butterfly is closely connected with fire, since the fluttering flight of this insect was supposed to resemble the flicker of a flame. Mexican mythology is full of poetical imagery of this sort, which constitutes a welcome relief to the gruesomeness of many of their rites. The fire-god was connected with perhaps the most horrible of their sacrifices; at his most important feast the victims were cast living into a huge brazier, and dragged thence with hooks before death brought a welcome relief, to have their hearts torn from their bodies in the customary manner. An unexpected feature of this god is exemplified in the belief that he was supposed to dwell in the water. As mentioned above, Tezcatlipoca is connected with fire, in so far as he is supposed first to have produced it from flint, after assuming the form of Mixcoatl.

Besides the gods mentioned above there were a number with special functions, a few of whom may now be mentioned. Gods connected with, or invoked during, pregnancy and at birth, besides Chalchiuhtlicue, Ciuacoatl, Teteoinnan, Xochiquetzal and the creating deities, were Chalchiuhtlatonac, associated with Chalchiuhtlicue, and Ayopechtli, the goddess of birth proper, who, like Mayauel, is usually represented as seated on a tortoise. To Ixtlilton, the black god, brother of Macuil xochitl, a sacrifice was made when the child first spoke, and he was regarded as the medical god for children. Other gods, already mentioned, with medical functions were Amimitl (dysentery), Macuilxochitl, Xochiquetzal and Nanauatzin (genital affections), Tlaloc (dropsy), Xipe (skin-diseases), Cinteotl (leprosy), Tezcatlipoca and Tlauizcalpantecutli (senders of sickness), Teteoinnan (goddess of healing herbs), and Tzapotlatenan (who discovered the healing properties of turpentine). The various guilds in Mexico, constituted by members of particular trades, held special rites in honour of those gods who were supposed to preside over their daily activities. Space forbids the inclusion of a complete list, since most can be identified from the details given above. One god however deserves especial mention, Yacatecutli, the god of the Pochteca or travelling merchants, who formed a guild of enormous political importance as will be shown later. Every night while on a journey the merchants, who travelled in companies, burnt incense before their staves which, fastened in a bundle, represented his image, and elaborate rites were held in his honour before their departure and on their return. He was associated in worship with Coyotlinauatl, the god of the guild of feather-workers who inhabited the quarter of Amantlan, which was conterminous with the quarter of the Pochteca. Finally a peculiar god, whose function, other than calendrical, is indeterminate, may be mentioned; the bear-headed Tepeyollotl, the “heart of the mountain,” a cave-god. He is often shown with Tezcatlipoca’s mirror, and may be a manifestation of that omnipresent deity.

Such were the principal gods worshipped in the Mexican valley at the time of the conquest; there were many minor deities also, but sufficient has been said to give some idea of the Mexican pantheon, and to indicate its composite nature. Most of the gods were supposed to dwell in supernatural regions such as Tlalocan, the eastern paradise and home of Tlaloc which has already been mentioned, and Mictlan, the underworld and home of Mictlantecutli, which consisted of nine spheres in the lowest of which was a ninefold stream. Above were thirteen heavens, in the first of which were certain planets, in the second the Tzitzimimé, in the third the Centzon Mimizcoa, in the fourth birds, in the fifth fire-snakes (comets) created by the fire-god, in the sixth winds, in the seventh dust, in the eighth the gods. The rest were reserved for Tonacatecutli and his consort, whose especial home was the thirteenth and highest heaven.

The elements of Mexican religion then are twofold, and consist of three classes of supernatural being, each bearing a direct relation to the mode of life of their especial worshippers. These consist of the rain- and fertility-deities of the agricultural peoples; the stellar war- and hunting-gods of the nomadic tribes who were regarded in the light of personal leaders; and the omnipotent creating-gods, such as Tonacatecutli and Tezcatlipoca, common to both. The tribal gods of the nomadic peoples seem to partake of the nature of fetishes in their original forms, and to have been evolved from the “medicine bundles” familiar to the student of North American ethnography. The more cultured section of the first immigrants, who separated from the main body and departed eastwards, are represented as taking with them their god and leader, whose image was kept veiled in cloth; and allusion has already been made to the statement that Quetzalcoatl’s image was in early days kept similarly covered. Moreover a legend dealing with the Aztec migration states that at an early stage of their wanderings two bundles appeared miraculously in their camp, each of which was appropriated by a section of the migrants. In one was found a jewel, and its possessors finally became the inhabitants of Tlaltelolco, while the other contained fire-sticks (continually associated with hunting and stellar deities), and fell to the eventual inhabitants of Tenochtitlan. Further evidence of the fetish nature of such gods is seen in the stories which tell of struggles between different tribes for the possession of a certain god. Thus we have the story of the capture of the god of the immigrant hill-hunters by the sedentary population around lake Pazcuaro in Michoacan; and the seizure by the Chichimec of the two-headed deer of Camaxtli which was his war-fetish. The same idea survived in the provision by the Mexicans within the temple precincts of a prison-house where the idols of conquered tribes were kept in durance; and it was no doubt based upon the belief that once a people was deprived of the god who was its personal leader, its prestige and power must necessarily vanish.

The worship of so many deities involved a cult of no little elaboration, and it must be remembered that apart from the festivals which were observed universally, each tribe, each province, each quarter in Mexico, each guild (often the remains of a former tribe), and each family were punctual in the observance of various domestic and private rites; and though most of the literature which has come down to us is concerned with the national worship, yet no doubt the domestic cults, for the most part unchronicled, were regarded by the individual as of greater importance, from the point of view that they had a more direct bearing upon his personal prosperity.

Naturally the worship paid to the divine powers varied very greatly in nature according to the mental and cultural status of the worshippers. Many of the myths are extremely crude, and evidently the product of a very low stage of civilization; but on the other hand, many of the prayers given by Sahagun show a high degree of spirituality. The existence of a professional priesthood carefully trained in astronomy and letters, together with the natural bent of the American mind towards poetic imagery, fostered the evolution of beliefs among the more educated which no doubt differed as much in quality from the superstitions of the populace as those of the higher classes in Peru or in India. Rites which in appearance were crude and savage possessed for the adept a symbolic and esoteric meaning which transformed, even if it did not entirely excuse, their barbarity. Symbolism is the keynote of American ritual, and it is this symbolism which makes the religious manuscripts so difficult of interpretation.

Though practically all the supernatural powers were personified in human form, yet traces are found of more direct worship of nature in Tlaxcala, where, according to Motolinia, altars were erected to trees, and four altars might be found arranged round a spring. Indications of tree-worship were also found among the Mixtec who were said to make offerings to the shadows of lofty trees. In Oaxaca, among the Mixtec and Zapotec, traces of a different kind of religion make their appearance. It is true that here too (in parts of the Mixtec territory) we have immigration legends, pointing to the supposition that a portion of the population came from the north; but other, and probably older, myths exist which narrate the birth of the human race from trees, rocks and wild beasts. Myths of this nature are far more typical of Peru as a whole than of Mexico and Central America. Another peculiarity of Mixtec and Zapotec worship is the great number of cave-temples, many of them so holy that they became centres of pilgrimage. Some of these shrines were oracular, and one of them, at Achiutla, held such a high reputation that Montecuzoma sent an embassy to consult it at the coming of the Spaniards. Human sacrifice was practised by both these tribes, though to a far less extent than by the Mexicans, the heart of the victim being held to the lips of the idol of stone or wood. Traces of lake-worship also occur, another point in common with Peru and Colombia, in so far as at Tecomastlahuaca (immediately S.E. of Cuicatlan) was a sacred lake into which the bodies of victims were thrown; and at Teotitlan was a celebrated idol which was said to have descended from heaven in the form of a bird in the midst of a luminous constellation, a myth which would seem to have certain Maya affinities, as will be seen later. At Cuilapa in the Zapotec country was current a creation legend not unlike some of the Mexican ætiological myths. According to this the creator and his progeny bore calendrical names, and these semi-deities built their palaces on a huge rock on the summit of which was a copper axe, with the edge upwards, supporting the heavens. This preliminary age was terminated by a great deluge, after which the creator repeopled the world with the human race.

CHAPTER III—MEXICO: THE CALENDAR AND CALENDRICAL FEASTS

Mexican ritual was so closely connected with the elaborate calendar that some explanation of the latter is necessary before it is possible to give an intelligible description of the various rites and ceremonies by which the favour of the gods was sought. The origin of this calendar is obscure, and can only be discussed in relation to the Maya calendar, with which it is obviously connected; so it will be best to leave this question to a later page, stating here only that in Mexico it was supposed to be the invention of Quetzalcoatl, and transmitted to the Nahua peoples through the agency of the two prototypes of magicians, Oxomoco and Cipactonal. The Mexican calendar is twofold, and comprises a ritual calendar, with a round of 260 days, which was employed in divination and for the fixing of certain “movable feasts,” and a solar calendar, with a round of 365 days, according to which the seasonal feasts were held. The method of naming the individual days was the same for both, and consisted in the combination of twenty pictorial signs (Fig. [7]) with the numbers one to thirteen. The signs were as follows (see Appendix I):

1. Cipactli. The head of a monstrous animal, identified now with the alligator, now with the sword-fish, and appearing in the manuscripts sometimes with legs and sometimes with fins. According to legend, the earth was created from the primordial cipactli, and the irregularities of the earth’s surface are due to the scaly prominences on the animal’s back. The date 1. cipactli is given as that of the creation, and the sign is especially associated with Tonacatecutli and fruitfulness.

2. Eecatl. The head of the wind-god; typifying instability.

3. Calli. A house, implying rest; associated with Tepeyollotl.

4. Quetzpalin. A lizard, associated with the rising of the water and fertility; also with a god Ueuecoyotl (the “Old Wolf”).

Fig. 7.—Mexican day signs.

• a. cipactli.
• b. eecatl.
• c. calli.
• d. quetzpalin.
• e. coatl.
• f. miquiztli.
• g. mazatl.
• h. tochtli.
• i. atl.
• j. itzcuintli.
• k. ozomatli.
• l. malinalli.
• m. acatl.
• n. ocelotl.
• o. quauhtli.
• p. cozcaquahtli.
• q. olin.
• r. tecpatl.
• s. quiauitl.
• t. xochitl.

(Fejérváry-Mayer MS., Liverpool)

5. Coatl. A snake, typifying poverty and homelessness; associated with Chalchiuhtlicue.

6. Miquiztli. The head of Mictlantecutli, an unlucky sign.

7. Mazatl. The head or hoof of a deer; unlucky because the deer typifies timidity; associated with Tlaloc.

8. Tochtli. A rabbit, good luck and fertility; associated with Mayauel.

9. Atl. Water, unlucky, typifying floods and death; associated with Xiuhtecutli.

10. Itzcuintli. A dog (sometimes the ear only is shown), rank and riches; associated with Mictlantecutli.

11. Ozomatli. A monkey, implies cleverness and craftsmanship, combined with instability; associated with Xochipilli.

12. Malinalli. Grass, sometimes shown as a jaw-bone with grass hair, unlucky; associated with Patecatl.

13. Acatl. A reed, implying emptiness; associated with Itztlacoliuhqui.

14. Ocelotl. An ocelot (sometimes the ear only is shown); success in war and love, but suggesting a death by sacrifice (the typical death of a warrior). Associated with Tlazolteotl.

15. Quauhtli. An eagle, implying courage in war; associated with Xipe.

16. Cozcaquauhtli. A vulture, signifying old age; associated with Itzpapalotl.

17. Olin. A sign emblematical of movement (used also to signify an earthquake). Variable in fortune, and associated with Nanauatzin.

18. Tecpatl. A stone knife, the emblem of drought and sterility, associated with Tezcatlipoca.

19. Quiauitl. The head of Tlaloc, emblem of rain; an unlucky sign.

20. Xochitl. A flower, implying good craftsmanship; associated with Xochiquetzal.

These signs ran consecutively in the order given above, one being assigned to each day, and the series was repeated ad infinitum. Conjointly with them were repeated the numerals 1 to 13; e.g. 1. cipactli, 2. eecatl, 3. calli, and so on to 13. acatl, which was followed by 1. ocelotl, 2. quauhtli, and so forth. There being no common factor to the numbers 13 and 20, a period of 13 × 20 days, or 260, would elapse before the sign 1. cipactli would recur. This period of 260 days constituted the ritual and divinatory calendar, known as the tonalamatl. The tonalamatl was subdivided in various ways; in some manuscripts each of the twenty thirteen-day periods, or “weeks,” is shown separately, together with the figure of a god who was especially associated with the first day, but whose influence was supposed to extend over the whole “week.” The deities presiding over the successive “weeks” of the tonalamatl are given in one MS. (Vaticanus A) as follows, the date preceding the name of each being that of the first day of each “week.”

• 1. cipactli, Tonacatecutli.
• 1. ocelotl, Quetzalcoatl.
• 1. mazatl, Tepeyollotl.
• 1. xochitl, Ueuecoyotl.
• 1. acatl, Chalchiuhtlicue.
• 1. miquiztli, Tonatiuh.
• 1. quiauitl, Tlaloc.
• 1. malinalli, Mayauel.
• 1. coatl, Tlauizcalpantecutli.
• 1. tecpatl, Tonatiuh.
• 1. ozomatli, Patecatl.
• 1. quetzpalin, Itztlacoliuhqui.
• 1. olin, Tlazolteotl.
• 1. itzcuintli, Xipe.
• 1. calli, Itzpapalotl.
• 1. cozcaquauhtli, Xolotl.
• 1. atl, Chalchiuhtlicue.
• 1. eecatl, Chantico.
• 1. quauhtli, Xochiquetzal.
• 1. tochtli, Itztli.

