MINOR DEITIES
XOLOTL = “DOUBLE”
Area of Worship: Plateau of Anahuac.
Minor Names:
Chicuei Mazatl = “Eight Deer.”
Chicunaui Coatl = “Nine Serpent.”
Calendar Place: Ruler of the seventeenth day-count, olin; of the
sixteenth tonalamatl division, ce cozcaquauhtli.
Compass Direction: East.
Relationship: Twin brother or variant of Quetzalcoatl.
ASPECT AND INSIGNIA
Codex Borgia.—In the picture of Xolotl on the left side of the middle
lower part of sheet 55 a resemblance to Quetzalcoatl is noticeable. On
his head is the peculiar wedge-shaped Huaxtec hat, painted half-red and
half-blue, which is one of Quetzalcoatl’s characteristics. The bone
dagger symbolic of self-torture and penance, and the snail-shell
armlets he wears, are also reminiscent of Quetzalcoatl’s insignia. His
face-painting, however, differs from that usually worn by Quetzalcoatl
in Codex Borgia, as the front portion of his face is blue and the part
near the ears red. His body-paint is blue. Nor does he have a large
beard or fan-shaped nape-ornament, but is shown wearing the Wind-god’s
breast-ornament made from a sliced snail-shell. He also shows a
likeness to Quetzalcoatl in the manner in which his loin-cloth and
fillet are rounded off. As a travelling god, Xolotl is depicted in
Codex Borgia as holding a fan similar in its three-flapped wedge-shape
to that of the other peripatetic deities, except that it has a handle
shaped like a bird’s head and is seemingly composed of blue
cotinga-feathers. His travelling pack is symbolized by a flowering
tree, which he bears on his back, while his travelling staff is painted
turquoise colour, is decorated with the chalchihuitl ornament, and is
completed with a flower. In the picture to the right of sheet 36 Xolotl
presents almost a new aspect, although certain of his attributes bear
some resemblance to those which we have already observed as being
peculiar to him. He still carries a travelling-staff with a jewelled
head, but in this representation its general character is more that of
the rattle-stick. His body-paint remains the same and he retains his
blue feather fan. His pack is distinguished by a flower to serve as a
connection with the florescent tree carried by him, as described
elsewhere. In this sheet he is represented as wearing a long beard and
his face-paint in the region of the mouth is white. His face is altered
by a peculiar type of nose, which gives him a disfigured appearance.
The god of monstrosities on sheet 10 of Codex Borgia has a similar
patch of white about his mouth, resembling in shape a human hand, a
symbol which also characterizes the face-painting of Macuil Xochitl.
Elsewhere in this MS. he is represented as crooked-limbed and
blear-eyed.
Codex Vaticanus B.—In this MS. Xolotl is represented as having a dog’s
head and again appears in the garb and ornaments of Quetzalcoatl. In
Codex Borgia his ears have a rim of yellow, evidently intended to
represent dead flesh, while in Codex Vaticanus the canine character is
indicated by the cropped ears. In the nostrils is a blue plug, the
ornament of the deceased warrior, denoting that this is the dog which
accompanies his master to Mictlampa, Place of the Dead, and assists him
to swim the river which encircles it. This distinguishing plug is seen
in Codex Vaticanus, but not in Codex Borgia. The rest of the god’s
attire is exclusively that worn by Quetzalcoatl, as described in the
space devoted to that god.
Aubin Tonalamatl.—In this MS. he again takes on a canine appearance and
is clothed in many respects like Quetzalcoatl. This frequent similarity
in dress between the gods may have its origin in the diverse meaning of
the word coatl, which, besides meaning “snake,” also denotes “comrade”
or “twin.” This dog-like creature is usually portrayed as of a dark
colour, black, with the distinctive cropped ear, while in Codex Borgia
he is depicted with jaguar-claws. Xolotl has the face-painting of
Quetzalcoatl in the Mexican MSS. proper, that is in the middle front it
is yellow and black at the sides. He wears the two-coloured white and
brown (jaguar-skin) head-loop with rounded-off ends, which latter form
is also continued in the loin-cloth. Both these articles of dress he
has in common with Quetzalcoatl.
Codex Telleriano-Remensis.—Here he is depicted with Tlazolteotl’s
spindles in his hair and an ichcaxochitl of unspun cotton, as well as
the head-loop previously described. Only in this MS. is he so adorned.
The instrument of self-mortification, the bone dagger, juts out from
above his forehead, whence issues a trickle of blood, sometimes
delineated symbolically as a feather-ball string completed with a
flower, and at others represented as real blood. He grasps an obsidian
knife, which implement also projects from his mouth along with a
flower, while a copal bag is portrayed in front of him. In some MSS.,
as in Codex Telleriano-Remensis and Vaticanus A, he is represented as
wearing a mask on his girdle.
WALL-PAINTINGS
Xolotl seems to be represented on one of the wall-paintings at Mitla,
where he is characterized by the physiognomy of an animal with
projecting upper teeth. He wears Quetzalcoatl’s conical cap of
jaguar-skin and his necklace of snail-shells. The dog’s ears seem in
this place to be merged into tufts of feathers.
POTTERY FIGURES
Two small pottery figures of Xolotl found in the Valley of Mexico
insist strongly upon his animal character, but in neither of these is
the precise bestial type ascertainable. The first shows a face ending
in a blunt snout and surmounted by a kind of wig, with ear-pieces
rising on either side. What seems to be a collar of feathers surrounds
the neck. In the other he is represented as a little bear, or dog,
without clothing, but having Quetzalcoatl’s sliced snail-shell
breast-ornament. A stone head of him found in the Calle de las
Escalerillas in Mexico City on 29th October 1900 shows a blunt, almost
ape-like animal face with large powerful molar teeth, dog-like canines,
and large, sharp fangs, not unlike those with which Tlaloc was usually
represented. Incised lines represent powerful muscular development in
the region of the nose and jaws. The type is only generally and not
particularly bestial, and it would seem that it was the aim of the
sculptor to represent a ferocious animal countenance without laying
stress upon the peculiarities of any one species.
MYTHS
The most important of the myths relating to Xolotl are those given by
Sahagun and Olmos, which have already been described at length in the
chapter on Cosmogony. The Codex Vaticanus A says of him: “They believe
Xolotle to be the god of monstrous productions and of twins, which are
such things as grow double. He was one of the seven who remained after
the deluge, and he presided over these thirteen signs which they
usually considered unlucky.” The Codex Telleriano-Remensis describes
him in verbiage almost identical.
Juan de Cordova in his Zapotec Grammar writes: “When a solar eclipse
occurred then they said that the world is coming to an end, and that
the Sun-god wanted war, and that they would kill one another, whoever
was first able to do this. Likewise they said that the dwarfs were
created by the sun, and that at the time (that is during the eclipse)
the Sun-god wanted the dwarfs as his property. And therefore wherever
dwarfs or undersized persons were found in a house the people fell upon
and killed them, and they hid themselves in order not to be killed, so
that during that time few escaped from their fate.”
One of the hymns or songs given in the Sahagun MS. says of Xolotl:
Old Xolotl plays ball, plays ball
On the magic playing-ground.
NATURE AND STATUS
The Mexican game of tlachtli symbolized the movements of the moon (but
more probably of both sun and moon). This, perhaps the favourite
Mexican amusement, was a ball-game, played with a rubber ball by two
persons one at each end of a T-shaped court, which in the manuscripts
is sometimes represented as painted in dark and light colours, or in
four variegated hues. In several of the MSS. Xolotl is depicted
striving at this game against other gods. For example, in the Codex
Mendoza we see him playing with the Moon-god, and can recognize him by
the sign ollin which accompanies him, and by the gouged-out eye in
which that symbol ends. Seler thinks “that the root of the name olin
suggested to the Mexicans the motion of the rubber ball olli and, as a
consequence, of ball-playing.” It seems to me to have represented both
light and darkness, as is witnessed by its colours. Xolotl is, indeed,
the darkness that accompanies light. Hence he is “the twin” or shadow,
hence he travels with the sun and the moon, with one or other of which
he “plays ball,” overcoming them or losing to them. He is the god of
eclipse, and naturally a dog, the animal of eclipse. Peruvians, Tupis,
Creeks, Iroquois, Algonquins, and Eskimos believed him to be so,
thrashing dogs during the phenomenon, a practice explained by saying
that the big dog was swallowing the sun, and that by whipping the
little ones they would make him desist. The dog is the animal of the
dead, and therefore of the Place of Shadows. [331] Thus also Xolotl is
a monster, the sun-swallowing monster, like the Hindu Rahu, who chases
the sun and moon. As a shadow he is “the double” of everything. The
axolotl, a marine animal found in Mexico, was confounded with his name
because of its monstrous appearance, and he was classed along with
Quetzalcoatl merely because that god’s name bore the element coatl,
which may be translated either “twin” or “snake.” Lastly, as he was
“variable as the shade,” so were the fortunes of the game over which he
presided.
At the same time he seems to me to have affinities with the Zapotec and
Maya lightning-dog peche-xolo [332] and may represent the lightning
which descends from the thunder-cloud, the flash, the reflection of
which arouses in many primitive people the belief that the lightning is
“double,” and leads them to suppose a connection between the lightning
and twins, or other phenomena of a twofold kind. As the dog, too, he
has a connection with Hades, and, said myth, was dispatched thence for
the bones from which man was created.
He is also a travelling god, for the shadows cast by the clouds seem to
travel quickly over plain and mountain. As the monstrous dwarf, too, he
symbolized the palace-slave, the deformed jester who catered for the
amusement of the great, and this probably accounts for the symbol of
the white hand outspread on his face, which he has in common with
Xochipilli and the other gods of pleasure. He bears a suspicious
resemblance to the mandrake spirits of Europe and Asia, both as regards
his duality, his loud lamentation when as a double-rooted plant he was
discovered and pulled up by the roots, and his symbol, which may be a
reminiscence of the mandrake.
IXTLILTON = “THE LITTLE BLACK FACE”
Minor Name: Tlaltetecuin = “He who strikes the Earth.”
Area of Worship: Mexican Valley.
Relationship: Brother of Macuilxochitl.
Symbol: The toualli, the four balls or beads, seen in the Sahagun
MS. and in the Codex Magliabecchiano (sheet 63) as a shield-device.