There is however some variation in the assignment the week-gods, e.g. Sahagun gives 1. miquiztli to Tezcatlipoca, 1. acatl to Quetzalcoatl, 1. tecpatl to Uitzilopochtli, etc. Within the weeks, many individual days were associated with certain deities, such as 4. olin and 12. itzcuintli with the sun, 5. itzcuintli and 6. quetzpalin with Mictlantecutli, but for a list of these the reader may be referred to Sahagun. Apart from the signs of the days themselves, the presiding deities of the weeks, and the gods of the individual dates, the numerical signs also possessed a lucky or unlucky connotation. Three and four were good numbers, five and six generally bad, seven always good, eight and nine bad, ten, eleven, twelve and thirteen good. Consequently the diviner was obliged to take into account all these possible influences, which in many cases might be contradictory, in considering the fortune attached to a particular day. In some MSS. the tonalamatl is arranged on a different system, viz. in five long horizontal rows of fifty-two days each. Each row, and each vertical column of five days, is provided with a presiding deity or symbol, the influence of which must be assessed. Nor have we yet come to an end of the factors which must be taken into consideration, but before proceeding it will be necessary to explain the solar calendar.

The Mexicans reckoned 365 days to the solar year, which they divided into eighteen months of twenty days each, and a nineteenth period of five days, considered extremely unlucky, at the end of the year. As the days were known by their tonalamatl names, it is obvious that the first 115 days of the year recurred at the end. But it was possible to distinguish between two days of the same name which fell in the same year, owing to the fact that each day was associated with one of a series of nine deities, called “lords of the night,” a series also repeated ad infinitum, save that no “lord” was assigned to any of the five unlucky days at the end of the year, which were called nemontemi or “useless days.” Thus, since the number 260 is not divisible by 9, it was possible to differentiate between two days of the same name falling in one year; and since 9 goes into 360 without remainder, the commencement of the year coincided with the commencement of the series of “lords of the night.” These lords of the night are indicated by the heads or symbols of the following gods: 1. Xiuhtecutli, 2. Itztli, 3. Tonatiuh, 4. Cinteotl, 5. Mictlantecutli, 6. Chalchiuhtlicue, 7. Tlazolteotl, 8. Tepeyollotl and 9. Tlaloc. Nor is this all, a corresponding series of thirteen “lords of day,” which however is not similarly composed in all MSS., accompanied the days (omitting the nemontemi), and the influences of the day- and night-lord assigned to each day respectively constituted two additional features for the consideration of the would-be interpreter of the tonalamatl. It is perhaps hardly necessary to state that the reading of the book of days was in the hands of a professional priesthood and required much study to perform correctly.

Since each “month” consisted of twenty days, and there were twenty day-signs, it is obvious that each month in a given year began with the same sign; but since the last month was followed by the five unlucky days, it follows that each year began with a day-sign five days later than the last. Also since 365 is divisible by 13 with 1 as remainder, it follows equally that each year began with a day-number one in advance of the last. Further, since there were twenty day-signs, and five (the least common multiple of 365 and 20) goes into twenty exactly four times, the year began with one of four signs only. Now the year was always distinguished by the sign of the day on which it began, and it is a peculiar fact that the commencement of the year never coincided with the commencement of the tonalamatl. The four signs which give the names to the years are the signs tecpatl, calli, tochtli and acatl, recurring in that order. Whether the day-number entering into the name of the year was that of the first day, as held by most authorities, or of the first day of the fifth month, as Seler tries to prove, need not be discussed here; the fact remains that the years were named successively, 1. tecpatl, 2. calli, 3. tochtli, and so on, until, after a period of fifty-two years (13 × 4), the same sign occurred again with the same number as the name-date of the year. This period of fifty-two years constituted the shorter cycle of the Mexicans, the longer cycle consisting of twice that number; but before proceeding further it will be necessary to say something about the months (see Appendix II).

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

MEXICO

Stone quauhxicalli (vase in which the hearts of victims were deposited)

2. Stone quauhxicalli in the form of an Ocelot

(Scale, 1, ⅙th: 2, ¹⁄₃₀th)

The third month, Tozoztontli, began on March 14th, and is signified in MSS. by the figure of a maize-goddess. It was a month of first-fruits; children were sacrificed to Tlaloc, and the first flowers were offered in Xipe’s temple, after which ceremony, but not before, their perfume might be inhaled by mortals. The flower-sellers also held a festival in honour of Coatlicue, and those who had provided victims for the sacrifices during the preceding month, discarded the skins which they had worn until now.

The fourth month, Uei tozoztli, beginning on April 3rd, is also represented by the figure of a maize-god, and the presiding deities were Cinteotl and Chicome Coatl. The ceremonies observed concerned the maize-plant, which was used to decorate the altars and temples, while the selected heads destined to be used as seed were offered by young maidens to the above divinities. A peculiar offering was made to the household images of the harvest-god, consisting of baskets of produce, each surmounted by a cooked frog which bore on its back, in a miniature basket, specimens of each of the varieties of grain which composed the offering.

The fifth month, Toxcatl, beginning on April 23rd, was symbolized by a figure of Tezcatlipoca, and was the occasion of the feast which has so often been described; at which a young man, identified with the god, was sacrificed to him after a year spent in the enjoyment of every luxury that Mexican civilization could afford. The identification of the victim with the god was a frequent feature of Mexican sacrificial ceremonies, and may have been based on the idea, found in many other parts of the world, that, just as the earthly representative of the deity was never allowed to attain old age, so the youthful vigour of the divinity remained unimpaired throughout the years. It may be remarked in this connection that one of the chief characteristics of Tezcatlipoca was perennial youth. A similar, though less important, ceremony was held in honour of Uitzilopochtli in this month.

The sixth month, commencing on May 13th, was called Etzalqualiztli. It was symbolized by a figure of Tlaloc, and ceremonies took place in honour of the Tlaloque. Aquatic plants were gathered by the priests for the manufacture of mats on which the offerings were placed in the shape of small balls of flour-paste; great care was necessary in setting out the latter, since if one rolled, the movement was taken as a sign that the officiating priest had infringed some law, and he was severely punished. When the priests set out to gather the reeds, they were permitted by custom to rob any passer-by whom they might meet; they joined in a ceremonial bath in the lake, imitating the motions and cries of aquatic birds, and finally offered a number of human victims who were adorned in the dress and ornaments of the rain-gods. During these ceremonies severe punishment was inflicted upon priests who had broken any ceremonial rule during the year.

In Tecuiluitontli, the seventh month (June 2nd), typified by the figure of Uixtociuatl, the festival of this, the goddess of salt, was held. Flowers played a large part in the ceremonies, and the sacrifices consisted of a woman, identified with the goddess, and a number of captives.

Uei tecuiluitl, the eighth month (June 22nd), was devoted to Xilonen, and the figure of a noble (or of Xochipilli) appears as its symbol. During the festivals, large distributions of provisions were made by the rich, since this season was wont to be one of scarcity, for as yet it was not lawful to make use of the new crop of maize. Special features of the ceremonials were a dance by accredited warriors clad in all their insignia, and the sacrifice, in the temple of Cinteotl, of a woman dressed as the goddess. The victim was taken by one of the priests on his back, and in that position she was decapitated, and her heart offered. The chicauaztli or rattle-staff, a rain-charm, played a prominent part in the ceremonies, which were essentially of the nature of a removal of a tabu from the maize-crop.

Tlaxochimaco, the ninth month (July 12th), was symbolized either by a figure of Uitzilopochtli or of a mummy; and on this occasion the god appeared in benevolent guise. The festival was a flower-feast, and quantities of blossoms were collected to be offered as first-fruits to the god. It comes as a welcome relief to note that no human victims were offered during these ceremonies, which must have afforded a spectacle of great beauty.

The tenth month, Xocouetzi (August 1st), however, made up in gruesomeness for the simplicity of the last. A festival was held in honour of Xiuhtecutli, the figure of a mummy appearing as symbol, and the terrible fire-sacrifice mentioned on p. 53 was made. A feature of the proceedings was the erection of a lofty pole, surmounted by a figure of the god made of flour-paste, and the final ceremony consisted in a contest on the part of the young men to swarm up the pole and reach the figure, the victor being entitled to certain rewards and insignia. Both the last two month-festivals had a certain connection with honours paid to the dead. During the latter the Tlaxcalans especially performed rites in memory of deceased warriors and princes.

Ochpaniztli, the eleventh month (August 21st), was symbolized by a figure of Teteoinnan, in whose honour the ceremonies were held. A woman, dressed as the goddess, was decapitated by a priest of Chicome Coatl, and flayed, the skin from her thigh being made into a mask for the priest of Cinteotl; she was not told of her fate, since it was of great importance that she should not weep. Sacrifices were also made to Uitzilopochtli, and the proceedings included a battle of flowers and the distribution by the king of military rewards and insignia. The skin-mask worn by the priest of Cinteotl was finally deposited on a hostile frontier, and the occasion was often marked by a skirmish with the foe who lay in wait for the escort.

Teotleco, the twelfth month (September 10th), symbolized by a figure of Tezcatlipoca, was signalized by a feast in honour of all the gods, who were believed to have left the country for a season, and were now about to return. Tezcatlipoca, the god of perennial youth, was believed to arrive in advance of the rest, while Yacatecutli and Xiuhtecutli came a day after the main body; the former because, as the god of travelling merchants, he might be supposed to have wandered further afield, the latter because he was essentially the old god, and could not be expected to travel so fast. For the arrival of the main body, a heap of maize-meal was prepared by a priest, who visited it at intervals until the mark of a footprint announced the arrival of the holy travellers; this was the signal for universal rejoicing. A large amount of octli was consumed, this proceeding being termed “washing the feet of the gods.” The festival terminated with the burning alive of a number of slaves.

Tepeiluitl, the thirteenth month (September 30th), ushered in the festival in honour of the mountain-gods, and was signified by the figure of a mountain with the head of Tlaloc. Numbers of snake-figures of wood (emblems of the lightning) were prepared, as well as images of the mountains in meal-paste, and certain victims, identified with fertility-deities were sacrificed to Tlaloc. The festival was held partly in honour of those who had perished by drowning or the lightning stroke, or by some other death which necessitated burial as opposed to cremation.

In Quecholli, the fourteenth month (October 20th), was held the festival of Mixcoatl, whose figure appears as its symbol. A strict fast was observed, during which large numbers of arrows were made, which were offered in bundles of twenty to Uitzilopochtli. Miniature arrows were deposited on the graves of the dead, and, on the tenth day, a great communal hunt was organized, on the mountain called Zacatepec, in which various surrounding tribes joined. A victim, the representative of the god, was offered to Mixcoatl, and a number of slaves to Tezcatlipoca; some of the latter being carried up the temple steps bound hand and foot like captive deer.

Panquetzaliztli, the fifteenth month (November 9th), ushered in the great feast of Uitzilopochtli, whose figure is shown as its emblem. The proceedings were symbolical in part of the mythical fight between this god and his hostile brothers, the Centzon Uitznaua, since a great ceremonial combat was organized between the slaves destined as sacrifices. In this one party represented the god, the other the Uitznaua, and a great figure of the Xiuhcoatl, the mythical weapon of Uitzilopochtli, figured later in the proceedings. During the fight, the image of Paynal made a rapid ceremonial tour of certain temples, and the sacrifice which terminated the festival was accompanied by music.

In the sixteenth month, Atemoztli (November 29th), the first rains usually appeared in the mountains (according to Sahagun, but see footnote on p. 65), and sacrifices were offered to Tlaloc, who appears as the symbol. Figures of the mountain-gods were made from meal-paste, and these were “sacrificed” with a weaver’s sword.

The seventeenth month, Tititl (December 19th), was symbolized by a figure of Ilamatecutli, whose representative, a woman, was sacrificed in the ordinary way in the temple of Uitzilopochtli, though her head was immediately removed, and carried by the officiating priest in the ceremonial dance which followed.

The last month, Izcalli (January 8th), was dedicated to Xiuhtecutli, whose portrait appears as emblem. Various land and water animals were captured by children and young men, who gave them to the officiating priest to cast into the sacrificial fire before the god. Human sacrifice was offered only every fourth year, and the ears of children born in the interval were pierced in the presence of the god.

The remaining five days of the year, called Nemontemi, were regarded as extremely unfortunate. No work was done, and the people went out as little as possible, for an evil omen encountered during this period was regarded as doubly unlucky. In particular every attempt was made to avoid quarrelling and dispute, and the time was one of general inaction.