Calendar Place: Day ome tochtli.
Compass Direction: South.
ASPECT AND INSIGNIA
Codex Fejérváry-Mayer.—Sheet 24: Here the god is represented opposite
Macuilxochitl. He wears on his head a white-fringed cloth, such as is
worn by Tezcatlipocâ, having on the top a bunch of downy feathers with
a crest of four plumes ending in white tips. He has a collar made of
vertebræ or animals’ claws, and on the upper arm a ring, furnished on
one of its sides with a projection tapering to a point. The body is
white and the face is painted black and white round the mouth. Seler in
his Commentary on this MS. (p. 127) thinks that the white ball or disk
covered with a radial design, and held by the god in his right hand, is
perhaps a symbol for ilhuitl (“day,” “feast”), and should be compared
with the parti-coloured, whorl-like disk which the dancer in Codex
Telleriano-Remensis (sheet L, verso 1) holds in his hand, and which
represents the sign of the eighth annual feast, the ueitecuilhuitl. The
crest worn by him, which is composed of black feathers, is the crest
embellished with quetzal-feathers and stone knives, as in the Sahagun
MS. and the Codex Magliabecchiano.
Codex Borgia.—Sheet 62: In this representation he faces the goddess
Xochiquetzal. He wears the face- and body-paint of a priest, with a
white angular patch about the mouth, sprinkled with ulli gum. His crest
is similar to that described above. The breast-ring seems to be
imbedded in a motif bearing a resemblance to the tlachinalli
fire-and-water symbol, and its significance in this place is hard to
define. From the wrists droop elaborate feather ornaments, depending
from a bracelet of stone knives. We seem to see the Dance-god in this
place in his ceremonial condition, as the ruler of the dance which
preceded human sacrifice. Sheet 64 shows him similarly attired, but
without the priest’s body-paint. He seems about to enter the
dance-house of the warriors, and a courtesan bears him company.
Codex Borbonicus.—Sheet 4: Here he is shown opposite Ueuecoytl, the
coyote god, engaged in the motions of the dance. Perhaps this position
is more eloquent of motion than any other in the Mexican MSS. In this
place he appears to be almost identified with Macuilxochitl (q.v.), to
whose statuettes in the Museo Nacional de Mexico, the figure bears a
strong resemblance.
Sahagun MS.—The face-paint is black and the god wears a feather comb
set with flint knives. He has a collar of animal claws, most of which
are those of the jaguar, and on his back he wears a wing-fan with the
sun-banner fixed on it. Round his shoulders is a paper with the
sun-signs painted on it. His feet are ornamented with bells and shells,
and he wears “sun-sandals.” On his arm he carries a solar shield and in
his hand he bears a staff with a heart.
NATURE AND STATUS
Practically all that is known regarding this god is recounted by
Sahagun, who says of him: “They made to this god an oratory of painted
planks, a sort of tabernacle, in which his image was placed. He had in
this oratory many jars full of water, and covered with plates, and this
water was called tilatl, or black water. When an infant fell ill they
took it to the temple of Ixtlilton and opened one of these jars, made
him drink it, and the malady left him. If one wished to give a feast to
the god he took his image home. This was neither painted nor
sculptured, but was a priest who wore the ornaments of the god. During
the passage he was censed with copal. Arrived at the house, he was met
with singers and dancers, which dancing is different in a manner from
ours.
“I speak of that which we call areyto, and which they call
maceualiztli. They assembled in great numbers, two and two or three and
three, and formed a circle. They carried flowers in the hand, and were
decorated with plumage. They made at the same time a uniform movement
with their bodies, also with their feet and hands, in perfect
combination and very worthy to be seen. All their movements accorded
with the music of the drums. They accompanied the instruments with
their sonorous voices, singing in accord the praises of the god to whom
they made the festival. They adapted their movements to the nature of
their songs, for their dances and their intonation varied considerably.
“The dance continued, and the ‘god’ himself, having danced for a long
time, descended to the cave where the octli was stored in jars. He
opened one of these, an operation which was known as tlayacaxapotla
(‘the new opening,’ or ‘the opening of the new’). Then he and those who
accompanied him drank of the octli. They then went to the court of the
house, where they found three jars filled with the black water, which
had been covered for four days. He who played the rôle of god opened
these, and if he found them full of hairs, dust, charcoal, or any other
uncleanness, it was said that the man of the house was a person of
vicious life and bad character. Then the god went to the house, where
he was given the stuff called ixquen, for covering the face, in
allusion to the shame which covered the master of the house.” [333]
From the foregoing it is clear that Ixtlilton was a god of medicinal
virtue, the deity who kept men in good health or who assisted their
recovery from sickness, therefore the brother of
Xochipilli-Macuilxochitl, god of good luck and merriment. His temple,
composed of painted boards, would seem to have borne a resemblance to
the hut of the tribal medicine-man or shaman. A sacrifice was made to
him when the Mexican child first spoke.
OMACATL = “TWO REEDS”
Sahagun MS. (Biblioteca del Palacio).—The regions of the forehead,
nose, and mouth are “festively” painted. He wears a feather helmet and
a crown of spear-shafts. His overdress has the cross-hatching which
usually indicates water, and is edged with red, decorated with the
eye-motif. Before him is a small shield with a plain, white surface,
its lower rim edged with white feathers or paper, and in his hand he
carries the “seeing” or “scrying” implement, that some of the other
gods, noticeably Tezcatlipocâ, possess. [334]
NATURE AND STATUS
This god appears to have been partly of a convivial nature and presided
over banquets and festivities generally. On the occasion of a public or
private rejoicing he was borne thither by certain priests. If the
banquet was suitable he praised the host, but otherwise rebuked him,
and it is said that, if irritated in any way, he would turn the viands
into hair (as did certain of the fairies of Brittany, when annoyed or
insulted). The night before a festival a cake like a large bone was
made, and this, it was feigned, was a bone of the deity himself. This
cake was eaten and octli was drunk, after which spines of the maguey
were thrust into the stomach of the idol. There can be little doubt
that, as Sahagun states, [335] Omacatl was solely and simply a god of
festivities.
CIUATETEÔ = GODDESSES
CIUAPIPILTIN = PRINCESSES
Area of Worship: Mexico.
Calendar Place: Supposed to descend to earth on initial days of
third tonalamatl quarter.
Festival: First day of ce mazatl (movable feast); ce quiauitl
(movable feast); ce ozomatli (movable feast).
Compass Direction: West.
Relationship: Frequently associated with the Uitznaua.
ASPECT AND INSIGNIA
Codex Borgia.—Sheets 47–48: Five figures here represent the Ciuateteô
and are dressed in the style of Tlazolteotl, with the fillet and
ear-plug of unspun cotton, and the golden nasal crescent worn by that
goddess and the octli-gods. In each case the eye has been gouged out
and hangs out of the socket, as with Xolotl. They wear on their heads a
feather ornament like the heron-feather plume of the warrior caste, but
consisting of five white feathers or strips of paper above a bunch of
downy feathers. At the nape of the neck the figures wear a black vessel
as their device, in which lies a bunch of malinalli grass. The upper
part of the body is naked, and round the hips is wrapped a skirt
showing cross-bones on its surface and a border painted in the manner
of the variegated coral snake. The resemblance between all five figures
is close. Only the face-, arm-, and leg-painting is different. In the
case of the first the colour is white striped with red, in the second
blue, in the third yellow, in the fourth red, and in the fifth black.
All hold in one hand a broom of malinalli grass, and in the other a
black obsidian sacrificial knife, a bone dagger, and an agave-leaf
spike, both furnished with a flower symbolic of blood. They inhale the
smoke which ascends from a black incense or fire-vessel standing on the
ground before them. A rubber ball lies in the vessel of the first
figure; with the second the vessel is replaced by a cross-way, and the
ascending smoke by a centipede issuing from the mouth of the goddess.
With the third a skeleton is seated in the dish, holding a heart in one
hand and a sacrificial knife in the other. The ascending smoke is
replaced by two streams of blood passing into the mouth of a skeleton,
one of which comes from the mouth of the figure, the other from her
right breast. With the fourth figure are represented a bunch of
malinalli grass and a variegated snake. Nothing here enters the mouth
of the Ciuateteô, but from it issues a similar snake, and another hangs
on each of her arms. Before the last figure, in the dish is perched a
screech-owl, and a stream of blood passes from the mouth of the figure
to that of the owl.
Codex Vaticanus B.—Sheets 77–79: Five figures are here also depicted
which bear a resemblance to Tlazolteotl, but are without the golden
nasal crescent. With the last four the same curling locks of hair are
seen as in the case of the Codex Borgia figures, but the first figure
is pictured with the hair bristling up on one side, as worn by the
warrior caste. The eye too is hanging out, and the headdresses and
nape-vessels resemble those in Codex Borgia. In the majority of cases
the skirt is white with two diagonal red stripes crossing each other.
Only with the first figure is it painted red with white cross-bones.
The last figure has a skirt made of strips of malinalli grass fastened
by a girdle made of a skeletal spinal column, on which is set a dead
man’s skull as back-mirror. All five wear the men’s loin-cloth besides
the skirt. They carry the symbols of sacrifice and mortification as in
the Codex Borgia, and similar incense-vessels stand before them.
MYTHS
Sahagun says of the Ciuateteô:
“The Ciuapipiltin, the noble women, were those who had died in
childbed. They were supposed to wander through the air, descending when
they wished to the earth to afflict children with paralysis and other
maladies. They haunted cross-roads to practise their maleficent deeds,
and they had temples built at these places, where bread offerings in
the shape of butterflies were made to them, also the thunder-stones
which fall from the sky. Their faces were white, and their arms, hands,
and legs were coloured with a white powder, ticitl (chalk). Their ears
were gilded and their hair done in the manner of the great ladies.
Their clothes were striped with black, their skirts barred in different
colours, and their sandals were white.” He further relates (bk. vi, c.
xxix) that, when a woman who had died in her first childbed was buried
in the temple-court of the Ciuateteô, her husband and his friends
watched the body all night in case young braves or magicians should
seek to obtain the hair or fingers as protective talismans.