The feasts of the solar calendar have been detailed at some length in order to give an idea of the nature of Mexican religious practice, and to show to what an extent religious observances entered into the life of the people. Those who desire fuller particulars will find them in Sahagun’s great work. Space forbids a description of the various ceremonies relating to certain individual days of the ritual calendar or tonalamatl, but that performed on the day 4. olin, sacred to Tonatiuh, deserves short mention. A prisoner, in merchant’s dress, was taken to the shrine called Quauhcalli and set upon a large stone carved with the image of the sun. Standing thus he declaimed a message to the god, with which he had been entrusted, and was forthwith stripped of his ornaments and sacrificed upon the stone itself. Seler conjectures that the famous so-called “calendar-stone” in the Mexican museum is the stone to which reference is made in this account. This magnificent specimen of the Mexican stone-mason’s art is figured on Pl. [VIII, 1], and a schematic drawing is seen in Fig. [8]. The outer band of decoration is formed by two fire-snakes, each with a human face in its mouth. At the top, in a square cartouche, is the glyph 13. acatl, the date of birth of the historical sun (see p. 51). The day-signs in order form an inner ornamental band, and in the centre is a large olin glyph, accompanied by the number 4, and with a sun-face in the middle. Within the arms of the olin are sculptured the calendrical names of the four previous suns, and in the interspaces are the glyphs 1. tecpatl, the sign used for the name of Montecuzoma, 1. quiauitl, and 7. ozomatli, the significance of which has not yet been satisfactorily explained. Outside the day-signs are seen the pointed emblems which typify the rays of the sun, which enter also into the glyph by which the Mexicans expressed the meaning “year” (Fig. [86, l]; p. 356).

Two other special festivals connected with the solar calendar call for mention. The first of these occurred every eight years, in the month of Quecholli or Tepeiluitl; it was called Atamalqualiztli, and during it only bread and water were consumed, with the intention of letting other food-products rest. An image of Tlaloc was set up, and the worshippers performed a ceremonial dance clad in various animal costumes. An interesting feature of the ceremonies was the following: In front of the image of the god was a tank of water, containing frogs and snakes. A number of men called Mazateca, perhaps inhabitants of the Mazatec district, tried to seize one of these animals in his mouth, without using his hands, and having succeeded, continued to dance with it in his teeth. The custom has a strange resemblance to the snake-dance performed by the Pueblo Indians up to the present time.

Fig. 8.—Key to the “calendar-stone” figured on Pl. VIII, 1.

PLATE VIII

Photo. C. B. Waite

Mexico Museum

1

British Museum

2

MEXICO

1. The “Calendar Stone”

2. Stone figure of an Octli god

(Scale: 1, ¹⁄₅₀th; 2, ⅙th)

Fig. 9.—Priests making new fire.

(Zouche MS., British Museum)

The other festival was that which occurred every fifty-two years, when the year-date 2. acatl recurred. The occasion was considered as especially dangerous to mortal men, since it was feared that the sun might fail to rise, and the Tzitzimimé demons would descend from the first heaven to destroy mankind and so bring about the end of the world. The principal feature of the ceremonies was the production of new fire by means of the ceremonial fire-sticks (Fig. [9]), and it was upon the successful performance of this operation that the rising of the sun was supposed to depend. On the eve of the new year all fires were extinguished, and the priests started in procession to the top of the mountain Uixachtlan, outside Mexico, timing their arrival just before midnight. At midnight, which was calculated by observation of the Pleiades, the high-priest of the Calpulco quarter of Mexico, kindled the new fire on the breast of a prisoner, who was sacrificed immediately after in the usual manner. Representatives of the surrounding cities were present, and torches lit at the new fire were rapidly carried to the chief temples in each city, where the populace awaited their arrival in the greatest anxiety. From the temples the fire was distributed all over the city, and universal rejoicings hailed the commencement of a new era and the deliverance of the world from universal destruction. Old garments were discarded, and all household utensils were broken or freshly painted in token of the new lease of life given to mankind. A peculiar custom in connection with these ceremonies is seen in the fact that women expecting to become mothers, and young children, were made to assume masks of maguey leaves, and the former were shut up in the granaries. It was feared that women in this condition might become monsters and devour their relations, and that the children might be turned into mice, especially if they were allowed to fall asleep. New fire was also made at the dedication of a new temple, or the completion of a new house.

The employment by the Mexicans of a solar year of 365 days brings us to the question whether they at any time intercalated any day or days to make their year square with real solar time. It is quite obvious that a people, most of whose feasts were connected with agriculture, were bound to notice that their festivals gradually failed to correspond with the seasons, and many conjectures have been made regarding the methods which they might have used to rectify their calendar. It must be confessed however that there is no direct evidence that days were ever intercalated in the latter, and Seler has shown that at any rate between the year of the conquest, and the date of Sahagun’s writing, some forty years, no intercalation had been made. Moreover the confusion into which the calendar had fallen at the beginning of the sixteenth century seems to be evidence against the practice. It is quite possible that when the discrepancy became too great a new start was made, and it may be that the five “suns” typifying the five ages of the world really represent five attempts to establish a calendar. The sun was not the only body the observation of which served as a check upon the calendar. The planet Venus was also of the greatest importance, and its synodical revolution was closely connected with the 104-year period which constituted the longer cycle of the Mexicans. This revolution occupies practically 584 days, and consequently five such revolutions are equal to eight years of 365 days. Since 20 when divided into 584 leaves a remainder of 4, it is obvious that the commencement of a Venus-period will fall always on one of five of the twenty day-signs. Further, since 13 when divided into 584 leaves a remainder of 12, it is equally obvious that each successive Venus-period will open with a day of which the numerical sign is one less than that of the preceding period. In several of the MSS. we have the Venus-periods set out in the order in which they occur, viz. on the days cipactli, coatl, atl, acatl and olin; 1. cipactli being followed by 13. coatl, the latter by 12. atl, and so forth. It can be seen that 65 Venus-periods must elapse before the same sign occurs in conjunction with the same number at the commencement of a period, and this amounts to 104 years of 365 days, viz. the longer cycle of the Mexicans. It seems most probable that the Venus-period was utilized as a means of correcting the 365-day year, and I am even inclined to believe that observation of this planet was practised before the institution of the solar calendar. But I shall recur to this point when the subject of the Maya calendar is discussed; meanwhile it is worthy of note that the signs of the two last “suns” are atl and olin, signs which occur as the commencing-days of Venus-periods; that the historical sun was supposed to have been born on 13. acatl; and that the new fire ceremony always took place in the year 2. acatl. Though the morning star played such an important part in the regulation of the calendar, it was not regarded altogether as a beneficent deity, possibly because of its association with war and sacrifice among the hunting peoples. However that may be, its light when it first rose was considered to exercise a baneful effect upon mankind, and chimneys were carefully stopped up to prevent the rays from entering the houses. The cult of Venus was especially practised at Teotitlan and Tehuacan, where the priests had the reputation of being great calendrical experts. A human sacrifice was performed at the first rising of the star, and offerings of blood and incense were made daily until it commenced to decline. A tradition existed also that the planet was supposed to “shoot” certain classes of individuals in certain signs, and it is interesting to note that in manuscripts the deity in whom it is personified, Tlauizcalpantecutli, is constantly shown hurling darts at other gods and certain animals.

Connected with the calendar was the peculiar regard which the Mexicans paid to the “world-directions.” The points of the compass were known by the following names: east, Tlapcopa; north, Mictlampa; west, Ciuatlampa; and south, Uitzlampa. To these a fifth, the central point, was generally added, and, in some cases, the directions up and down. With the east were associated all years with the acatl sign, the paradise Tlalocan, the colour yellow, and the gods Tonatiuh and Itztli. With the north, tecpatl-years, the underworld Mictlan, the colour red, the god Mictlantecutli. In the west was the home of the female deities, especially the earth- and fertility-goddesses, and with it were associated the calli-years and the colour blue. To the south belonged the tochtli-years, the colour white and the god Tlaloc. With the centre the figure of Xiuhtecutli, the god of the hearth-fire, is constantly associated. Other gods are associated also with the four quarters, but the MSS. are often contradictory. The day-signs were divided as follows:

East: cipactli, acatl, coatl, olin, atl.

North: ocelotl, miquiztli, tecpatl, itzcuintli, eecatl.

West: mazatl, quiauitl, ozomatli, calli, quauhtli.

South: xochitl, malinalli, quetzpalin, cozcaquauhtli, tochtli.

In the MSS. the quarters are often typified by four trees, each springing from the body of the earth-goddess, with a bird perched amidst its branches, and accompanied by the five day-signs belonging to the quarter which it represents (Fig. [10]). In Oaxaca, where the 52-year cycle was also observed, the years were assigned in groups of thirteen to the quarters. Those belonging to the east were supposed to be fertile and healthy; those to the north, variable; those to the west, good for mankind but bad for crops; while those to the south were thought to be characterized by excessive heat and drought.

Fig. 10.—The Tree of the West.

(Borgia MS., Rome)

Among the Tarascans too were found gods associated with the world-directions, and, as will be seen later, among the Maya also. The association of the underworld with the north by the Mexicans is interesting as exemplifying a tendency found amongst primitive peoples all over the world. The original home of the Mexicans lay to the north, and consequently it was to the north that departed spirits took their way, just as in Polynesia and Melanesia the disembodied souls were supposed to leap into the sea and disappear in the direction whence their forefathers had arrived.

It is therefore particularly interesting to note that among the Mixtec and Zapotec two spots were pointed out as the entrance to the underworld, and that each of these spots lay in the actual territory inhabited by these tribes respectively. The Mixtec believed that the gate to the region of departed spirits was situated at Chalcatongo, and the place was regarded as a burial-ground of peculiar sanctity. While the Zapotec believed that their sacred city Mitla (or rather Lyobaa, Mitla being the Nahua name) stood on the site of the approach to the spirit-world. This belief, together with the peculiarities in religion mentioned in the last chapter, points to the existence among the population of a large element which may be called indigenous in so far as its beliefs were probably evolved locally and before the advent of the Nahua tribes in Mexico, by contact with whom they were so strongly affected in later years.

In Mexican ceremonial constant attention was paid to the world-directions, and the victim’s blood was often sprinkled, and incense offered, in the four directions of the compass.

It will not be necessary to say many words on the subject of Mexican ritual, since much can be gathered from the description of the various feasts given above. In early times human sacrifice seems to have been far from prevalent, and the Chichimec were reputed to have made offerings only of animals and produce until they came into contact with other tribes. But according to the “Annals of Quauhtitlan,” human sacrifice had already made its appearance under the Toltec régime. The first rite of this nature is said to have been the offering of children to Tlaloc in 1018, while the arrow-sacrifice was introduced from the Huaxtec country in 1058, and the flaying-sacrifice in 1063. But the arrow-sacrifice is mentioned elsewhere at a very early stage of the Nahua migration, in connection with the earth-goddesses. Once introduced into the valley of Mexico, the practice of making human offerings became more and more prevalent, until we find the number of individuals slain during the four-day ceremonies at the dedication of the great temple to Uitzilopochtli by Auitzotl given in two manuscripts as twenty thousand (see Fig. [12]; p. 87). The Tezcocan ruler Nezahualcoyotl is said to have forbidden it, and later to have limited it to prisoners of war, but at the time of the conquest it showed no signs of abatement, and Bernal Diaz is constantly referring to the sacrifices which he and his companions were compelled to witness. Spaniards taken prisoner in the hostilities with the Mexicans were invariably devoted to death, and the same chronicler relates the grisly discovery in a temple at Pueblo Morisco of the remains of two of his compatriots, where Sandoval found two “faces which had been flayed, and the skin tanned like skin for gloves, the beards left on, and they had been placed as offerings on one of the altars.” The hides of four horses were found at the same place. But terrible as such rites may seem to us, it may be taken as certain that they were regarded almost with equanimity by the Mexicans. Death by sacrifice was considered the normal death of a fighting man, and ensured entrance to the paradise of the Sun. Instances occur where men have deliberately demanded death on the sacrificial stone, notably the king Chimamalpopoca is said to have made arrangements for his own immolation, clad in the insignia of Uitzilopochtli. Or again, the Tlaxcalan general Tlahuicol, captured by the Mexicans, who refused his freedom at the hands of Montecuzoma, and subsequently even the rank of general in the Mexican army, and was so persistent in his demands for death on the gladiatorial stone that it was at length granted him. The very cannibalism which, to a limited extent, formed the occasional sequel to human sacrifice, becomes divested of much of its horror when it is remembered that the rite was, in essentials, an act of communion with the deity, with whom the victim was identified. Instances of this identification have been mentioned, and it has been said that the victim, especially he who was condemned to die by the gladiatorial sacrifice, was clad in the insignia of the old stellar war- and hunting-deities, Mixcoatl and the Morning Star, insignia which are often borne by Uitzilopochtli and the earth-goddesses. The ornament, which was regarded as that typical of the sacrificial victim, was the following: the body and face were painted white with yellow stripes, lips and chin red, and across the eyes was the black “mask” seen in the figures of the star-gods. The hair was covered with down, and the victim carried arrows and a sword tipped and edged with the same material, which also appeared in five bunches on his shield (Fig. [12]; p. 87).

The act of communion with the god is seen in the many festivals at which an idol of the deity was made of some edible substance, later to be eaten by the worshippers. This custom was followed also by the Totonac.

PLATE IX

British Museum

MEXICO

• 1. Censer of Cholula Ware
• 2. Pottery figurine; Coatlicue. Mexican valley
• 3.  „  head from Teotihuacan
• 4–5. „  heads of warriors. Mexican valley
• 6.  „  figurine; Xochiquetzal. Mexican valley

MAYA

7–11. Pottery figurines from graves in British Honduras

(Scale: 1, ⅐th; 2–6, ⅜ths; 7–11, ¼th)

Fig. 11.—Totonac stone relief, from Huilocintla, near Tuxpan.