NATURE AND STATUS
That the witches’ sabbath was quite as famous or infamous an
institution in ancient Mexico as in mediæval Europe is testified to by
the numerous accounts of the missionary chroniclers, which are further
corroborated by the native manuscripts. But in the days prior to the
coming of the Spaniards, it was thought of as being celebrated by the
dead rather than the living. The Ciuateteô, or haunting mothers, were
those women who had died in their first child-bed, and who, out of envy
for their more fortunate sisters and their offspring, continued to
haunt the world at certain fixed periods, wreaking their spite upon all
who were so unlucky as to cross their path. They are represented in the
ancient paintings as dressed in the garments and insignia of the
goddess Tlazolteotl, the witch par excellence, with a fillet and
ear-plug of unspun cotton, a golden crescent-shaped nasal ornament,
empty eye-sockets, and the heron-feather headdress of the warrior
caste, for the woman who died in child-bed was regarded as equally
heroic with the man who perished in battle. The upper parts of their
bodies were nude, and round the hips they wore a skirt on which
cross-bones were painted. They carried the witch’s broom of malinalli
grass, a symbol of death, and they are sometimes associated with the
snake, screech-owl, and other animals of ill-omen. The face was thickly
powdered with white chalk, and the region of the mouth, in some cases,
decorated with the figure of a butterfly. These furies were supposed to
dwell in the region of the west, and as some compensation for their
early detachment from the earth-life, were permitted to accompany the
sun in his course from noon to sunset, just as the dead warriors did
from sunrise to noon. At night they left their occidental abode, the
Ciutlampa, or “Place of Women,” and revisited the glimpses of the moon
in search of the feminine gear they had left behind them—the spindles,
work-baskets, and other articles used by Mexican women. The Ciuateteô
were especially potent for evil in the third quarter of the
astrological year, and those who were so luckless as to meet them
during that season became crippled or epileptic. The fingers and hands
of women who had died in bringing forth were believed by magicians,
soldiers, and thieves to have the property of crippling and paralysing
their enemies or those who sought to hinder their nefarious calling,
precisely as Irish burglars formerly believed that the hand of a corpse
grasping a candle, which they called “the hand of glory,” could ensure
sound sleep in the inmates of any house they might enter.
Says Sahagun: “It was said that they vented their wrath on people and
bewitched them. When anyone is possessed by the demons, with a wry
mouth and disturbed eyes, with clenched hands and inturned feet,
wringing his hands and foaming at the mouth, they say that he has
linked himself to a demon; the Ciuateteô, housed by the crossways, have
taken his form.”
From this and other passages we may be justified in thinking that these
dead women were also regarded as succubi, haunters of men, compelling
them to dreadful amours, and that they were credited with the evil eye
is evident from the statement that their glances caused helpless terror
and brought convulsions upon children, and that their jealousy of the
handsome was proverbial.
The divine patroness of these witches (for “witches” they are called by
the old friar who interprets the Codex Telleriano-Remensis), who flew
through the air upon their broomsticks and met at cross-roads, was
Tlazolteotl, a divinity who, like all deities of growth, possessed a
plutonic significance. The broom is her especial symbol, and in Codex
Fejérváry-Mayer (sheet 17) we have a picture of her which represents
her as the traditional witch, naked, wearing a peaked hat, and mounted
upon a broomstick. In other places she is seen standing beside a house
accompanied by an owl, the whole representing the witch’s dwelling,
with medicinal herbs drying beneath the eaves. Thus the evidence that
the haunting mothers and their patroness present an exact parallel with
the witches of Europe seems complete, and should provide those who
regard witchcraft as a thing essentially European with considerable
food for thought. The sorcery cult of the Mexican Nagualists of
post-Columbian times was also permeated with practices similar to those
of European witchcraft, and we read of its adherents smearing
themselves with ointment to bring about levitation, flying through the
air, and engaging in wild and lascivious dances, precisely as did the
adherents of Vaulderie, or the worshippers of the Italian Aradia.
There are not wanting signs that living women of evil reputation
desired to associate themselves with the Ciuateteô. Says the
interpreter of Codex Vaticanus A: “The first of the fourteen day-signs,
the house, they considered unfortunate, because they said that demons
came through the air on that sign in the figures of women, such as we
designate witches, who usually went to the highways, where they met in
the form of a cross, and to solitary places, and that when any bad
woman wished to absolve herself of her sins, she went alone by night to
these places, and took off her garments and sacrificed there with her
tongue (that is, drew blood from her tongue), and left the clothes
which she had carried and returned naked as the sign of the confession
of her sins.”
The temples or shrines of the Ciuateteô were situated at cross-roads,
the centres of ill-omen throughout the world. That they had a
connection with the lightning is shown by the fact that cakes in the
shape of butterflies and “thunder-stones” were offered them. But they
were also connected with baneful astral or astrological influences, and
are several times alluded to in the Interpretative Codices in this
connection. The seasons at which they were most potent for evil were
those connected with the western department of the tonalamatl, the five
days which compose the first column of the third quarter disposed in
columns of five members, ce mazatl, ce quiauitl, ce ozomatli, ce calli,
ce quauhtli.
APPENDIX
THE TONALAMATL AND THE SOLAR CALENDAR
THE TONALAMATL
A Thorough knowledge of the tonalamatl is essential in order to grasp
the fundamentals of Mexican religion, but its significance has perhaps
been heightened by the difficulties which certainly attend its
consideration. I have endeavoured to present the subject here as simply
as possible, and to keep all distracting side-issues for later
consideration and away from the main proof. Most of these, indeed, have
been created by writers who have too closely identified the tonalamatl
with the solar calendar, and have added to the obscurity of the subject
by the introduction of abstruse astronomical hypotheses which have only
a problematical connection with it. [336]
The word tonalamatl means “Book of the Good and Bad Days,” and it is
primarily a “Book of Fate,” from which the destiny of children born on
such and such a day, or the result of any course to be taken or any
venture made on any given day, was forecasted by divinatory methods,
similar to those which have been employed by astrologers in many parts
of the world in all epochs. The tonalamatl was, therefore, in no sense
a time-count or calendar proper, to which purpose it was not well
suited; but it was capable of being adapted to the solar calendar. It
is equally incorrect to speak of the tonalamatl as a “ritual calendar.”
It has nothing to do directly with ritual or religious ceremonial, and
although certain representations on some tonalamatls depict ritual
acts, no details or directions for their operation are supplied.
The original tonalamatl was probably a day-count based on a lunar
reckoning. The symbols appear to have been those of the gods or other
mythological figures. Thus cipactli was merely the earth-monster,
quauhtli the eagle, a surrogate for the Sun-god, and so on. Later the
tonalamatl lost its significance as a time-count when it was superseded
as such by the solar calendar. It then took on the complexion of a book
of augury, so that the temporal connection it had with the gods was
altered to a purely augural one. The various days thus became
significant for good or evil according to the nature of the gods who
presided over them, or over the precise hour in which a subject was
born or any act done. As in astrology, a kind of balance was held
between good and evil, so that if the god presiding over the day was
inauspicious, his influence might, in some measure, be counteracted by
that of the deity who presided over the hour in which a child first saw
the light or an event occurred.
DAY-SIGNS
The tonalamatl was composed of 20 day-signs or hieroglyphs repeated 13
times, or 260 day-signs in all. The origin of these has already been
treated of by Seler in Bulletin 28 of the Bureau of American Ethnology,
pp. 38 ff. These 260 days were usually divided into 20 groups of 13
days each, sometimes called “weeks.” To effect this division the
numbers 1 to 13 were added to the 20 day-signs in continuous series as
follow:
no. name. sign.
1 cipactli crocodile
2 eecatl wind
3 calli house
4 cuetzpallin lizard
5 coatl serpent
6 miquiztli death’s-head
7 mazatl deer
8 tochtli rabbit
9 atl water
10 itzcuintli dog
11 ozomatli monkey
12 malinalli grass
13 acatl reed
1 ocelotl ocelot
2 quauhtli eagle
3 cozcaquauhtli vulture
4 ollin motion
5 tecpatl flint knife
6 quiauitl rain
7 xochitl flower
and so on. It will be seen from this list that the fourteenth day-sign
takes the number 1 again. Each of the day-signs under this arrangement
has a number that does not recur in connection with that sign for a
space of 260 days, as is proved by the circumstance that the numbers
[337] of the day-signs and figures (20 to 13), if multiplied together,
give as a product 260, the exact number of days in the tonalamatl.
The combination of signs and figures thus provided each day in the
tonalamatl with an entirely distinct description. For example: the
first day, cipactli, was in its first occurrence 1 cipactli; in its
second 8 cipactli; in its third 2 cipactli; in its fourth 9 cipactli,
and so on.
No day in the tonalamatl was simply described as cipactli, coatl, or
calli, and before its name was complete it was necessary to prefix to
it one of the numbers from 1 to 13 as its incidence chanced to fall.
Thus it was designated as ce cipactli (one crocodile) or ome coatl (two
snake) as the case might be. Each of the 20 groups of 13 days (which
are sometimes called “weeks”) was known as a division by the name of
the first day of the group, as ce cipactli (one crocodile), ce ocelotl
(one ocelot), ce mazatl (one deer), and so on. A model tonalamatl would
thus have appeared as follows:
Ce Cipactli
(1) cipactli
(2) eecatl
(3) calli
(4) cuetzpallin
(5) coatl
(6) miquiztli
(7) mazatl
(8) tochtli
(9) atl
(10) itzcuintli
(11) ocomatli
(12) malinalli
(13) acatl.
Ce Ocelotl
(1) ocelotl
(2) quauhtli
(3) cozcaquauhtli
(4) ollin
(5) tecpatl
(6) quiauitl
(7) xochitl
(8) cipactli
(9) eecatl
(10) calli
(11) cuetzpallin
(12) coatl
(13) miquiztli
Ce Mazatl
(1) mazatl
(2) tochtli
(3) atl
(4) itzcuintli
(5) ocomatli
(6) malinalli
(7) acatl
(8) ocelotl
(9) quauhtli
(10) cozcaquauhtli
(11) ollin
(12) tecpatl
(13) quiauitl
Ce Xochitl
(1) xochitl
(2) cipactli
(3) eecatl
(4) calli
(5) cuetzpallin
(6) coatl
(7) miquiztli
(8) mazatl
(9) tochtli
(10) atl
(11) itzcuintli
(12) ocomatli
(13) malinalli
Ce Acatl
(1) acatl
(2) ocelotl
(3) quauhtli
(4) cozcaquauhtli
(5) ollin
(6) tecpatl
(7) quiauitl
(8) xochitl
(9) cipactli
(10) eecatl
(11) calli
(12) cuetzpallin
(13) coatl
Ce Miquiztli
(1) miquiztli
(2) mazatl
(3) tochtli
(4) atl
(5) itzcuintli
(6) ocomatli
(7) malinalli
(8) acatl
(9) ocelotl
(10) quauhtli
(11) cozcaquauhtli
(12) ollin
(13) tecpatl
Ce Quiauitl
(1) quiauitl
(2) xochitl
(3) cipactli
(4) eecatl
(5) calli
(6) cuetzpallin
(7) coatl
(8) miquiztli
(9) mazatl
(10) tochtli
(11) atl
(12) itzcuintli
(13) ocomatli
Ce Malinalli
(1) malinalli
(2) acatl
(3) ocelotl
(4) quauhtli
(5) cozcaquauhtli
(6) ollin
(7) tecpatl
(8) quiauitl
(9) xochitl
(10) cipactli
(11) eecatl
(12) calli
(13) cuetzpallin
Ce Coatl
(1) coatl
(2) miquiztli
(3) mazatl
(4) tochtli
(5) atl
(6) itzcuintli
(7) ocomatli
(8) malinalli
(9) acatl
(10) ocelotl
(11) quauhtli
(12) cozcaquauhtli
(13) ollin
Ce Tecpatl
(1) tecpatl
(2) quiauitl
(3) xochitl
(4) cipactli
(5) eecatl
(6) calli
(7) cuetzpallin
(8) coatl
(9) miquiztli
(10) mazatl
(11) tochtli
(12) atl
(13) itzcuintli
Ce Ozomatli
(1) ozomatli
(2) malinalli
(3) acatl
(4) ocelotl
(5) quauhtli
(6) cozcaquauhtli
(7) ollin
(8) tecpatl
(9) quiauitl
(10) xochitl
(11) cipactli
(12) eecatl
(13) calli
Ce Cuetzpallin
(1) cuetzpallin
(2) coatl
(3) miquiztli
(4) mazatl
(6) tochtli
(6) atl
(7) itzcuintli
(8) ocomatli
(9) malinalli
(10) acatl
(11) ocelotl
(12) quauhtli
(13) cozcaquauhtli
Ce Ollin
(1) ollin
(2) tecpatl
(3) quiauitl
(4) xochitl
(5) cipactli
(6) eecatl
(7) calli
(8) cuetzpallin
(9) coatl
(10) miquiztli
(11) mazatl
(12) tochtli
(13) atl
Ce Itzcuintli
(1) itzcuintli
(2) ocomatli
(3) malinalli
(4) acatl
(5) ocelotl
(6) quauhtli
(7) cozcaquauhtli
(8) ollin
(9) tecpatl
(10) quiauitl
(11) xochitl
(12) cipactli
(13) eecatl
Ce Calli
(1) calli
(2) cuetzpallin
(3) coatl
(4) miquiztli
(5) mazatl
(6) tochtli
(7) atl
(8) itzcuintli
(9) ocomatli
(10) malinalli
(11) acatl
(12) ocelotl
(13) quauhtli
Ce Cozcaquauhtli
(1) cozcaquauhtli
(2) ollin
(3) tecpatl
(4) quiauitl
(5) xochitl
(6) cipactli
(7) eecatl
(8) calli
(9) cuetzpallin
(10) coatl
(11) miquiztli
(12) mazatl
(13) tochtli
Ce Atl
(1) atl
(2) itzcuintli
(3) ocomatli
(4) malinalli
(5) acatl
(6) ocelotl
(7) quauhtli
(8) cozcaquauhtli
(9) ollin
(10) tecpatl
(11) quiauitl
(12) xochitl
(13) cipactli
Ce Eecatl
(1) eecatl
(2) calli
(3) cuetzpallin
(4) coatl
(5) miquiztli
(6) mazatl
(7) tochtli
(8) atl
(9) itzcuintli
(10) ocomatli
(11) malinalli
(12) acatl
(13) ocelotl
Ce Quauhtli
(1) quauhtli
(2) cozcaquauhtli
(3) ollin
(4) tecpatl
(5) quiauitl
(6) xochitl
(7) cipactli
(8) eecatl
(9) calli
(10) cuetzpallin
(11) coatl
(12) miquiztli
(13) mazatl
Ce Tochtli
(1) tochtli
(2) atl
(3) itzcuintli
(4) ocomatl
(5) malinalli
(6) acatl
(7) ocelotl
(8) quauhtli
(9) cozcaquauhtli
(10) ollin
(11) tecpatl
(12) quiauitl
(13) xochitl
THE DAY-GODS
Each of the day-signs of the tonalamatl was presided over by a god who
was supposed to exercise a special influence over it. These patron gods
were as follow:
Day-sign Patron God
Cipactli Tonacatecutli
Eecatl Quetzalcoatl
Calli Tepeyollotl
Cuetzpallin Ueuecoyotl
Coatl Chalchihuitlicue
Miquiztli Tecciztecatl
Mazatl Tlaloc
Tochtli Mayauel
Atl Xiuhtecutli
Itzcuintli Mictlantecutli
Ozomatli Xochipilli
Malinalli Patecatl
Acatl Tezcatlipocâ (or variant)
Ocelotl Tlazolteotl
Quauhtli Xipe
Cozcaquauhtli Itzpapalotl
Olin Xolotl
Tecpatl Tezcatlipocâ (or variant)
Quiauitl Chantico
Xochitl Xochiquetzal
There are slight divergencies from the standard list in some of the
codices, but such are usually accounted for by the interpolation of
variant phases of the deities given. Illustrations of these signs will
be found in the several codices.
GODS OF THE “WEEKS”
Each of the 20 tonalamatl divisions, or “weeks” of 13 days each, as
they are sometimes erroneously but usefully designated, had also a
patron god of its own which ruled over its fortunes. The initial days
of these “weeks” gave the name to the entire “week,” therefore the
designation of the 20 weeks was the same as that of the 20 day-signs;
but the “weeks,” or rather the week-names, did not follow each other in
the same incidence as the days, as will be seen from the foregoing
table. The patron gods of the 20 weeks were, however, the same as those
of the 20 days, with this exception, that whereas the gods of the first
10 day-signs were taken also as the rulers of the first ten weeks,
[338] the god of the eleventh day, Xochipilli, was allowed to drop out,
the god of the twelfth day, Patecatl, taking his place, the god of the
thirteenth day taking the twelfth place, and so on, the deficiency in
the twentieth place being made up by adopting Itztli and Xiuhtecutli as
joint gods of the twentieth “week.” The list of gods of the “weeks”
would thus be as follows:
1 Ce cipactli Tonacatecutli
2 Ce ocelotl Quetzalcoatl
3 Ce mazatl Tepeyollotl
4 Ce xochitl Ueuecoyotl
5 Ce acatl Chalchihuitlicue
6 Ce miquiztli Tecciztecatl
7 Ce quiauitl Tlaloc
8 Ce malinalli Mayauel
9 Ce coatl Xiuhtecutli
10 Ce tecpatl Mictlantecutli
11 Ce ozomatli Patecatl
12 Ce quetzpallin Itzlacoliuhqui
13 Ce ollin Tlazolteotl
14 Ce itzcuintli Xipe Totec
15 Ce calli Itzpapalotl
16 Ce cozcaquauhtli Xolotl
17 Ce atl Chalchiuhtotolin
18 Ce eecatl Chantico
19 Ce quauhtli Xochiquetzal
20 Ce tochtli Xiuhtecutli and Itztli
“LORDS OF THE NIGHT”
Besides the patron gods of the days and the weeks there were nine
“Lords of the Night,” which, I am inclined to think with Seler, were
not “lords” or governors of nine consecutive nights, but of nine hours
of each night. Perhaps the best example of these is in the tonalamatl
of the Aubin collection, where they are displayed in continuous and
unbroken squares in the same small, square compartments as the
day-signs and ciphers, and occupy the third and second last vertical
row of the upper and the third cross-row of the lower half. In Codex
Telleriano-Remensis and Codex Vaticanus A they form a special series
above or else facing the day-signs. We also find them displayed on
sheet 14 of Codex Borgia, on sheets 19–23 of Codex Vaticanus B, and on
sheets 2–4 of Codex Fejérváry-Mayer. We know the names of these gods
from the first interpreter of Codex Vaticanus A, who gives them as
follows, with their influences:
1 Xiuhtecutli Good
2 Itztli Bad
3 Piltzintecutli Good
4 Centeotl Indifferent
5 Mictlantecutli Bad
6 Chalchihuitlicue Indifferent
7 Tlazolteotl Bad
8 Tepeyollotl Good
9 Tlaloc Indifferent
Gama describes these nine gods as Acompañados (Companions) and as
Señores de la Noche (Lords of the Night), and from his obscure
rendering of Cristoval de Castillo, as well as from the Manuel de
Ministros de Indios of Jacinto de la Serna, we gather that they held
sway over the night from sunset to sunrise. The Mexicans divided the
night into nine hours, and it is obvious from the astrological point of
view that the Mexican soothsayers who used the tonalamatl must have
found it necessary to estimate not only the “fate” of the several days,
but also that of the several hours and times of the day and night.