Human sacrifice was of course reserved for the more important feasts, the offerings on lesser occasions consisting chiefly of incense, quails and the worshipper’s own blood. Incense, mixed with tobacco, was offered on every occasion, and the incense-pouch is shown in the MSS. as the invariable accompaniment of priests. It was consumed in pottery braziers (Pl. [IX, 1], and Figs. [4, e], and [36, 1], pp. 36 and 185), and visitors of great distinction were greeted by censing, a compliment which was continually paid to the Spaniards on their first arrival. Blood drawn by the worshipper from ears, tongue, arms or legs, was offered on most occasions, and this rite was invariably performed as an act of penance every time that he wished to attain ceremonial purity. The usual implement was a spine of the aloe, which, covered with blood, was offered to the god, but implements of bone were also employed, especially for piercing the ears. An elaboration of this ceremony consisted in passing rods through the tongue, and at the principal festival, in March, to Camaxtli at Tlaxcala, the chief priest was supposed to pass no less than 405 specially prepared rods through that organ, the other worshippers being satisfied with a smaller number. This performance is well illustrated in a relief from Huilocintla in the Totonac region (Fig. [11]), which bears a distinctly Mayan appearance, and, as will be seen later, the Maya themselves were much addicted to the practice. Upon the proper periodical observance of this penitential act, accompanied by ceremonial fasting, the Mexican believed his material prosperity, to a great extent, to depend. By this means a person born on an unlucky day might avert much of his destined ill-fortune, while a man born under a lucky sign would forfeit by neglect the prosperity which it promised. Fasting played a very important part in all ceremonies preliminary to religious festivals, and was a condition of ritual purity; it consisted in partaking of but one meal a day, of abstinence from flesh and octli, and of rigid continence. Penitential acts and fasting, together with the making of offerings to certain gods, were prescribed by the priests of Tlazolteotl for those who made confession before them. The fact that confession was practised by the Mexicans was especially striking to the Spaniards, and most of the early writers make some comment upon the ceremony. The penitent approached the priest and signified his desire to confess, and the priest consulted the tonalamatl to find a propitious day for the occasion. When this arrived, sacrifice was made to Xiuhtecutli by casting offerings into a fire specially kindled for the purpose, and after an invocation to Tezcatlipoca, uttered by the priest, the penitent made confession of his faults seated before the latter, whom he regarded as the representative of the god. Sahagun states that small offences alone were confessed by the young, and that it was only the elders who made acknowledgment of serious sins, for it was believed that pardon could only be granted once for a particular fault. Absolution, however, was complete, and seems to have freed the penitent from temporal punishment. Sahagun states that in the early days of Christianity, natives would come to the monasteries to confess, and then ask for a certificate from the priests which they might show to the alcade or governor in order that their offence might be wiped out in the eyes of the temporal law also. Before confession the penitent took an oath to tell the truth, by touching the ground with a finger which he licked. This was the customary manner of swearing, and the action was usually accompanied by the words, “In the name of the Sun, in the name of our lady the Earth, I swear so-and-so, and in ratification thereof I eat this earth.” This action was termed “eating the earth in respect for the gods,” and was performed each time a temple or shrine was entered.

CHAPTER IV—MEXICO: WRITINGS, PRIESTHOOD, MEDICINE AND BURIAL

So many of the manuscripts have a religious or calendrical significance, that it may be as well to say here a few words about the Mexican system of writing. The Indians of the North American plains had evolved a sign-language, by means of which, under limitations, a silent conversation could be carried on; further, they were in the habit of recording events by painting figures and scenes on hide, or weaving them in their wampum belts. The Mexican system was a little more advanced; though events were expressed by the actual depiction of the scenes, yet many of the details were purely symbolical, and names were expressed by a figure or combination of figures which constitute a rebus. Thus the name of the king, Itzcoatl, was written as a snake (coatl) bristling with obsidian knives (itztli); the town of Tochtepec, by a rabbit (tochtli) on a mountain (tepetl); that of Tenochtitlan, by a stone (tetl), on which grows a cactus plant (nochtli), the syllable tlan being a place-termination.

Fig. 12.—Detail from the historical portion of the Telleriano-Remensis MS.

To the left, the date 7. tochtli, accompanied by glyphs expressing the death of Tizoc and the accession of Auitzotl. To the right, the date 8. acatl, with glyphs showing the dedication of the great temple to Uitzilopochtli, and the sacrifice of 20,000 prisoners.

To express numbers, as far as the calendar was concerned, since no figure higher than 13 occurred ordinarily, a dot was put for each unit. There was also a special period-sign meaning a year (Fig. [86, l]; p. 356, usually combined with the day-sign from which that particular year took its name), and another for the period of 52 years, called xiuhmolpilli, or “sheaf of years.” As, however, there was no subsidiary sign by which one xiuhmolpilli could be differentiated from another, the reader is obliged to infer from the context the cycle to which a particular year belongs. In the numeration of objects, as in the tribute-lists, higher numbers are expressed by special symbols. The Mexican numeral system was vigesimal, and hence the first special sign was that for 20, a religious banner. 20 × 20, or 400, was expressed by a tree; and 20 × 400 by an incense-pouch (see Fig. [12]). In certain portions of some manuscripts we find the lower numbers simplified by the employment of a bar to mean five. These MSS. present other features which are not typically Aztec in character, and it may at once be said that the use of the bar to express five was universal in the Maya countries, and extended in pre-Aztec times right up through the Zapotec country (e.g. Monte Alban) and Cuernavaca (Xochicalco) to the Mexican Valley (Island of Xico).

In the historical MSS. we have the year-signs in order accompanied by certain figures symbolical of important events. A temple in flames with a place-name attached signifies the conquest of a town; the sign olin, an earthquake; a smoking star, a comet; and so forth. In Fig. [12] appears a small portion of the manuscript known as Telleriano-Remensis; two year-dates are shown, of which the first, 7. tochtli, is accompanied by two figures, a mummy-pack with the name of Tizoc, and a seated man with the name of Auitzotl. This signifies the death of the king Tizoc, and the enthronement of his successor. Accompanying the next year-date, 8. acatl, is a picture of the great temple to Uitzilopochtli, beneath which is a smoking fire-stick, and the name-sign of Tenochtitlan. The group signifies the dedication of the great temple at Mexico, since new fire was always made at the opening of a newly-constructed building. At the side are two figures clad in the livery of prisoners destined to the gladiatorial stone, each with his name; these represent two important prisoners sacrificed on that occasion, and below them is a number, reading 20,000, the number of the victims sacrificed during the inaugural ceremonies.

The nature of the calendrical manuscripts has been explained in chapter III, and it will therefore not be necessary to say more about them, except that most, if not all, of the surviving examples seem not to be pure Aztec work. Some are rather in Zapotec style, while others may have been produced at Teotitlan or Tehuacan on the Mixtec border, where the priests were especially skilled in calendrical lore; of others again the place of origin may be Chiapas. Of great interest are the tribute-lists, of which the best, known as Codex Mendoza, gives the imperial revenue in the time of Montecuzoma, together with a list of the tributary towns; the glyphs, in Fig. [18], p. 118, are taken from this manuscript. Again, the ownership of land was carefully noted on maps, territory belonging to the king, the nobles, and the calpulli (or clans) being marked in different colours; and plans of towns are also found, that shown in Fig. [13] in all probability representing the palace at Tezcoco. Similar documents were prepared for legal procedure, and at the landing of the Spaniards manuscripts were taken to Montecuzoma on which were carefully noted the portraits of the leaders, together with pictures of ships, horses, dogs and cannon.

Fig. 13.—Plan of the palace at Tezcoco.

(Humboldt MSS., Berlin)

Maps and manuscripts were painted on fine cloth made of aloe- or palm-fibre, paper made from the aloe, or dressed skins, the two former being coated with a kind of size. The colours were applied with a brush, which was moistened with the lips of the artist, and the designs were invariably outlined in black. A considerable variety of colours was employed, red from cochineal or log-wood; two yellows, vegetable and mineral; blue from certain flowers; white from chalk, and black from the soot of the ocotl palm. The mixing of colours was understood, and brilliant greens, purples and browns are found.

It will be readily understood that the service of so many gods and so formidable a list of religious festivals required the services of a large body of carefully trained priests. The office of priest was one which had undergone considerable evolution in Mexico, at least as far as the immigrant tribes were concerned. At first the priest was also the temporal leader; his principal duty was the care of the image of the tribal god, which he carried during the wanderings of the tribe; and since it was the god who directed those wanderings, and the priest was the sole interpreter of his wishes, it came about that the priest was also the director of the tribal policy. But once the tribe became settled, there was a tendency for the priest to become less and less a man of action, and to concentrate his energies on the elaboration of ritual and the study of astronomy. At the same time there was no sharp division between the temporal and religious authority; the king exercised many priestly functions, and the priesthood possessed enormous influence in national affairs. Priests even engaged in war, and there was a special series of insignia worn in fight by those who had distinguished themselves in battle by the capture of one or more prisoners. In Mexico itself at the head of the hierarchy were two chief priests, each of whom bore the title of Quetzalcoatl (since the god of that name was regarded as the prototype of all religious orders), and who were distinguished by the names of Totec Tlamacazqui and Tlaloc Tlamacazqui. The first was the priest of Uitzilopochtli, the second of Tlaloc; they were equal in status, and both were selected from the upper grade of religious officers in virtue of their wisdom, piety and general good character, irrespective of their birth. Subordinate to them was a minister called Mexicatl Teohuatzin, whom Sahagun terms a “patriarch,” and who acted as general overseer of ritual and of the priestly college called Calmecac. He was assisted by two other functionaries, the Uitznauac Teohuatzin and the Tepan Teohuatzin, the latter of whom shared his responsibilities as an educational officer. Beneath these dignitaries were ranked an upper grade of priests, called Tlanamacac, and a lower grade, Tlamacazqui; and finally the novices, Tlamacazton. The priests of the upper grade included a number of functionaries with special titles, who were devoted to the services of particular deities, or to the discharge of definite functions, as was the Ome Tochtzin, or overseer of the religious singers, who provided the latter with wine according to the following peculiar practice. After the singing, the Ome Tochtzin produced 303 canes, one only of which was bored throughout its length; the singers drew one each, and he who was lucky enough to hit upon the pierced cane had the sole privilege of drinking octli on that day. It is impossible to enter into details as regards these priests with special functions, and the interested reader may be referred to the work of Sahagun. The Mexican priesthood exercised very little control over the religious life of the subject cities beyond exacting the tribute necessary for the maintenance of the temples and sacrifices, and insisting on expiatory sacrifices in cases of breach of discipline (as in the case of the Totonac of Cempoala for having received the Spaniards). Subject to this very loose supervision, each city was permitted to exercise its own particular form of worship, and, as has been shown, the Aztec were always ready to adopt the worship of the gods of their neighbours. The ceremonial garb of priests in general consisted of black body-paint, sometimes with designs in ochre, and a black mantle; their hair was never cut, and the lobes of their ears were invariably torn in shreds owing to constant practice of the penitential rite of blood-letting. The black-robed priests with their long locks matted with blood and their torn ears made a great impression upon Bernal Diaz when he first met them in Cempoala. The sacrificial priest constituted an exception in so far as his garment was red, but his five assistants, the Chalmeca, wore black, and were distinguished by a headband ornamented with paper discs.

The Tarascan priests differed in several essentials from those of the Aztec. Since the office was hereditary they formed a caste, their heads were carefully shaved, and their principal insignia were a pair of golden tweezers, used for epilation, and a calabash containing tobacco, employed to produce a state of ecstasy during which they were supposed to hold communion with the gods. Among the Totonac were two high-priests consecrated to Cinteotl, who were regarded with especial veneration; they were widowers, over sixty years of age, wore garments of jackal-skins, ate no fish, and their functions were the delivery of oracles, and the preparation of manuscripts.

In Tehuacan there was an especially holy order of priests who spent four years at a time in perpetual prayer (by relays) and observed a continual fast, abstaining from meat, fish, fruit, honey and pepper, and taking but one meal a day. They were supposed to commune directly with the gods, and were held in especial estimation by Montecuzoma. But perhaps the most generally revered priest in Mexico was the priest of Quetzalcoatl at Cholula, who was regarded as the direct successor of the god, and who lived a life of particular austerity. Among the Mixtec the high-priest wore a short coat embroidered with mythological figures, and over this a garment described as a “surplice,” while his head was crowned with feathers interwoven with small figures of the gods. But one of the holiest priests was the high-priest of the sacred Zapotec city of Mitla, who was kept in retirement, for it was feared that death would seize any of the ordinary folk who might set eyes upon him. He was regarded as an inspired prophet and was supposed to hold converse with the gods.