[339]
THE LORDS OF THE DAY-HOURS
This of course applies with equal force to the thirteen so-called
“Lords of the Day,” who almost certainly acted as gods of the thirteen
hours of the day. They were [340]:
1 Xiuhtecutli
2 Tlaltecutli
3 Chalchihuitlicue
4 Tonatiuh
5 Tlazolteotl
6 Teoyaomiqui
7 Xochipilli
8 Tlaloc
9 Quetzalcoatl
10 Tezcatlipocâ
11 Mictlantecutli
12 Tlauizcalpantecutli
13 Ilamatecutli
Seler, in his Commentary on the Aubin Tonalamatl, gives the following
table of the gods of the night and day hours:
(Noon)
7. Xochipilli-Cinteotl
6. Teoyaomiqui 8. Tlaloc
5. Tlacolteotl 9. Quetzalcoatl
4. Tonatiuh 10. Tezcatlipocâ
3. Chalchiuhtlicue (Day) 11. Mictlantecutli
2. Tlaltecutli 12. Tlauizcalpantecutli
1. Xiuhtecutli 13. Ilamatecutli
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
IX. Tlaloc I. Xiuhtecutli
VIII. Tepeyollotl (Night) II. Itztli
VII. Tlacolteotl III. Piltzintecutli-Tonatiuh
VI. Chalchihuitlicue IV. Cinteotl
V. Mictlantecutli
(Midnight)
This casts light on the method of augury of the priests. Thus the hour
of noon was auspicious because it was connected with the mystic number
7, and 9 was a number of good augury with sorcerers because it gave the
number of the underworlds and of the night-hours. [341]
TONALAMATL FESTIVALS
Although the tonalamatl has been called the “ritual calendar,” most of
the feast-days theoretically vested in the “months” of the solar
calendar and were called after them; but certain of the festivals
appear to have been connected with the tonalamatl, to have vested in
it, so to speak. We know these by their names, as they are called after
the several tonalamatl dates on which they fall. Thus a festival taking
the name of a day-sign theoretically belongs to the tonalamatl, and one
called after a month-name to the solar calendar proper. Moreover, the
former were known as “movable,” the latter as “fixed,” feasts.
Occasionally these clashed, as Sahagun states, with the result that the
tonalamatl feasts usurped the place of the calendar celebrations. [342]
RECAPITULATION
Recapitulating, we find:
1. That the tonalamatl was a “Book of Fate,” and not in itself a
calendar or time-count.
2. That it was composed of 20 day-signs, repeated 13 times, or 260
day-signs in all.
3. That these were usually divided into 20 groups of 13 days each,
erroneously but usefully called “weeks.” The initial days of these
“weeks” gave the name to the entire “week.”
4. To effect this division the numbers 1 to 13 were added to the 20
day-signs in continuous series.
5. That by this arrangement each day-sign had a number that did not
recur in connection with that sign for a space of 260 days.
6. That the name of a day-sign in the tonalamatl was not complete
without its accompanying number.
7. Each of the day-signs of the tonalamatl was presided over by a god
who was supposed to exercise a special influence over it. (See list.)
Each of the 20 tonalamatl divisions or “weeks” had also a patron god of
its own. (See list.)
8. Besides the patron gods of the days and “weeks” there were:
(a) Nine “lords” or patron gods of the night-hours.
(b) Thirteen “lords” of the day-hours.
THE TONALAMATL AND THE SOLAR CALENDAR
It will be asked: “In what manner did the soothsayers reconcile the
days of the tonalamatl with those of the calendar?” By what method did
they find such and such a day in the tonalamatl in the tonalpohualli,
or solar calendar? How was the one adjusted to the other? In order to
reply clearly to this question, it will first be necessary to describe
briefly the nature of the Mexican solar calendar or time-count proper.
The Mexican solar year consisted of 365 days, divided into 18 periods
of 20 days each, called cempohualli, or “months,” and one period of 5
days, known as nemontemi, or “useless” or “unlucky” days.
The Cempohualli.—The names of the 18 cempohualli, or “months,” were
[343]:
Month Seasonal Character Presiding God
Atlacahualco Ceasing of rain Tlaloquê
Tlacaxipeuliztli Seed time Xipe
Tozoztontli Rain desired Tlaloquê
Ueitozoztli Worship of new maize Chicomecoatl
Toxcatl Commencement of rainy Uitzilopochtli and
season Tezcatlipocâ
Etzalqualiztli Rain desired Tlaloc
Tecuilhuitontli Rain desired Uixtociuatl
Ueitecuilhuitl Adoration of the ripening Xilonen
maize
Tlaxochimaco First-flowering Uitzilopochtli
Xocohuetzi Heat for ripening Xiuhtecutli
Ochpaniztli Refreshment of the Tlazolteotl
Earth-mother
Teotleco Return of the gods from Tezcatlipocâ
rest
Tepeilhuitl Rain Tlaloc
Quecholli Rain Mixcoatl
Panquetzaliztli Winter solstice Uitzilopochtli
Atemoztli Rain Tlaloquê
Tititl The season of sereness Ilamatecutli
Izcalli Toasting of the corn supply Xiuhtecutli
Eight out of eighteen of these festivals are thus connected with the
appeal for rain, or the celebration of its appearance. The remainder
celebrate the growth of the maize in its various stages, rejoice at the
appearance of these blossoms which were so dear to the Mexican heart,
are held in honour of the Earth-mother, or mark the solstices.
To the combination of the tonalamatl and the solar calendar the
tonalamatl contributed the names of the days, and the solar calendar
the divisions of the year in which the days found positions. The
tonalamatl and the solar year thus went side by side, each recommencing
whenever it reached its own limits. The days in the solar year were
known by the names of the days in the tonalamatl which were affixed to
them. Thus it is plain that 105 of the 260 tonalamatl day-names had to
be repeated in the solar year of 365 days.
NAMES OF THE YEARS
The year was known by the tonalamatl sign of the day with which it
began. As there were 20 day-signs, and 5, the least common multiple of
365 and 20, goes into 20 exactly 4 times, the year could begin with one
of the four signs only. These were Acatl, Tecpatl, Calli, Tochtli.
Each month of a given year began with the same tonalamatl day-sign. The
20 day-signs always occupied the same position in all the months of a
given year, as there were 20 days in a Mexican month. But since the
last month was followed by the 5 nemontemi, or “unlucky” days, it
follows that each year began with a day-sign five days later than the
last. Also, since 365, the number of days in a year, is divisible by 13
with 1 as remainder, it follows that each year began with a day-number
one in advance of the last.
The commencement of the year coincided with the commencement of the
tonalamatl once in four years.
THE CALENDAR ROUND
Fifty-two years made up what has been called by modern students the
Calendar Round, and by the Mexicans was known as xiuhmolpilli or
toxiuhmolpio, “year bundle” or “our years will be bound.” The Mexicans,
differing in this from the Maya, never progressed beyond the Calendar
Round in the development of their chronological system, as is proved by
the fact that dates of precisely the same designation occurred at
intervals of every 52 years.
The four signs which alone might commence the year—acatl (reed),
tecpatl (flint), calli (house), tochtli (rabbit), took the numbers 1 to
13 continuously. The numbering of the years thus provided that every
one of the 52 years of the xiuhmolpilli (or Calendar Round) was
distinguished from every other. The whole cycle of 52 years was thus
divided into four quarters of 13 years each. These year-names were each
referred to a particular quarter of the heavens, the acatl years to the
east, tecpatl to the north, calli to the west, and tochtli to the
south. The computation began in the east with the acatl years,
strangely enough with 2 acatl, the cycle thus closing with 1 tochtli.
The Aztecs believed that the current epoch had begun with the year 1
tochtli, for it was in this period that the world had undergone
reconstruction. Not until this was completed could the first cycle of
52 years be begun. Therefore 2 acatl is the opening year of the first
and of all following cycles, and is usually represented by the picture
of a fire-drill. The years had also colours and patron gods of their
own as follows: acatl—yellow (gods Tonatiuh and Itztli); tecpatl—red
(god Mictlantecutli); calli—blue (earth-goddesses); tochtli—white
(Tlaloc).
Arranged in tabular form, this would appear as follows:
Year-name Direction Colour Patron God
Acatl East Yellow Tonatiuh and Itztli
Tecpatl North Red Mictlantecutli
Calli West Blue Earth-goddesses
Tochtli South White Tlaloc
THE NEMONTEMI
The five nemontemi, or “useless” days, were evidently a later
interpolation, introduced at a period when it was discovered that an
original time-count of 360 days did not fulfil the solar round. They
were counted and distinguished, however, in precisely the same manner
as the other days, that is the numerals and hieroglyphs of the
tonalamatl were adjusted to them as well as to the rest, except that
they had no “lords” or rulers of day or night. They were regarded as
most unlucky and no business of any kind was transacted upon them, only
the most necessary offices of life being undertaken whilst they lasted.
They are in no sense to be regarded as intercalary days, for, despite
classical statements to the contrary, the Mexicans were ignorant of the
methods of chronological intercalation, and a study of the tonalamatl
will show that the introduction of any intercalary period would render
it nugatory and destroy that ability to return into itself which is one
of its chief characteristics. These nemontemi did not always fall in
the same period of the solar year, but were sometimes placed before
Quaitleloa, now before Tititl, now before Atemoztli, or elsewhere, as
the priestly authorities decided. For the Mexican year of 365 days was
short of the true solar year by six hours and some minutes, therefore
in the course of years the festivals became displaced and their
chronological revision and balance became necessary and could be
effected by the shifting of the nemontemi.
THE VENUS PERIOD
To Förstemann and Seler is due the discovery that the Mexicans
possessed a system of computing time based upon the synodic revolution
of the planet Venus. The Venus period or “year” comprised 584 days. It
would seem as if the Maya and Mexicans had striven to discover a common
measure for the numbers 584, 365, and 260. Five synodical revolutions
of Venus are equivalent to eight solar years (5 × 584) = 2,920 = (8 ×
365), but the number 2,920 is not divisible by 260, the number of days
in the tonalamatl. Any accord between the two periods is not possible
until the sum of 104 years is reached, that is to say, 65 Venus periods
are equal to 146 tonalamatl periods both of which contain 37,960 days.
Like the tonalamatl, the Venus period was productive of sacerdotal
speculation, commencing with the day cipactli. At the end of six
periods the Venus “year” recommenced with the same sign affected by a
different figure. At the end of thirteen periods the sign differed, but
the figure was the same. The question has been learnedly discussed in
its entirety by Seler, to whose work the reader is referred. [344]
SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS RELATING TO THE TONALAMATL
Bulletin 28 of the Bureau of American Ethnology has several papers by
Seler and Förstemann on the tonalamatl.
Morley, “An Introduction to the Study of Maya Hieroglyphs” (Bulletin 57
of the Bureau of American Ethnology). (Washington, 1915.)
Bowditch, Maya Numeration, Calendar and Astronomy. (Cambridge, Mass.,
1910.)
Payne, History of the New World, vol. ii, pp. 310–332.
The beginner is strongly advised to peruse these works before
approaching the subject in the pages of the older Spanish writers, most
of whom possessed very hazy notions regarding it. By far the best
textbook is that of Morley, who, although dealing with the Maya
calendar at much greater length, writes with great clarity upon the
Mexican system, which is indeed identical with the Maya tonalamatl in
its simpler manifestations. Bowditch’s book is more for advanced
students of the Maya hieroglyphical system, the senior wranglers of the
subject, so to speak. But in places he dwells upon the Mexican
tonalamatl in an illuminating and suggestive manner. The papers of
Seler and other German writers on the tonalamatl, although most
valuable, by no means possess the admirable clarity and simplicity of
Morley’s invaluable essay. A good short article on the calendar is that
of Dr. Preuss in Dr. Hastings’ Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics,
vol. iii, pp. 124 ff.
A useful essay on the tonalamatl is that of de Jonghe, “Der
alt-mexikanische Kalendar,” in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1906; and in
the Journal des Américanistes de Paris, New Series, vol. iii (Paris,
1906), pp. 197–228.
A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MEXICAN RELIGION
The works contained in this bibliography are included because they
refer to the religion of ancient Mexico. It must be distinctly
understood that it does not aim at providing a comprehensive list of
works on Mexican history or archæology or on the religion of the Maya.
It is believed that no work of importance, old or new, which deals with
Mexican religion has been omitted. The books contained in the first
part are arranged in accordance with an estimate of their degree of
importance to the student. Those in the second part are alphabetically
arranged. The bibliography at the end of the appendix on the Tonalamatl
should also be consulted.
PART I
(Works written by the earlier Spanish authors)
Bernardino de Sahagun, Historia Universal de Nueva-España. (Mexico,
1829; London, 1830—in vol. vi of Lord Kingsborough’s Antiquities of
Mexico.) French translation by Jourdanet and Siméon (Paris, 1880).
J. Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana. (Madrid, 1723.)
Torribio de Benavente (Motolinia), Historia de los Indios de
Nueva-España. In Kingsborough’s Antiquities of Mexico, vol. ix, pp. 469
ff.; see also L. G. Pimentel, Memoriales de Fray Torribio de Motolinia
(Paris, 1903), which contains materials not in the Historia. See also
Icazbalceta.
Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones, in vol. ix of
Kingsborough’s Antiquities of Mexico (London, 1830–1848). Edited by
Alfredo Chavero (Mexico, 1891); Historia Chichimeca, in vol. ix of
Kingsborough’s Antiquities of Mexico. Edited by Chavero (Mexico, 1892).
Diego Muñoz Camargo, Historia de Tlascala. Edited by A. Chavero.
(Mexico, 1892.)
Francesco Saverio Clavigero, Storia Antico del Mexico. (Cesena, 1780.)
English translation by Charles Cullen, 2 vols. (London, 1787.)
Lorenzo Boturini Benaduci, Idea de una Nueva Historia General de la
America Septentrional. (Madrid, 1746.)
Antonio de Herrera, Historia General de los Indios Occidentales
(1601–1615, 5 vols. folio; Madrid, 1728–1730). English translation by
Stevens (London, 1725–1726—considerably abridged).
José de Acosta, Historia Natural y Moral de Las Yndias. (Seville,
1580.) English translation in Purchas his Pilgrimes.
Francisco Lopez de Gomara, Cronica de la Nueva-España. (Medina, 1553;
Antwerp, 1554; Mexico, 1836.) English translation, The Pleasant History
of the Conquest of the West Indies. (London, 1578.)
Antonio Leon y Gama, Descripcion de las Dos Piedros. (Mexico, 1792.)
Gonzalo Hernandez de Oviedo y Valdes, Historia General y Natural de las
Indias Occidentales. (1535, vol. i only.) (Madrid, 1851–1855, 4 vols.)
Jacinto de la Serna, Manuel de Ministros de Indios para el Conocimiento
de sus Idolatrias, y Extirpacion de Ellas. (Madrid, 1892.)
Augustin Vetancurt, Teatro Mexicana. (Mexico, 1697; 1870–1871.)
M. F. de E., Veytia, Historia Antigua de Mejico. (Mexico, 1836.)
(Partly in Kingsborough, vol. viii.)
There may also be consulted:
B. de Las Casas, Historia de las Indias.
The best edition is that of Madrid (5 vols., 1875–1876).
Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de
Nueva-España. Translated by A. P. Maudslay as The True History of the
Conquest of Mexico. (Hakluyt Society, London, 1908.)
It gives but little information regarding Mexican religion.
Hernan Cortéz, Cartas de Relacion. English translation by F. A. MacNutt
under the title of The Five Letters of Cortéz to the Emperor Charles V.
(New York, 1908.)
A. Tezozomoc, Cronica Mexicana, in Kingsborough’s Antiquities of
Mexico, vol. vii, contains much valuable mythical material; also edited
by Orozco y Berra. (Mexico, 1878.)
Duran, Historia de las Indias (ed. Ramirez, 2 vols., Mexico,
1867–1880).
It is full, valuable, and sometimes indispensable.
Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas, in Annals of the Mexican
Museum, vol. ii. Translated by T. Phillips, Proc. Am. Phil. Soc., vol.
xxi.
Annales de San Anton, Muñon Chimalpahin. (Paris, 1889, translated by R.
Siméon.)
Of considerable use as regards myth.
Anales de Quauhtitlan (or Codex Chimalpopocâ) in Anales del Museo
Nacional de Mexico, end of tom. iii.
Thevet, “Histoire de Mechyque” (in Journ. Soc. Amer. de Paris, 1905,
pp. 1–41).
G. de Mendieta, Historia Ecclesiastica Indiana. (Icazbalceta, Mexico,
1870.)
G. Icazbalceta, Nueva Coleccion de documentos para la historia de
Mexico (Mexico, series i, vol. i, 1858; vol. ii, 1866; series ii,
Mexico, 1886–1892).
The first volume of series i contains Motolinia’s Hist. de los Indios,
and the third volume of the second series the work of Pomar y Zurita.
Ternaux-Compans, Voyages, Relations et Mémoires originaux pour servir à
l’histoire de la découverte de l’Amérique. (Paris, 1837–1841, 20 vols.)
This contains Mendieta, Tezozomoc, Ixtlilxochitl, Camargo, etc.
Navarrete, Coleccion de los Viages y descubrimientos. (Madrid,
1825–1837, 5 vols.)
Many texts and rare works are also to be found in Lord Kingsborough’s
Antiquities of Mexico (London, 1830–1848), especially Dupaix, Monuments
of New Spain (in vols. iv and vi); translation of the text of the
interpretative codices (see Appendix of this work), Sahagun (in vol.
viii), Veytia, Historia del origen de las Gentes que Poblaron La
America Septentrional (in vol. viii). Tezozomoc, Cronica Mexicana (in
vol. ix), Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chichimeca (in vol. ix), Pimentel,
Ritos, Antiguos, Sacrificios, etc. (in vol. x).
PART II
(Works written from 1800–1920)
Alexander, Hartley Burr, Latin-American Mythology. (Boston, 1920.)
Anales del Museo Nacional de Mexico. Tom. i, Mexico, 1877. (In
progress.)
Bancroft, Hubert Howe, The Native Races of the Pacific States, 5 vols.
(New York and London, 1875–1876.)
This great compilation is admirable as a painstaking précis of the
extensive sources relating to Mexican and Mayan history and religion,
but its author and his assistants confined themselves to collection and
compilation alone, and ventured upon no critical treatment of the
subject, for which task, they admit, they were not equipped.
Batres, L., Archæological Explorations in Escalerillas Street, City of
Mexico, Year 1900. (Mexico, 1902.)
Beuchat, H., Manuel d’Archéologie Américaine (Amérique
Préhistorique—Civilisations disparues). (Paris, 1912.)
A useful if somewhat condensed review of American archæology. Chapitre
iv, livre ii, gives a short and not very thorough account of the gods,
rites, priesthood, and magic of the ancient Mexicans. Chapitre v deals
with the Calendar, and chapitre vi is useful for reference regarding
the manuscripts and writing. There is a good bibliography.
Brasseur de Bourbourg, E. C., Histoire des nations civilisées du
Mexique et de l’Amérique Centrale durant les siècles antérieurs à
Christophe Colomb. 4 vols. (Paris, 1857–1859.)
The Abbé Brasseur’s idea was to explain American mythology as the
apotheosis of history. But he unearthed many priceless materials, some
of which are included in this work.
Brinton, Daniel Garrison, American Hero Myths (Philadelphia, 1882);
“Were the Toltecs an Historic Nationality?” (Proc. Am. Phil. Soc.,
xxiv, pp. 229–241, 1887); Essays of an Americanist (Philadelphia,
1890); The Myths of the New World (3rd edition, revised) (Philadelphia,
1905).
Brinton’s books are all well written, but his ideas regarding mythology
generally are now a little out-of-date. His works, however, will repay
perusal. The student must be on his guard against Brinton’s
etymologies, as his knowledge of the native languages, though
extensive, was not exact.
Charency, H. de, Le Mythe de Votan, étude sur les origines Asiatiques
de la Civilisation Américaine. (Alençon, 1871.)
Charnay, Désiré, Les anciennes Villes du nouveau monde. (Paris, 1885.)
English translation as Ancient Cities of the New World. (London, 1887.)
Charnay’s acquaintance with Mexican archæology and mythology was
elementary.
Chavero, Alfredo, Mexico a traves de los siglos, tom. i; Historia
antigua y de la Conquista. (Barcelona, 1884.)
This enthusiastic and painstaking antiquary did much for the
elucidation of all subjects relating to ancient Mexico, especially as
regards the discovery and criticism of ancient works and manuscripts.
But his zeal frequently betrayed him into somewhat fanciful
explanations.
Chevalier, M., Le Mexique Ancien et Moderne. (Paris, 1886.)
Congrès international des Américanistes—comptes rendus. (Biennially,
1878 ff.)
Dieseldorff, E. P., “Cuculcan” (Zeit. für Ethnol., xxvii, Verhand., pp.
780–873).
Gamio, Manuel, “Investigaciones Arqueologicas en Mexico, 1914–1915”
(Proc. Nineteenth Int. Cong. of Amer., Washington, 1915). (Washington,
D.C., 1917.)