The functions of the Mexican priesthood were manifold; apart from the general care of the temples and the maintenance of the holy fires, the priests were employed in sacrifice, divination, teaching, astronomy and the preparation of manuscripts. The ceremonial burning of incense at appointed hours absorbed much of their time, for to the sun alone this offering was made four times during the day and three times during the night. They lived in communities, under the strict supervision of their superiors and colleagues; small breaches of discipline were punished by extra performance of the penitential rite, by pricking with aloe-spines, or by midnight offerings of incense upon a mountain; more serious offences by beating, especially at the Etzalqualiztli festival, or by death. The provision of wood for the temple fires was a most important duty; in Mexico it was usually undertaken by the novices, but in Michoacan it was nominally the duty of the king, though in fact the high-priest, as his representative, saw to the matter. The education of would-be priests was a matter of great moment, and the institution at which this was carried out, the Calmecac, deserves a word of description. Parents wishing to dedicate a son to the service of the gods invited the officers in charge of that establishment to a banquet during which they communicated their desires. The child was then taken to the Calmecac and offered to the image of Quetzalcoatl, the patron of the institution, and his ears were pierced. If too young to be entered as a novice forthwith, he was for the time restored to his parents, but his necklace was left with the god, since it was believed that his soul was mysteriously attached to this ornament. At the age of seven or eight the child definitely took up his residence at the Calmecac, where his duties at first consisted in sweeping the building and preparing the black paint used by the priests from the soot of a species of pine. Later on he assisted in the collection of aloe-spines used for blood-letting, and later still in the gathering of firewood and preparation of sun-dried bricks for building (adobes). All the time he was receiving instruction in the ceremonial chants and in ritual, and learning the practice of austerities by rising at midnight to offer incense or to take a ceremonial bath, or by joining in the ceremonial fasts on appointed days. The elder novices occasionally made pilgrimages at night to a neighbouring mountain; they set out alone and nude, carrying a censer, a bag of incense, a torch, a conch-shell trumpet, and a number of aloe-spines. The latter were left at the furthest point of their journey wrapped in a ball of hay. The Tlamacazqui lived with the novices at the Calmecac, all messed and slept together, and were subject to the strictest discipline. A special duty of the Tlamacazqui was the sounding of conch-shells and drums at stated hours of the day and night. A portion of the Calmecac was reserved for girls, also dedicated by their parents to the service of the gods. They were under the charge of elderly unmarried women, and assisted in the sweeping of the temples, the tending of the fires, the preparation of food, and the manufacture of garments and ornaments for the idols. They were compelled to live in strict chastity, but their service was not necessarily life-long. Any girl when she attained a marriageable age might leave the establishment with the permission of her superiors, which was easily obtained by means of a present. In fact, many girls entered the service of religion in the hope that their devotion to the gods might be rewarded with a good husband.

An institution similar to the Calmecac existed among the Mixtec at Achiutla.

Other institutions for the religious instruction of the young of both sexes existed in Mexico, attached to various temples. The mode of life was much the same as in the Calmecac, but the discipline was not so severe.

As said before, one of the principal functions of the priesthood was the exercise of the art of divination, and the principal instrument was the tonalamatl. The priests of Tlazolteotl were supposed to be especially expert in the use of the “book of days”; the horoscopes of new-born children were invariably cast, and a favourable day selected for the baptismal ceremony (as described below, p. 160), in accordance with the various influences attached to the day of its birth. Constant recourse was had to the interpreters of the tonalamatl in almost every emergency, and practically no enterprise of importance was undertaken except upon a propitious day. But there were numerous other methods of divination, and several grades of magical practitioners. Grains of maize or red beans were commonly employed to discover the issue of a sickness. The goddess Tozi was the patroness of the professional magicians who used this means, though the casting of the grains was usually performed in the presence of a figure of Quetzalcoatl, the arch-patron of magic. Twenty grains were usually cast upon a cloth; if they fell forming a hollow circle, typifying a grave, it was believed that the sick person would die; but if so that a straight line could be drawn leaving ten on each side, the patient would recover. Or again, if they fell scattered, a fatal termination to the illness was expected; but if in a heap, health would be restored. At Tlaxcala it was a fatal sign if one grain stood up on end. Grain was also used in divination by the Mixtec, who sowed seed on the nemontemi days, and from its success or failure calculated the prospects of the year’s crop. Another method of prognosticating the chances of a patient consisted in winding a string into a knot; if it could be pulled loose, the patient would recover, otherwise his chances were small. Or again, a sick child would be held over a vessel of water, and his reflection carefully observed; if the image was dim there was small prospect of recovery. The last method of divination was employed when the sickness was supposed to be due to absence of the child’s tonalli (which may be translated “soul” or “luck”), and constitutes another instance of the belief, so common throughout the world, that the incorporeal nature of man is closely connected with his reflection or shadow. Snakes were also used in divination, especially to discover a stolen object; the suspected persons were seated in a circle, and the magician placed a basket containing a snake in the middle. The basket was uncovered, and it was believed that if the culprit were present the snake would indicate the fact by crawling to him. Scrying in a mirror or bowl of water was another method of divination widely employed in Mexico proper, and was found among the Tarascans also. At Tlaxcala a peculiar custom was observed when war was declared in order to estimate the chances of ultimate success. Two sacred arrows were carefully kept in this town, which were supposed to have been brought by the first immigrants from Tulan. These were hurled in the direction of the foe by two specially chosen warriors, and then recovered at all costs. If an enemy was wounded by one the omens were regarded as especially favourable. At Mexico the Naualli was a magical priest of a high order; he was celibate, had been trained from youth in weather-wisdom and spent much of his time in fasting and purification. He was credited with special powers, such as the assumption at will of animal form, and levitation; he acted as the general guardian of the city against sorcerers, and gave warning of approaching famine or pestilence. The belief in powers such as these became extraordinarily widespread after the conquest, and resulted in the formation of a regular cult, the members of which were called Nagual. The Nagualists were supposed to have animal familiars, whose shape they could assume, and to hold regular “witches’ sabbaths.” Many natives confessed to such practices, and the Spaniards experienced great difficulty in stamping out the cult, which had as its avowed object the elimination of Christianity, and penetrated far into Central America. The information available concerning this extremely interesting recrudescence of paganism can be found in a small book by Brinton entitled “Nagualism.”

Besides the magical priests already mentioned, there existed a class of professional conjurers, who performed various tricks, often for hire. One would have a number of puppets in a pouch which came out and danced, apparently uninspired by human agency, while another would roast maize on a simple cloth without fire. The Huaxtec were supposed to be particularly expert at such tricks, and among their feats Sahagun mentions the production from space of a spring with fishes, the burning and restoration of a hut, or the dismemberment and resurrection of the conjurer himself. The last proceeding recalls certain of the feats performed by the members of the ritual societies of the west coast of North America during the winter ceremonials. The Ocuiltec of the Toluca valley also possessed a great reputation as magicians. Various forms of domestic divination were practised, such as the springing of octli upon the hearth-fire, auguries being taken from the spluttering. But before saying a word about the popular belief in omens, it will be as well to treat very shortly the subject of sorcery. Individuals born on the days 3. cipactli and 1. eecatl were supposed to be predisposed to the practice of the black art, and days with the number nine, especially 9. itzcuintli and 9. malinalli (but also 4. eecatl), were believed to be especially favourable for their evil practices. They could transform themselves into animal shape, influence the hearts of women, inflict wasting diseases upon their enemies (as implied in one of their names, “heart-eaters”), and bring misfortune. These arts they were ready to place at the disposal of those who were prepared to pay for their services, and they often combined their trade with that of professional housebreaker. For this purpose their most powerful charm was the arm of a woman who had died in childbirth; by its means they could cast sleep upon the inmates of the house which they desired to rob, or at any rate deprive them of the faculty of speech and movement. This belief bears a strange resemblance to that once held in this country concerning the magical properties attaching to the hand of an executed criminal. They could however be kept at a distance by placing a stone knife in a bowl of water on the threshold, or thistles in the windows. A bolder method of counteracting the machinations of a sorcerer was forcibly to snatch a few hairs from his head. It was believed that if he could not recover them he was destined to die the same night, unless indeed he could steal or borrow something from the house of his assailant. Practitioners of the black art were punished by the Tarascans by blinding.

Various portents were drawn from the animal world; the cries of beasts of prey at night were supposed to forebode disaster to those who heard them, and the voices of certain birds were believed equally unlucky. The owl, so closely associated with Mictlantecutli, was especially regarded as the harbinger of ill-fortune and death, and if one of these birds perched upon the house of a sick man his demise was considered certain. It was held unlucky to encounter a skunk or a weasel, and the entry into the house of a rabbit or a troop of ants foreboded bad luck. If a certain kind of spider was found in the house, the owner traced a cross upon the ground, at the centre of which he placed the insect. If it went towards the north, the direction of the underworld, it was regarded as a sign of death for the observer, any other direction foretelling misfortune of minor importance.

Besides these superstitions there were a whole host of popular beliefs, of which only a few can be given here. Many of these were connected with food; it was customary to blow upon maize before putting it in the cooking-pot, to “give it courage,” and it was believed that if a person neglected to pick up maize-grains lying on the ground they called out to heaven to punish the omission. If two brothers were drinking, and the younger drank first, it was thought that the elder would cease to grow; and it was also believed that the growth of a child was stopped by stepping over it when seated or lying down, but that the effect could be averted by stepping back again. Young girls were not allowed to eat standing, for it was believed that they would fail to get husbands, and children were prevented from licking the grind-stone for fear they would lose their teeth. When a child lost one of its first teeth, the father or mother placed the tooth in a mouse-hole, a proceeding which was supposed to ensure the growth of the second tooth; and all nail-parings were thrown into the water in the hope that the auitzotl, a mythical water-animal which was believed to eat them, would make the nails grow. Sneezing was thought to be a sign that evil was being spoken of the sneezer, and there was a peculiar belief that the perfume of the flowers which were carried at banquets and in ceremonial dances might only be inhaled from the edges of the bouquet, since the centre belonged to the god Tezcatlipoca.

Magic played a very important part in the treatment of sickness, and many diseases were supposed to be sent by the gods, either in a malignant spirit, or as a punishment for some breach of ritual, such as violation of a public fast. The Ciuapipiltin, the souls of women dying in childbirth, were in particular supposed to be disease-bringers; they were thought to haunt cross-roads on particular calendrical dates, and to select children principally as their prey. People falling sick on the date 1. ozomatli were generally given up by their doctors as incurable victims of these malignant goddesses. Tezcatlipoca was also regarded as a giver of disease in general, though in his case sickness was a punishment for some fault. Other deities were supposed to preside over special maladies, such as Xipe over disorders of the skin and eyes, and Amimitl over coughs and dysentery. Individuals suffering from the former complaints were believed to obtain relief by wearing the skin of a sacrificial victim during the Tlacaxipeualiztli festival, while the shrine of Amimitl at Cuitlauac was sought by victims of the latter well on into Christian times. Ixtlilton presided over the diseases of children, and in the courtyard of his temple were jars of holy water used as medicine. The mountain-gods were believed to send gout and rheumatism, and sufferers made vows to erect statues to them and to the rain- and water-deities. Another medical divinity was Tzapotlatenan, a deified woman who was revered as the discoverer of the medicinal value of turpentine, while Teteoinnan was the general patroness of doctors and midwives. Certain disorders were supposed to be contracted from the natural world, e.g. by smelling or sitting on certain flowers, while others were attributed to the machinations of sorcerers. The treatment of patients offers two aspects, one of which is purely magical, the other scientific. The Mexicans had a very good knowledge of the properties of certain plants, and used them with much success, both by external and internal application. In surgery they could set bones, and Sahagun states that a badly cut nose was sewed up with a hair, and a mixture of honey and salt applied. But no doubt it was the magical aspect of medical treatment which counted most in popular estimation. The medical priest would often apply suction to the seat of pain, and then produce triumphantly from his mouth some small object, such as an obsidian knife, which he pretended to have extracted from the patient’s body. Amulets were frequently worn to banish maladies, especially in the case of children, and many ointments contained ingredients the effect of which was purely imaginary, though the massage which accompanied their application had no doubt a beneficial effect. One such medicament consisted of certain herbs, including tobacco, pounded up with the bodies of various insects, and this was also applied to the body as a protection against poisonous snakes and other wild animals. The idea that sickness could be removed by transferring it to another person was found in Mexico as in many other parts of the world; in cases of fever the image of a dog would be made of maize dough, and placed on an aloe-leaf in a pathway, and it was believed that the first passer-by would remove the malady in his heel-bones. A remedy which was of almost universal application, and which was of real value, was the steam-bath. The patient was introduced into a small brick-built chamber which had a furnace constructed at one side. Between the furnace and the chamber was a slab of the volcanic stone called tezontli, upon which water was poured to produce steam. This building was called temazcalli in Mexico, but the treatment is not peculiar to this area, being found elsewhere in America also. According to Burgoa, among the Zapotec, persons who felt themselves incurably sick would ask to be shut up in a chamber in the holy city of Mitla reserved for the bodies of sacrificial victims and captains killed in war. Here they were left to perish, secure in the knowledge that their lot in the other world would be far superior to that in this.

To the Mexicans, as to many primitive peoples, death was not an altogether abhorrent idea, being little more than an incident in the continuity between this life and the next. But the manner of death was more important, since it had a direct effect upon the fate of the soul. The most enviable lot was that of the warriors who died either in battle or in sacrifice; they were supposed to depart to the eastern paradise of the sun, where, assembled on a great plain, they greeted his rising by beating upon their shields, and escorted him on his journey to the zenith. Thence they descended to the earth in the form of humming-birds and other birds of bright plumage, and spent their time among the flowers. Women dying in war or childbirth were equally fortunate; as the counterpart of the warriors they went to the western paradise of the sun, and bore him in a litter of bright feathers from the zenith to the horizon, when they descended to earth in the form of moths.

Those who were drowned, struck by lightning, or who perished by certain diseases such as dropsy or leprosy, found a home in the terrestrial paradise Tlalocan, the home of the god Tlaloc, where food-plants and flowers flourished in miraculous fertility and summer was perpetual. Those who died of other diseases or old age were obliged to embark upon a difficult journey to Mictlan, the underworld, where the god Mictlantecutli held sway. During this they had to pass between two clashing mountains, to run the gauntlet of a great snake and a huge lizard, to traverse eight deserts and eight hills, and to encounter a wind full of stone knives. Finally, but not until the end of four years, the soul reached the great river of Hades, which must be crossed by swimming. For this the aid of a red dog was necessary, and dogs of this colour were reared in the house and killed at funerals. An interesting parallel to this belief is that current in parts of Peru, that the souls of the dead were escorted to the other world by black dogs, numbers of which were bred for this particular purpose. Though living in the underworld, the souls of the dead were not deprived of the light of the sun, since it was supposed to pass through the infernal regions during the night on its journey back to the east. The souls of infants dying still unstained by sin were believed to be received in a special paradise by Tonacatecutli, where they spent their time flitting from flower to flower in the form of humming-birds.

Fig. 14.—A. Mummy of a warrior prepared for burial.

(Magliabecchiano MS., Florence)

B. Mummy supported in the jaws of the earth-monster.

(Fejérváry-Mayer MS., Liverpool)

The question of the obsequies of the dead next arises, and we find two methods of disposal practised in Mexico, cremation and inhumation. The first of these appears to be the more characteristic of the hunting tribes, though the account of Sahagun would seem to show that the Chichimec originally practised the latter. This people were said to be extremely long-lived, and protracted ill-health was regarded as so uncanny that if a malady lasted over four or five days, the patient was killed. The Tarascans certainly employed cremation; in the case of the king, the body was laid out by the principal chiefs, who were summoned during his illness, and carried in state by night to a temple, where it was burned. A number of slaves accompanied the procession, playing on tortoise-carapaces and rattles formed of a serrated bone along which a stick was rubbed; these slaves were killed while the pyre was burning, and were buried separately behind the temple. The ashes of the king were made into a mummy-pack with a false head and mask, which was buried seated in a large urn at the foot of the temple steps facing eastward. The grave was roofed with wooden slabs, and earth was heaped upon the top. Those killed in war were also burnt with their bows before the temple, and their ashes buried in urns. Though the wilder Chichimec, as stated above, appear to have simply buried their dead, yet the early Chichimec kings in the valley of Mexico, Xolotl, Nopaltzin and Quinatzin, are said to have been burnt and their ashes deposited in urns in caves. At Teotihuacan, a site where the Toltec culture flourished for a considerable period, unburned burials are found, and it is probable, from other evidence, that cremation is not typical of this civilization. The Acolhua practised cremation and buried the ashes. The Aztec practised both forms of disposal of the dead, but cremation, which, according to the early commentator on the MS. known as Vaticanus A, they learnt from the Otomi, was the more common. The deceased was made up into a mummy-pack with quantities of paper, which was supposed to enable him to pass through the various dangers to be encountered on his journey to the underworld, and decked with appropriate ornaments (Fig. [14, a]). Water was sprinkled over his head, and a supply for his journey provided in a small vessel; his red dog (shown in the illustration) was killed, and dog and master were burnt together with various articles of personal property which might be wanted in the other world. In many cases this privilege was allowed to slaves destined for sacrifice, and they were permitted to burn their small effects before they mounted the sacrificial stone. The ashes were collected and placed in a vase or stone coffer, together with a small jewel (the lip-plug of the deceased) to serve as a “heart,” and buried. Offerings were made on the grave after twenty days’ interval, and again after eighty days. These were repeated on the annual feast of the dead for four years, after which the soul was supposed to have completed its journey. The grave, at any rate in the case of individuals of importance, was a vault lined with stone and lime. The obsequies of the king followed the same lines, but were more elaborate, and certain of his personal slaves and wives were killed to accompany him. Motolinia states that in the case of men of high rank, all the clothing which they had worn in life was buried with them. Both the “Anonymous Conqueror” and Francisco de Bologna speak of bodies being placed in the vault seated on a chair, and it is possible that the ashes were occasionally made up into a mummy-pack as among the Tarascans. However, simple inhumation was certainly practised by the Aztec, though it was usually reserved for those whose manner of death entitled them to a place in the terrestrial paradise Tlalocan. In the case of a merchant dying while away from home on a trading expedition, a figure was made by his relations at home and burnt with due ceremony. If he had been killed by a hostile people, the cremation took place in a temple-court, but if he had fallen a victim to disease, in front of his house. Merchants of the Pochteca guild of Tlaltelolco received special treatment; the body was swathed in paper, the face decorated with the red and black paint of the gladiatorial sacrifice, ornaments, including the lip-plug, were added, and the pack was attached to a carrying-frame and exposed on a mountain-top. As stated before, the souls of women dying in childbirth were deified under the name of Ciuapipiltin, and their bodies were accorded special treatment. The corpse, clad in its best garments, was borne by the husband to the courtyard of the temple dedicated to the Ciuapipiltin, where it was buried. On the way it was escorted by a retinue of midwives armed with swords, and the husband and his friends kept watch over the grave for four nights. These precautions were necessary to prevent young warriors or sorcerers from seizing the body in order to obtain the left arm, or middle finger of the left hand and the hair of the deceased. It was believed that the finger and hair, if carried in the warrior’s shield, would render the possessor invincible, while the hand was a powerful charm used by robbers to cast sleep upon the inmates of a house, as described on p. 98.

Fig. 15.—Carved stone slab from Tlacolula, Oaxaca. (After Seler)

When we come to consider the Mixtec and Zapotec, we find inhumation the rule, indeed the Zapotec abhorred cremation, considering it destructive of the soul. Nor was the method always simple inhumation, but secondary burial. The body was placed in the ground with feet to the east, and the bones were collected subsequently and placed in a vase which was deposited in a stone vault in a mound, the doorway being closed with a sculptured slab (Fig. [15]). Both peoples also employed caves to some extent as receptacles of the dead. Simple inhumation in caves seems to have been more common among the Mixtec than the Zapotec, and Burgoa writes of cave burials at Chalcatongo, supposed to be the gate of paradise, where the dead were laid out dressed in rich garments, numbers of small idols in gold, stone and wood being placed in niches in the cave-walls. The same author tells of the Zapotec kings being deposited at Mitla, in a chamber in one of the temples, clad in gorgeous ornaments and holding shield and spear. It is possible that primary burial was reserved for those of high rank.

Fig. 16.—Carved stone slab from Placeres del Oro, Guerrero.

An extremely interesting burial has been found at a place called Placeres del Oro, in the valley of the Rio del Oro, a southern tributary of the Rio de las Balsas. The chief interest of the remains here found lies in the very peculiar art of the sculptured slabs between which the bones were deposited (Fig. [16]). The walls of the grave, which was situated at the foot of a mound, were of clay hardened by fire, and of the bones themselves it is said “there is good reason to suspect that at least partial cremation of the body took place at the time this burial was made.” This is a most important point, and ought to be definitely settled by careful inspection of the bones. The site is on the debatable land between Nahua, Tarascan and Zapotec, and there are reasons, which will be given later, why I think it most probable, failing definite evidence to the contrary, that the body had not been burnt.

The fine stone coffer from the Huaxtec country shown on Pl.[ X, 2]; p. 108, is almost certainly a coffin; and in the Totonac country both cist-burial in mounds and, occasionally, well-burial are found. Traces of cremation appear to be exceptional, and confined to hill-sites inland, where they are perhaps indicative of Nahua influence.

PLATE X

HUAXTEC

1. Stone Figure; Panuco River

2.  „  Chest;  „  „

MAYA

3. Pottery Censer; British Honduras

(Scale: 1, ⅒th; 2, ⅛th; 3, ⅕th)

To speak broadly, it would appear that cremation was typical of the invading hunter-tribes, inhumation of the early sedentary peoples of the valley of Mexico. If this is so, the interment of individuals whose souls were supposed to be destined for the paradise of Tlaloc is easily explained, since that god appears to have been the deity principally worshipped by the agriculturists of the valley, and it is only natural that the form of burial characteristic of his early worshippers should be retained in such cases.

CHAPTER V—MEXICO: SOCIAL SYSTEM, WAR, TRADE AND JUSTICE

It is difficult to say with certainty what was the social organization of the wandering tribes which, one after the other, found their way into the Mexican valley, but from indications we may gather that there were two centres of authority. No doubt the principal of these was religious; most of the tribes are mentioned as being under the guidance of their god, and it may be inferred that the priest possessed tremendous influence in directing the tribal policy. If the priest were a fighting-man also, he probably became the sole leader, and it is not unlikely that this was often the case. The fighting-priest was no rarity in Mexico, and in later times there was a special set of insignia for priests who distinguished themselves in battle. But normally, it may be concluded, the tribe was led in fight by the best and most experienced warrior, whose authority was probably exercised only during military operations. As amongst practically all nomadic peoples, the heads of families probably constituted a tribal council. The Toltec, upon the ruins of whose civilization the ruder Nahua tribes established themselves, were admittedly a people of higher culture than the immigrants; and they were living a settled life under the rule of “kings” in whom the priestly aspect predominated. As has been seen above, the Toltec themselves contained an immigrant Nahua element, which presumably had imposed itself upon the prior inhabitants, but, when the later-comers arrived, material prosperity had diminished their warlike propensities, and they were known as a pre-eminently peaceful people. Probably two facts had combined to bring about this result, first that the valley was not at this early period so thickly populated as to render collision between the different cities inevitable; and second that war was not yet, as it was destined to become, the handmaid of religion. It would seem that the moral effect, upon each wave of rude invaders, of the more cultured, settled tribes whom they were destined to conquer, was enormous. Settlement, increased prosperity, expansion and conquest demanded some form of administration more elaborate than that which a general, a high-priest, and a council of elders could provide. The evolution of a complicated ritual based upon astronomical calculation provided the priesthood with too much work of a highly specialized character to leave it time to undertake temporal rule, especially as that rule now involved the superintendence of an elaborate military system. The result was that the general was replaced by a “king,” and, owing to the moral ascendancy which each earlier body of settlers exercised over its successors the first ruler selected either was himself a descendant of some previous ruling house, or received as consort a daughter of such and held his office in virtue of that alliance. So we find that when the Aztec were at Coatlichan, before Tenochtitlan was founded, they elected as leader (he does not seem to have been counted among the “kings”) Uitziliuitl, whose father was an Aztec of no particular rank, but whose mother was a daughter of the ruler of Tzompanco: while Acamapitzin, the first “king” of Tenochtitlan, was, by his mother, grandson of Coxcoxtli, ruler of Colhuacan, and might therefore lay claim to Toltec descent; also Quaquapitzauac, first king of Tlaltelolco, was son of the Tepanec ruler of Azcapotzalco. Moreover it was Toltec descent which really counted most, as may be seen in the fact that the Mexican “kings” were installed as the representatives of Quetzalcoatl. The importance of women as the channel by which rank was transmitted is obvious from the genealogy of the Mexican sovereigns. As a rule brother succeeded brother, and in any case it was only the sons of ladies of rank who were elected to the throne. Though, however, the priesthood thus became confined to the exercise of its own complicated profession, it never lost its influence upon temporal affairs. Naturally the degree to which that influence could be exercised depended to some extent upon the personal character of the king, but it was always a power behind the throne, and when the king himself had been trained as a priest, as was the case with the last Montecuzoma, it had few limits, as the history of the conquest shows. The association of the god Quetzalcoatl with the kingly office invested the ruler with a semi-divine character, and the subordination of war to religion gave the priesthood tremendous power in the direction of military policy. The power of the king, apart from his “divine right,” was based upon his offices as commander-in-chief and supreme judge, the military aspect of his position being emphasized by the fact that, from the time of Chimalpopoca, only those of the ruling family who had held the position of general were considered as candidates for the throne. In Michoacan however, though here too the king was the chief judge, it was the religious aspect of his office which predominated. The idol of the ruling class was in his especial care, and one of his most important functions was the, at least nominal, provision of sufficient fuel for the sacrificial fires. For the rest, he was supported by a hierarchy of military and religious officers similar to, but less elaborate than, that of the ruler of Mexico.

At the time of the Spanish conquest the Mexican rulers maintained an elaborate court ceremonial and their appointments were truly magnificent. Diaz describes how the lord of Tezcoco came to meet the Spaniards in a litter richly worked in green feathers, with many silver borderings and rich stones set in bosses of gold. Later, Montecuzoma arrived in a similar vehicle, and after alighting advanced supported by four high chiefs “beneath a marvellously rich canopy of green-coloured feathers with much gold and silver embroidery, and with pearls and chalchiuites suspended from a sort of bordering which was wonderful to look at.... He was shod with sandals ... the soles were of gold and the upper part adorned with precious stones.” Cloths were spread before him to tread upon, and all his suite kept their eyes lowered except the four who supported him, who were his nephews. In his palace, his antechamber was kept by a large body-guard, and even the most important chieftains, when they came to visit him, exchanged their rich mantles for garments of poor material and entered his presence barefoot. The magnificence of his service, state apartments and general entourage, his aviaries and collection of wild beasts, have often been described, and by none better than by Prescott, so that it is hardly necessary to enter into detail on this subject. Two quotations will suffice, both from eyewitnesses, one relating to the practice of smoking, the other to the dimensions of the palace. After his meal, which was served on Cholulan pottery, “there were also placed on the table three tubes, much painted and gilded, which held liquidambar mixed with certain herbs which they call tabaco; and when he had finished eating, after they had danced before him and sung and the tables were removed, he inhaled the smoke from one of these tubes, but he took very little of it, and with that he fell asleep.”