Haebler, K., Die Religion der Mittleren Amerika. (Münster, 1899.)
Hamy, Galerie Américaine du Musée d’ethnographie au Trocadéro. (Paris,
1897.)
Humboldt, Alexander von, Vues des Cordillères. (Paris, 1816.) English
translation by Helen Williams, 1815.
Joyce, Thomas Athol, Mexican Archæology: an Introduction to the
Archæology of the Mexican and Mayan Civilizations of pre-Spanish
America. (London, 1914.)
Chapters ii, iii, and iv give a useful summary of Mexican Mythology,
the Calendar and Calendrical Feasts, and Writing, Priesthood, Medicine,
and Burial.
Journal de la Société des Américanistes de Paris (passim), tom. i.
(Paris, 1896.) (In progress.)
Müller, J. G., Geschichte der Amerikanischen Urreligion. (Berlin,
1867.)
An industrious compilation, which must be used with caution. Its
quotations are nearly all at second-hand and its hypotheses are not a
little strained.
Nadaillac, Marquis de, Prehistoric America (trans.). (London, 1885.)
Very much in the nature of a popular presentation of the subject.
Nuttall, Zelia, The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World
Civilizations. (Papers, Peabody Mus., ii, 1901.)
Orozco y Berra, Historia antigua y de la Conquista de Mexico. 4 vols.
(Mexico, 1880.)
Payne, Edward James, History of the New World called America. (London,
1892–1899.)
This exhaustive work, which deals with the evolution of culture on the
American continent, is admirably conceived, and is obviously the result
of much thought and research. As regards mythology, however, the
author, although well versed in the early writings relating to Mexico,
seems to have been unacquainted with those of modern specialists on the
subject, and this, of course, limits his outlook. Nor does he display
any acquaintance with the Mexican native codices.
Peñafiel, A., Monumentos del arte Mexicano antiguo, 3 vols. (Berlin,
1890.) Destruccion del templo mayor de Mexico y los monumentos
encontrados en la ciudad en la excavaciones de 1897 y 1902. (Mexico,
1910.)
Prescott, W. H., History of the Conquest of Mexico. (New York, 1843.)
The few pages in which Prescott describes the religion of ancient
Mexico are now quite useless for the purposes of the serious student.
Réville, A., Les Religions du Mexique, de l’Amérique Centrale et du
Pérou. (Paris, 1885.) English translation as Origin and Growth of
Religion as Illustrated by the Native Religions of Mexico and Peru
(Hibbert Lectures), 1884.
A sketchy and inaccurate account, showing only a second-hand
acquaintance with the subject.
Robelo, C. A., Diccionario de mitologia Nahoa in Annals of the Mexican
Museum, vols. ii–v, Second Series. (Mexico, 1905.)
Saville, M. H., “The Plumed Serpent in Northern Mexico.” (The
Archæologist, vol. ii, pp. 291–293.)
Seler, Eduard, Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur Amerikanischen Sprach- und
Altertumskunde, 5 vols. (Berlin, 1902–1915.)
This monumental work, comprising almost the entire output of its
learned author, is indispensable for the study of Mexican archæology
and religion.
Spence, Lewis, The Civilization of Ancient Mexico (Cambridge Manuals of
Science and Letters). (London, 1911.) The Myths of Mexico and Peru.
(London, 1913.)
The former work is a digest of the strictly verifiable material of
Mexican history and religion; the latter a sketch of the subject on
popular lines.
Spinden, Herbert J., A Study of Maya Art (Memoirs of the Peabody
Museum, Harvard, vol. vi). (Cambridge, Mass., 1913.)
This admirable work, which is chiefly concerned with the subject-matter
and development of Maya art, touches in places upon the forms and
insignia of the Mexican deities.
Strebel, H., Alt-Mexico, Archäologische Beiträge, 2 vols. (Hamburg and
Leipzig.)
Tylor, E. B., Anahuac or Mexico and the Mexicans. (London, 1861.)
Veytia, M., Historia antigua de Mexico. (Mexico, 1836.)
Wesselhoeft, Selma, and Parker, A. M., Mexican and Central American
Antiquities, Calendar Systems and History. Twenty-four papers by Eduard
Seler, E. Förstemann, Paul Schellhas, Carl Sapper, and E. P.
Dieseldorff, translated from the German, under the supervision of
Charles P. Bowditch. Bulletin 28 of the Bureau of American Ethnology,
Washington, 1904.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE CODICES RELATING TO MEXICAN MYTHOLOGY
I. INTERPRETATIVE CODICES
Codex Vaticanus A (3738) or Codex Rios.
(A) Reproduced in vol. ii of Kingsborough’s Antiquities of Mexico,
1830. Translation of the Interpretation in vol. vi, pp. 155–420.
(B) Reproduced by the Duc de Loubat. (Rome, 1900.)
Codex Telleriano-Remensis.
(A) Reproduced in Kingsborough’s Antiquities, vol. i. Translation of
the Interpretation in vol. vi, pp. 95–153.
(B) Reproduced by the Duc de Loubat (Paris, 1899), with commentary by
E. T. Hamy.
Codex Magliabecchiano.
(A) Reproduced by the Duc de Loubat. (Rome, 1904.)
(B) Reproduced by Zelia Nuttall as The Book of the Life of the Ancient
Mexicans. (Berkeley, California, 1903.)
(This codex is accompanied by a contemporary gloss in Spanish.)
II. THE CODEX BORGIA GROUP
Codex Borgia.
(A) Reproduced in Kingsborough’s Antiquities, vol. iii.
(B) Reproduced by the Duc de Loubat. (Rome, 1908.)
(C) Commentary in German by Dr. E. Seler, Eine altmexikanische
Bilderschrift, with plan. (Berlin, 1904.)
(D) Reproduced in the Anales del Museo Nacional de Mexico, vol. v, pp.
1–260, with Spanish translation of Seler’s essay by T. Lares.
Codex Fejérváry-Mayer.
(A) Reproduced in Kingsborough’s Antiquities, vol. iii.
(B) Reproduced by the Duc de Loubat. (Rome, 1901.)
(C) Commentary (Der Codex Fejérváry-Mayer) by Dr. E. Seler, with plan.
(Berlin, 1901.)
(D) English translation of above by A. H. Keane. (Berlin and London,
1901–1902.)
Codex Bologna or Cospi.
(A) Reproduction in Kingsborough’s Antiquities, vol. ii.
(B) Reproduced by the Duc de Loubat. (Rome, 1899.)
(C) Commentary by Seler (Die Mexikanischen Bildenhandschrift von
Bologna) in his Gesammelte Abhandlungen, vol. i, pp. 341–351.
Codex Vaticanus B.
(A) Reproduced in Kingsborough’s Antiquities, vol. iii.
(B) Reproduced by the Duc de Loubat (Rome, 1896), with commentary by
Señor F. Paso y Troncoso.
(C) Commentary in German (Der Codex Vaticanus B) by Dr. E. Seler, with
plan. (Berlin, 1902.)
(D) English translation of above by A. H. Keane. (Berlin and London,
1902–1903.)
Codex Laud.
Reproduction in Kingsborough’s Antiquities, vol. ii.
III. UNCLASSIFIED CODICES
The Aubin-Goupil Tonalamatl.
(A) Reproduced by the Duc de Loubat, with commentary by E. Seler.
(Paris, 1900.)
(B) English translation of above by A. H. Keane, with reproduction.
(Berlin and London, 1901.)
Codex Vienna, Vindobonensis, or Indiæ Meridionalis.
(A) First reproduced in part by Olaus Wormius, Museum Wormianum.
(Leyden, 1655, p. 383.)
(B) Reproduced in Kingsborough’s Antiquities, vol. ii.
(C) Commentary in E. Seler’s Gesammelte Abhandlungen.
Codex Zouche or Nuttall.
Reproduced with commentary by Zelia Nuttall. (Peabody Museum
publication.) (Cambridge, Mass., 1902.)
Codex Borbonicus.
Reproduced by the Duc de Loubat, with commentary by E. T. Hamy. (Paris,
1899.)
See also on the subject of the codices generally:
Aubin, Mémoire sur la peinture didactique des anciens Mexicains (Revue
Orientale et Américaine). (Paris, 1860, pp. 224–255.)
Boban, Catalogue raisonné de la Collection Aubin-Goupil. (Paris, 1889.)
(With an atlas in which many MSS. are reproduced in phototype.)
Lehmann, W., “Les peintures Mixteco-zapotèques” (Journ. Soc. Amer. de
Paris, N.S., tom. ii). (Paris, 1905, pp. 241–280.)
Antigüedades mexicanas, publicadas por la junta Colombina de Mexico.
(Mexico, 1892.) Atlas with plates.
Paso y Troncoso, Catalogo de Mexico en la Exposicion de Madrid.
(Mexico, 1892.)
Peñafiel, Monumentos del arte mexicana antigua. (Berlin, 1890.)
Chavero, Pinturas jeroglificas, 2 parts. (Mexico, 1900–1901.)
GLOSSARY
For the convenience of readers a glossary of the Mexican words most
frequently employed in this work is appended:
anauatl Ring of white mussel-shell.
areyto Sacred dance; a word of Antillean origin, introduced by
the Spanish conquerors of Mexico.
atlatl Spear-thrower.
aztaxelli Forked heron-feather plume.
calpulli Augmentative of calli, house, signifying “quarter,”
“district.”
chalchihuitl Green stone—jadeite, turquoise, emerald—and precious or
semi-precious stones of a green colour.
chicauaztli The rattle-staff, associated with the water and
fertility deities.
cueitl Skirt, petticoat.
maxtli Loin-cloth.
naualli Disguise, magical form or shape.
nequen Robe.
octli The fermented juice of the Agave americana. The modern
term is pulque, a word of Argentine origin.
piloechmilli “Face-painting of children.”
quauhxicalli “Cup of eagles”; stone vase in which the hearts of
sacrificed victims were placed.
quetzalli Feather-plumes of the quetzaltototl or Trogon pavoninus,
a bird indigenous to Mexico, the plumes of which were
greatly prized by the natives.
tamalli Maize-cake (same as Spanish corrupted form tamale).
tecutli Noble, lord, person of quality.
teocalli Pyramid-temple.
teopan Temple precinct.
teotl God.
telpochcalli House of the youths, the place of instruction for boys
in training for the priesthood.
teueuelli Shield with eagle’s-down feathers.
tilmatli Mantle or cloak.
tlachtli A ball-game, a kind of hockey.
tlachinolli Fire-and-water symbol.
tonalamatl Book of Days: an arrangement of signs indicating lucky
and unlucky days, adapted to the calendar.
toualli Four balls or beads as a shield device.
ulli Indiarubber.
xiuhcoatl Fire-snake.