Of the palace, the “Anonymous Conqueror” writes, “Several times I entered the residence of the king, simply to see it; each time I walked about there until I was tired, nevertheless I have never seen the whole of it.” The various ornaments and ceremonial dresses of the king have been described at length by Seler, and consisted chiefly of mantles decorated with embroidery and feathers, feather back-devices, lip-plugs and necklaces of particular patterns, and the like, many of them being divine insignia or costumes adopted from other tribes by right of conquest. The list is too formidable to be included here, but two are worthy of mention. One ornament worn by royalty and high officials at festivals consisted of a band twined round the hair, to each end of which a large bunch of feathers was attached; this is shown in Fig. [17, a], where it is worn by the Tlacochcalcatl. Diaz mentions an ornament of particular interest in the words “Montecuzoma took from his arm and wrist the sign and seal of Uitzilopochtli, which was only done when he gave an important and weighty command which was to be carried out at once.” Unfortunately nothing more is known of this interesting bracelet. The most distinguishing sign of royalty was a diadem of turquoise mosaic, rising to a peak in the front, rather after the fashion of a mitre. This was known as the xiuhuitzolli, and a plainer pattern was worn by the highest rank of judges.

Fig. 17.—A. The Tlacochcalcatl in festival dress.

B. Warrior with insignia denoting that he has taken five prisoners.

(Mendoza MS., Oxford)

At the time of the conquest there were several independent states in the neighbourhood of Mexico, of which the most important were Michoacan, Quauhtitlan, Tlaxcala, Uexotzinco, Cholula and Meztitlan; the sovereigns of which held positions very similar to those of Mexico, though their courts were of course considerably less magnificent. The two other states of the Mexican confederacy, Tezcoco and Tlacopan, were similarly administered, and the court of the former was only less brilliant than that of Tenochtitlan. The Tlaxcalan state is often erroneously mentioned as a republic, but it was in fact a confederation of four cities, built, as the population expanded, in the following order: Tepeticpac, Ocotelolco, Tizatlan and Quiauitztlan. Coyoacan, Xochimilco and Chalco were always more or less in a state of revolt against Mexican authority, and must be regarded as quasi-independent; at any rate they possessed rulers of their own.

When the Mexican throne fell vacant, the nobles and principal officials of the kingdom appointed four electors, usually of royal blood, to select the sovereign from the members of the ruling family. As stated before, in normal cases the choice fell upon a brother of the late king, or on a nephew belonging to an elder branch. The kings of Tezcoco and Tlacopan also acted as electors, but probably only in name.

The election usually took place on the day 1. itzcuintli, and the candidate was conducted in silent procession, clad only in a waist-cloth, to the temple of Uitzilopochtli, where he was clothed in a robe with a design of skulls and other insignia, and offered incense to the god. The offering was repeated at other shrines, namely those of the earth-goddess, Xipe, and Tezcatlipoca, and again at the edge of the lake (probably to Tlaloc), and the king, after receiving the homage of his subordinates, retired to an apartment in the temple where he fasted for four days. At the end of this period he was escorted back to the palace, and a great feast was held. At Tezcoco and Tlacopan the rulers were elected by the nobles on similar lines, and the kings-elect were invested by the king of Mexico. In Michoacan the proceedings were similar, save that the king designated his heir during his lifetime and at once admitted him to a share in the government. At Tlaxcala, Uexotzinco and Cholula, the heir-presumptive was overwhelmed with insults to prove his patience and then taken to a temple where he spent one, or even two, years observing a strict fast and performing penance. Finally a day was fixed for the installation ceremony, which must be an uneven number of days from the date of his birth, and his time of trial was over. The final ceremony included the boring of the candidate’s nose for the reception of a gold ornament, the badge of his rank. A similar period of penance was endured by the heirs of Mixtec lords before their admission to office.

An interesting variety of government is presented by the constitution of the Matlatzinca district in the days before its conquest by Axayacatl. Here there were three chiefs, the Tlatauan, the Tlacochcalcatl and the Tlacatecutli, ranking in that order. At the death of the first, the second succeeded to his office, and was himself succeeded by the third. The vacant post of Tlacatecutli was then filled up by selection of the most capable son or brother of the deceased, or, if he had no relations, of a prominent noble. Each of these officers was supported by the tribute furnished by particular local clans, similar to the Mexican calpulli described below.

Each ruler confirmed the succession of his sub-chiefs, and they of their inferiors, but in these cases it was usually a son who inherited, failing sons, a brother, or failing brothers, a nephew. But a very large proportion of the office-holders were merely appointed for life, and their posts at their death became vacant and at the disposal of the king, though in actual fact a relation was often appointed as successor in such cases.

Fig. 18.—Various articles of tribute.

• a. Bale of cacao.
• b. Stone lip-plug.
• c. Jadeite beads.
• d. Mosaic ear-ornament.
• e. Pink shell.
• f. Amber.
• g. Salt.
• h. Cochineal.
• k. Burden-frame.
• l. Chest of maize.
• m. Ceremonial dress.
• n. Feathers.
• o. Basket of copal.
• p. Shield.
• q. Jar of honey.
• r. Bale of cotton.
• s. Textile with designs.

(Mendoza MS., Oxford)

When the Mexicans first adopted settled life, they were brought face to face with a question which they had not before been forced to consider, the land question. In the city itself land was extremely restricted, and the growing importance of agriculture led to an elaborate system of intensive cultivation of the territory around. Land was seized by right of conquest, and assigned by the conqueror to his followers. Thus we read of the Chichimec leader Xolotl giving cities to immigrant chiefs to whom he married his daughters, or whose support he wished to conciliate. In this way certain territories passed into the hands of certain great lords, who apportioned it amongst their dependents, and reclaimed it as they wished. But there was another class of landowner, probably having its origin in later times, consisting of men to whom the ruler made grants of land in return for eminent services, especially in war; such land was neither alienable nor hereditary, but lapsed to the crown at the death of the holder. Of great interest was the land held in common by the local clans, called calpulli, composed of the descendants of the different families of the invaders, and of the tribes who attached themselves to the latter in early days. The calpulli, which were twenty in number, were the offshoots of the four original tribal divisions, each of which formed a “ward” of the city at its foundation. These wards, named Moyotlan, Teopan, Aztacalco and Cuepopan, survived as administrative divisions in later times, though their functions as holders of land in common were taken over by their sub-divisions, the calpulli. They were even maintained in Spanish times, becoming transformed into the “barrios” respectively of San Juan, San Pablo, San Sebastian and Santa Maria la Redonda. Land belonging to a calpulli was inalienable, though under certain circumstances it could be let to another calpulli; it was vested in the calpulli-chiefs, whose office was nominally elective, but who in fact were usually chosen from one family. Members of a calpulli obtained land sufficient for their needs from their chief, and held it as long as they continued to keep it under cultivation, failing which their tenure lapsed. Land so apportioned was in practice hereditary, but only on these terms, and the man who changed his residence lost his holding. The clan-chiefs possessed considerable power, since they represented the calpulli in all external business, being in fact the descendants of the heads of families who formed the old tribal council, and regulated the inner life of the clan. A land system somewhat similar to that of the Mexican calpulli existed among the Mixtec in so far as land appears to have been hereditary in families but could not pass outside the local group. Below the members of the calpulli ranked certain freemen who farmed the lands of the lords on payment of a rental (in kind), and, finally, a class of serfs who were bound to the soil and probably represented the remnants of the early agricultural population. The Mexican social system therefore comprised a landed aristocracy who paid no definite taxes, but owed service to the king; associated with them was a military nobility who held lands at the king’s goodwill, and whose tenants paid royal taxes. Lower in rank were the calpulli freemen, who paid taxes in common; still lower, the tax-paying rent-holders, and finally the serfs, who paid taxes only to their feudal lords. In addition to these there was the official class, their sons and descendants, who, ranking as warriors and noble, paid no definite taxes, but contributed their personal services and formed the suite of the ruler. The office-holders were known by the generic name of Tecutli, and the positions which they occupied were essentially military in origin; four of them were placed as overseers of the four districts into which the city was divided for administrative purposes, and acted as representatives of the Tlacatecutli, or ruler. Besides these there were the judicial officials, treasurers, and a whole host of overseers, of whom the lowest in rank, as in Peru, exercised supervision over a few families only. The travelling merchants constituted a peculiar and privileged class, and will be considered later when the subject of trade is discussed. The expansion of the power of Mexico brought many other cities under its influence, and these were obliged to furnish tribute in kind, and were also liable to military service. In important cities a governor, Petlacalcatl, was placed, with a tax-gatherer, Calpixque, under him; in less important districts a governor or a Calpixque resided in the principal city, and the tribute was collected in the surrounding towns by subordinate officials. Apart from a general supervision there was very little interference with the tributary cities; the original rulers were rarely displaced, but continued to govern according to the local laws, and, with the exception that certain lands were often reserved for the use of the Mexican crown, the property of the conquered was respected. The rather loose nature of the suzerainty exercised by Mexico over its dependents made revolt a frequent occurrence, but this was hardly regarded as a drawback, owing to the ceremonial nature of war and its function in providing victims for sacrifice. Tribute was generally paid by a town or district in common, and consisted of local produce and manufactures (Fig. [18]). Produce-tribute, which was generally levied at harvest-time, was furnished by the common lands, and stored in magazines in the principal cities. Maize and other grain was contributed in large chests (Fig. [18, l]), and cotton (r), cacao (a) and pepper in bales. Of manufactured articles, textiles (s) and ceremonial costumes (m) were the most common, but the tribute-lists show a great variety. Many of the town-names in these lists cannot now be located, but their geographical position can be roughly assumed from the nature of their contributions. From Soconusco came lip-plugs, cacao, feathers and hides, from Oaxaca province, gold and cochineal (Fig. [18, h]), from the Tlalhuica, paper and pottery. Other forms of tribute were honey (q), lime, wood, salt (g), copal (o), sea-shells (e), amber (f), rubber, live eagles, copper axes, chalchiuitl beads (c), turquoise (d), swords, shields (p), and canes filled with perfumes for smoking. Tax-gatherers were received with great ceremony and respect, and the arrival of these officers at the town of Quiauiztlan, in Vera Cruz, is described by Diaz. A special apartment decked with flowers was prepared for them, together with food and chocolate; they arrived dressed in richly embroidered cloaks and loin-cloths, their hair bound up on their heads, each carrying a crooked staff and a bouquet of flowers which he smelled from time to time. The Totonac it is true complained to the Spaniards of the harshness of Mexican rule, probably referring rather to the Aztec demands for sacrificial victims. Tribute on the whole seems to have been fairly assessed, and was remitted in years of famine.

While the first step in the evolution of the Mexican constitution is marked by the election of Acamapitzin as king, in place of the old tribal council under a president, yet it was the overthrow of Azcapotzalco which gave the hegemony of the valley to Mexico, and compelled it to provide for the administration of dependent cities. A number of officials bearing titles similar to those at home were sent to Coyoacan, and definite arrangements were made with the allied states of Texcoco and Tlacopan in accordance with which the rulers of these cities became, at least nominally, electors of the Mexican kings, and placed the direction of their military policy in the hands of the latter. It was only in military matters that the two confederate states deferred to Mexico; they had their own sovereigns, their own laws and provinces, and we are told that Tezcoco exercised dominion over no less than fifteen of the last-named in the direction of the Atlantic coast. Each ruler confirmed the election of their sub-chiefs, and they of their dependents. Of the booty won by the united armies, two-fifths was taken by Mexico, two-fifths by Tezcoco, and one-fifth by the small state of Tlacopan.

The final stage in the development of the Mexican constitution was marked by the conquest of Tlaltelolco by Axayacatl, and the appointment of a governor for this suburb in place of an independent sovereign. The military basis of Mexican hegemony coloured the whole of its domestic economy, and resulted in the formation and rise of a military aristocracy in the hands of which lay practically all the executive offices in the city.

As commander-in-chief the king was of course the head of the fighting-men, and in some cases actually took the field himself, immediately after his installation, for instance, in order to procure the necessary sacrificial victims. He was supported by two principal officers, the Tlacatecatl and Tlacochcalcatl (Fig. [17, a]; p. 113), of whom the latter was a purely military functionary, while the former exercised certain administrative functions also. The same titles were borne by the chief subordinates of each of these respectively. A propitious date was awaited for the proclamation of a campaign, the day 1. itzcuintli being considered especially favourable; the hostile country was explored by spies, called Tequihua, who brought back to the king various maps and other documents containing information likely to prove of use during the operations. War was formally declared by sending weapons, down and chalk, the insignia of sacrifice, to the enemy, and the expedition set forth, on a lucky day such as 1. coatl, in a prescribed order. First marched the priests with the idols of the gods, next the Mexican veterans, followed by the less experienced; following them came the forces of Tezcoco and Tlacopan, and finally the fighting-men of allied provinces. When the forces were drawn up, new fire was made by the priests, and the attack commenced. The actual combat does not seem to have been attended by great slaughter, since the chief object of each individual fighter was not to kill his foe, but to make him prisoner. The first captives were immediately handed over to the priests and sacrificed on the spot, while those taken subsequently were carried back to the city. The ceremonial nature of war is clearly shown in the fact that rewards were conferred upon those who succeeded in capturing prisoners, in proportion to the number of their captives, but no account was taken of those who merely slew their opponents. To this fact the Spanish conquerors owed a large measure of their success, since the foe were chiefly anxious to take them alive, and rather avoided inflicting mortal injuries than otherwise. Diaz comments upon the rapidity with which the Tlaxcalans removed their wounded from the scene of action, but without understanding that the reason was to prevent them from falling alive into the hands of the enemy. The Tarascan customs were similar; in time of war the priests offered herbs and tobacco at midnight, selecting a date when the position of the stars was favourable, and denounced by name the leaders of the opposing troops. The herbs, together with eagle-down and bloodstained arrows, were taken by spies and deposited within the enemy’s territory, a proceeding which was intended as a declaration of war, but also possessed the magical significance of devoting the foe to death. A Mexican army in the field was an extremely gallant sight; the leaders and most distinguished fighters were brilliant in ornaments of gold and the feathers of tropical birds and embroidered tunics. Military insignia existed in great variety, each individual wore every decoration to which he was entitled, and the regimental and tribal standards of elaborate feather-work made a brave show. The Mexican standards consisted of an eagle and a jaguar; that of Tlaxcala was a white heron with outspread wings, and the four Tlaxcalan provinces had each their own badges, Tepeticpac, a wolf with arrows; Ocotelolco, a green bird on a rock; Tizatlan, a heron on a rock; and Quiauiztlan, a green canopy. Standards were fastened securely to the backs of certain officers, and the capture of one of them, or the fall of a general, was invariably the signal for a retreat. Diaz describes the Tlaxcalan levies as “brilliant with great devices, each regiment by itself with its banners unfurled, and the white bird, like an eagle, with its wings outstretched, which is their badge.”

Children, as a preparation for military service, were entered in one of the schools called Telpochcalli, which were under the protection of Tezcatlipoca, and there underwent a rigorous training, in part religious, which was not, however, so severe as that of the Calmecac. On first entering they were charged with the duty of sweeping the building and attending to the fires, later of fetching wood and engaging in various constructional works. During this period they took their meals in their own houses, but returned to the Telpochcalli to sleep; their amusements consisted in attending the dances, in the building called Cuicacalco, which took place between sunset and midnight. The sons of the higher officials who intended to embrace the military profession received the superior education of the Calmecac, and accompanied experienced warriors to battle in the capacity of shield-bearers. As soon as the young man was of an age to go to war, the whole of his hopes centred upon the taking of a prisoner, so that the lock of hair which he wore at the back of his neck as a sign of his noviciate might be removed. If he performed the feat with the aid of several of his companions, all were permitted to wear a side-lock instead, but if single-handed he received at the hands of the king the privilege of wearing certain body-paint and embroidered mantles of particular designs. The capture of two, three, four or more prisoners was also rewarded with special insignia (Fig. [17, b]; p. 113), with promotion in rank, and the gift of privileges including the right to wear a lip-plug of a particular pattern and to sit on a particular seat. A distinction was made according to the nationality of the prisoners captured; one or more Huaxtec were of comparatively small account, but the taking of even a single warrior of Atlixco or Uexotzinco was regarded as a great feat and received a corresponding reward. Two “orders” existed, which were conferred upon the most prominent warriors, the “eagle” and the “ocelot”; those who obtained one of these coveted distinctions were allowed to wear dresses representing the animal from which their order took its name. Other dresses and back-devices, each conferring a definite status, existed in numbers, and constituted an important item in the tribute sent by the dependent cities. If after a few fights the would-be warrior had still failed to secure a prisoner, he was disgraced, and usually retired into private life rather than continue to wear the novice’s lock, but he was for ever debarred from wearing garments of cotton or ornamenting his clothes with embroidery. Proved warriors were permitted to wear their hair in a lock on one side which they brushed so as to stand upright, while those of higher rank wore the lock above the forehead encircled by an ornamental band (see Pl. [IX, 4 and 5]).

The distinguishing weapon of the Aztec was the bow, and it was no doubt the possession of this arm which contributed substantially to their success in their fights with the early population of the valley. Manuscripts relating the wanderings of the people before they reached their final home show the Aztec, skin-clad and armed with the bow, fighting with the valley-dweller clothed in cotton and armed with the macquauitl, or wooden sword edged with obsidian. The Chichimec were also wielders of the bow, as well as the Tarascans, but this weapon was especially associated with Uitzilopochtli, who was supposed to have given it to the Mexicans, saying “All that flies on high do the Mexicans know how to hit with the arrow.” The bow was plain and of no great dimensions; the arrows were headed with fish or mammal bone or with flint or obsidian, and, to judge from the manuscripts, each had two feathers attached with the flat sides against the shaft. The macquauitl, a broad-bladed club along the edges of which were set flakes of obsidian set in resin, was carried by the ordinary soldier, and, wielded by an expert, was capable of decapitating a horse at one blow; however, it soon lost its edge. The early Nahua and the valley-dwellers seem to have employed the atlatl, or spear-thrower, rather than the bow. This implement, which is found both in North and South America, consists of a staff armed at the point with a hook, which fits into the butt of the javelin; Mexican specimens are usually provided with two rings of shell or other material near the handle through which the fingers are passed (Pl. [XVII, 1]). This appliance gives length to the arm, and enables the javelin to be hurled with far greater force than by the hand alone. While Uitzilopochtli and Camaxtli are usually shown with the bow, most of the other gods appear with the atlatl, which is often richly ornamented with feathers. The javelins were pointed as the arrows, or the ends were simply hardened in the fire; some had two or more points, and were furnished with a cord like a harpoon by means of which they could be retrieved; these were especially feared by the Spaniards. The only mention of poison is found in Burgoa who states that the Mixtec applied it to their javelins. Spears were carried by those of higher rank, and were furnished with stone heads or set with obsidian after the fashion of a macquauitl. Long spears of this pattern, with a fathom of cutting edge, were used by the Zapotec. Slings were also employed, especially by the Matlatzinca, and though bows were found among the Olmec and Huaxtec, they must have been of quite late introduction. Diaz mentions “three blow-guns with their bags and pellet-moulds,” which he saw in the treasury of Axayacatl, the blow-guns themselves being incrusted with mosaic work, but these weapons were probably used only in hunting. Quilted cotton corslets, laced up the back and forming one with the breeches, were worn as defensive armour, and, according to one of the conquerors, could only be penetrated by a good arquebus. Nobles wore cuirasses of gold plates under their feather mantles. The Mexican bucklers were small and circular, usually made of wicker with a covering of feather-work (Fig. [18, p]; p. 118) and sometimes gold plates; tortoise carapaces were also used, and among the Zapotec larger shields covering the whole body. Helmets were of wood, with hide and feather ornaments, and often represented the head of some animal, jaguar or snake, the jaws of which framed the face of the warrior (as Fig. [18, m]). The defensive armour of the Mixtec was of hide. Clubs with heads of stone or wood were employed by the Tarascans. Defensive works were not very elaborate, though we read of palisades and walls; but the cities were usually built in some position which afforded natural protection. Thus Tenochtitlan and Xochimilco were situated on small islands in lakes, while the settlements of the Tlalhuica were amidst almost inaccessible barrancas. Of the various nationalities the Aztec were undoubtedly the most warlike, followed at no great distance by the peoples of Tlaxcala and Uexotzinco. Of the peoples of Oaxaca the Mixtec, though inferior to the Aztec, were superior to the Zapotec.

In connection with the military expansion of Mexico, mention must be made of the guild of travelling merchants, or Pochteca. The Pochteca were not peculiar to Tenochtitlan; similar guilds were found in Azcapotzalco, Uitzilopochco and Quauhtitlan, but those of Tlaltelolco were by far the most famous. Membership of the guild was a valued privilege, since the merchants stood high in the royal favour; only the sons of merchants could become merchants except by permission of the chiefs. Like the other calpulli, the Pochteca were under the direction of headmen, who represented the guild in external business, but they were privileged in so far as they were exempt from agricultural labour and from the ordinary judicial system, delinquents being judged by their own headmen. They worshipped special gods, chief of whom was the deity Yacatecutli, and joined in private ceremonies of a kind, as far as can be judged, far more elaborate than those of the other guilds. To some extent it is true that the importance of the guild grew with the expansion of Mexican power, but it would be almost equally true to say that Mexican power grew with the extension of the merchants’ sphere of operations. They acted in fact as the pioneers of Mexican political influence, they penetrated fearlessly into hostile countries either openly and armed, or disguised, and for this purpose learned the speech of foreign nations. They acted as spies of the king, and in one case a body of Pochteca of Tlaltelolco were besieged in a town in Anauac Ayotlan, or the district around Tehuantepec, and, after four years, succeeded unaided in reducing the province to submission. For this deed they received special privileges and insignia from the king Auitzotl, including the right to wear lip-plugs of gold, while their captains bore military titles. At the time of the Spanish conquest these merchants made extended journeys far into Chiapas and Tabasco, and penetrated even to Guatemala. The gradual extension of their sphere of operations can be seen in the wares which they imported from time to time, and as this has a bearing upon Mexican history it is worth mention. In the reign of Quaquapitzauac, first king of Tlaltelolco, the imports were brilliant feathers from the low countries; under his successor, quetzal-feathers, turquoise, chalchiuitl and cotton textiles were added; in the next reign, lip-plugs of precious stones, gold, skins, and a greater variety of feathers were introduced; and under Moquiuix, the last king, cacao became an article of merchandise. This information is from Sahagun, who, in a later passage, states that precious stones were collected especially in southern Vera Cruz and Tabasco, and quetzal-plumes from the region around the present San Cristobal in Chiapas.

The Pochteca were careful to set out on their expeditions on a favourable day, such as 1. coatl, and before starting they made offerings to their god and the Earth; they also cut their hair and washed their heads, since custom forbade them to do either while on a journey. Their relations were also obliged to remain with head and face unwashed, except at intervals of eighty days, during their absence. They started out in a large body, merchants from various towns combining to form a caravan, as far as Tochtepec. There they divided, some going to Anauac Ayotlan, others to Anauac Xicalanco (southern Vera Cruz and Tabasco). When they returned, often after years of absence, they awaited a favourable day to enter their city, such as 1. calli, or 7. calli, when their home-coming was celebrated by a banquet and various religious ceremonies. Each merchant carried a staff, which was regarded as the image of the god Yacatecutli, and received offerings in his name. When on the march, the company of merchants at night tied their staves together, and offered incense before them, at the same time making blood-offerings from their ears and tongues.

The extraordinary facility with which nomadic hunting tribes adopt a trading profession has many parallels in Africa, where the interests of the wandering merchant are similarly guarded. Just as violence against one of the Pochteca inevitably resulted in a punitive expedition, so in times past the murder of a Bushongo trader by a Basongo Meno village would result in the extermination of the latter, and, at the present day, the death of a Badjok merchant would be similarly avenged by his compatriots. Mexican trade was for the most part carried on by means of direct exchange, and the result provides many difficulties to the archæologist. Once a town became famous for any kind of manufacture, the work of its artisans became spread far and wide, so that the discovery of objects of a particular style in a certain locality can by no means be taken necessarily to indicate that that style is characteristic of the site. Even pottery, which provides such valuable evidence in other parts, is not exempt from suspicion, since the ware of Cholula constituted an important article of export from that town. Certain articles formed a rough-and-ready currency in commerce, such as textiles and maize; cacao beans also were used as a kind of “small change,” and copper axe-blades were employed in certain localities, such as Oaxaca. More than one of the contemporary historians mention quills containing gold-dust as being utilized for the same purpose. The great market in Tlaltelolco moved the wonder of the conquerors; it is described as being three times as large as that of Salamanca, and one estimate places the daily attendance at twenty or twenty-five thousand persons. One of the conquerors gives the following picture of it. “On one side are the people who sell gold; near them are they who trade in jewels mounted in gold in the forms of birds and animals. On another side beads and mirrors are sold, on another, feathers and plumes of all colours for working designs on garments, and to wear in war or at festivals. Further on, stone is worked to make razors and swords, a remarkable thing which passes our understanding; of it they manufacture swords and roundels. In other places they sell cloth and men’s dresses of different designs; beyond, dresses for women, and in another part footgear. A section is reserved for the sale of prepared hides of deer and other animals; elsewhere are baskets made of hair, such as all Indian women use. Cotton, grain which forms their food, bread of all kinds, pastry, fowls, and eggs are sold in different sections; and hard by they sell hares, rabbits, deer, quails, geese and ducks. Elsewhere wines of all sorts are for sale, vegetables, pepper, roots, medicinal plants, which are very numerous in this country, fruits of all kinds, wood for building, lime and stone. In fact, each object has its appointed place. Beside this great market-place there are in other quarters other markets also where provisions may be bought.” Special magistrates held courts in the market-places to settle disputes on the spot, and there were market officials similar to our inspectors of weights and measures. Falsification of the latter was visited with severe punishment.