NOTES
[1] See Bibliography for description of this and all other works
alluded to throughout the work.
[2] Motecuhzoma described his faith to Cortéz in almost precisely
similar terms. See Bernal Diaz, True History of the Conquest of Mexico,
Maudslay’s translation. London, 1908.
[3] Especially in The Civilization of Ancient Mexico, 1911.
[4] See Seler, Gesammelte Abhandlungen, passim.
[5] See Appendix, The Tonalamatl and the Solar Calendar.
[6] A Study of Maya Art, 1913, p. 225.
[7] See his commentaries on the several codices, passim.
[8] See Torquemada, bk. vi, c. 24.
[9] Sahagun, III, c. 4; Anales de Quauhtitlan.
[10] On Quetzalcoatl generally see Sahagun, passim; Torquemada, vol. i,
p. 254; Motolinia, tom. i, pp. 10–11; and Mendieta, passim.
[11] Consult bibliography to chapter ix of H. B. Alexander’s North
American Mythology. Boston, 1916.
[12] Sahagun, bk. vi, c. viii.
[13] See appendix on Tonalamatl.
[14] See chapter on Cosmogony.
[15] Seler, Codex Vaticanus B, 1902–3, p. 174.
[16] In many cosmogonies—Hindu, Babylonian, Chinese, Scandinavian, for
example—the earth is formed from the remains of a slain monster or
living being.
[17] See section on Tlaloc.
[18] Payne in his History of the New World called America, vol. i,
1892, pp. 424 ff., was the first to indicate the “fetishtic” nature of
this statue, which he identifies as that of Chicomecoatl. He pours the
vials of scorn upon “the Italian dilettante Boturini” for his
identification of the block as Uitzilopochtli-Teoyaomiqui. He further
states that it “has no limbs,” but its large, scaly dragon-legs are at
least as obvious as his lack of success in giving the sculpture its
proper name.
[19] See my article “Cherokees” in Hastings’ Encyclopædia of Religion
and Ethics, vol. iii, p. 504.
[20] See Brinton, Nagualism.
[21] Anales de Quauhtitlan (Brasseur, Hist. Nat. Civ. de Mex., vol. i,
pp. 400 ff.).
[22] Codex Vaticanus, 1902–3, p. 75.
[23] For much Mexican star-lore of value see Seler’s Venus Period in
the Picture-Writings of the Borgia Codex Group, translated into English
in Bulletin 28 of the Bureau of American Ethnology, pp. 355 ff. For the
myth see section on Cosmogony.
[24] Bk. ii, c. 4.
[25] See Appendix on Tonalamatl.
[26] Sahagun, bk. ii, Appendix.
[27] Clavigero, Storia del Messico, vol. i, bk. vi, p. 257 (English
translation).
[28] The native name for Mexico, signifying “Place upon the water.”
[29] Monarq. Ind., tom. ii, p. 525.
[30] Hist. Mex., tom. i, pp. 291–2.
[31] See the section on Tlaloc.
[32] Notes on the Shushwap People of British Columbia, “Proceedings and
Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada,” 1891, vol. ix, sect. ii.
Montreal, 1892.
[33] Sahagun, Hist. Gen., bk. ii, c. xiv.
[34] Hist. de Tlaxcallan, c. v.
[35] See Section on Itzpapalotl.
[36] See chapter on Cosmogony.
[37] See Sahagun, bk. i, c. 6.
[38] See chapter on Cosmogony.
[39] Torquemada, bk. viii, c. 13.
[40] Although some of the old authors, Bernal Diaz for instance, say
explicitly that the gods of one city were not recognized in another, in
effect they were, only under other names.
[41] Translation in Kingsborough, vol. vi, p. 198.
[42] Op. cit., p. 207.
[43] L. Spence, The Popol Vuh (1908), description of bk. i; Brasseur de
Bourbourg, Le Vuh Popol, Paris, 1861.
[44] An important work republished with a Latin translation by Dr. W.
Lehmann under the title of Traditions des anciens Mexicains (Jour. Soc.
Amer. Paris, n.s., vol. iii. Paris, 1906. pp. 239–298).
[45] Kingsborough’s translation, vol. vi, p. 171.
[46] Chavero’s edition, Mexico, 1892, p. 21.
[47] See the Popol Vuh, bk. i., for a Quiche analogy to this tale of
human degradation.
[48] Chavero’s edition, Mexico, 1891, pp. ii ff.
[49] Hist. de Tlaxcala, in Ternaux-Compan’s Voyages, tom. lxxxvi, p. 5;
also edition by A. Chavero, Mexico, 1892.
[50] Hist. Antigua de Mexico, bk. i, c. 4.
[51] First Relacion.
[52] Historia Eccles.
[53] A variant myth makes Quetzalcoatl the god who seeks bones in the
underworld from which to make the human race. As he returns, the bones
drop to earth and quails gnaw them. Ciuacoatl pounds them into a paste
from which men are formed. The Anales de Quauhtitlan makes the gods
create man from the cinders of the worlds destroyed in the four epochs.
[54] Probably because of his status as god of twins and of duplicates
of all kinds.
[55] Obviously this sacred bundle is in the same category with the
“medicine-bundle” of the North American Indian tribes, and it would
seem that from such a form certain of the Mexican gods were evolved.
[56] Bk. vii, c. 2.
[57] For further information regarding this incident see Boturini,
Idea, section iii, 14, “Tlatocaocelotl.”
[58] These metamorphoses, or at least the first two, are obviously
founded upon Xolotl’s dual characteristic as a twin. The resemblance
between his name and that of the little amphibious animal axolotl is
due to the monstrous character of both.
[59] Hist. du Tlaxcallan in Ternaux-Compan’s Nouvelles Annales des
Voyages (tom. xcix, p. 129).
[60] Hist. Antig. de Mexico, tom. i, p. 7.
[61] Storia Antica del Messico, tom. ii, p. 7.
[62] Hist. Eccles, p. 81.
[63] Curtin, Creation Myths of Primitive America, Intro., p. 35.
[64] Relaciones (Chavero’s edition; Mexico, 1891), p. 11. Hist.
Chichimeca (Chavero’s edition; Mexico, 1892), p. 21.
[65] Among the American races the soul was thought of as residing in
the bones. See Brinton, Myths of the New World, pp. 295 ff., 299, 321.
[66] Anales de Quauhtitlan.
[67] Translation of interpretation in Kingsborough, vol. vi, p. 127.
[68] P. 120.
[69] See Rady y Delgado’s reproduction of this Codex, Madrid, 1892.
[70] The colours associated with the points of the compass were: East,
yellow; north, red; west, blue; south, white.
[71] For the further relation of the gods to time and space see the
appendix on the tonalamatl.
[72] See myth of the creation of the four supporters, supra.
[73] Humming-birds. The warriors seem to have been metamorphosed into
the naualli or bird-disguise of Uitzilopochtli, the humming-bird god of
war.
[74] Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas. I believe these
different heavens to have resulted from the clashing and mingling of
rival cults.
[75] As it has been found impossible to include every illustration from
the codices which is mentioned in the text, those pictures not supplied
may be consulted in the reproductions of the codices themselves. A full
bibliography of the codices will be found at the end. When the letter K
appears with reference to a codex, its reproduction in Kingsborough’s
“Mexican” antiquities is implied.
[76] This stellar mask is so called from being worn by the stellar
deities. It is usually connected with the red-and-white striped
painting of the body. The Sahagun Aztec MS. calls it “face-cage
marking” and “face-star marking which is called darkness,” the former
referring to stripes over the face, the latter to the mask design,
which seems to me to symbolize night surrounded by the “eyes” of the
stars.
[77] Hist. Nat. Ind., pp. 352 ff., English translation in Purchas his
Pilgrimes, bk. v, c. 9. Maclehoses’ edition.
[78] Hist. Conq. Mex., tom. i, pp. 396–398.
[79] Gage’s trans. of Herrera, in New Survey, pp. 116–117; for Spanish
text, see Hist. Gen., tom. i, dec. ii, bk. vii, c. xvii.
[80] Monarq. Ind., tom. i, p. 293.
[81] Quarter, district.
[82] House of the youths, where the acolytes or junior priests resided.
[83] Governors.
[84] Vassals, burghers.
[85] Dance.
[86] This custom was in vogue among certain prehistoric races, and is
still practised on the death of a relative by African bushmen, who
first remove a finger-joint.
[87] More correctly quauhxicalli, a stone vase for the reception of the
hearts of victims, from quauh (tli) “eagle,” and xicalli, “cup.”
[88] Monarq. Ind., tom. ii, p. 73.
[89] Hist. Mex., English translation by C. Cullen (London, 1787), vol.
i, bk. vi.
[90] Idea de una Hist., pp. 60–61.
[91] Bk. i, c. i.
[92] So Uitzilopochtli addresses his half-brother. “Uncle” among the
ancient Mexicans was an honorific title.
[93] Bk. iii, c, i, par. i.
[94] Monarq. Ind., tom. i, p. 294.
[95] See chapter on Cosmogony.
[96] Sahagun, Appendix to bk. iii, c. ix.
[97] Hist. Nat. Ind. in Purchas his Pilgrimes, bk. v, c. xiii. See also
Manuel Gamio, Proc. 19th Cong. Amer., Washington, 1915, for account of
discoveries when the foundations of this temple were partly laid bare
in 1913.
[98] C. i.
[99] Sahagun, bk. ii, c. xxxiv; Uitzilopochtli himself, as we shall
see, was oracular. In this case I take it that the octli distilled from
the plant conferred the boon of oracular speech.
[100] The first pulque or octli, which was called uitztli, was offered
at this festival as first-fruits to Uitzilopochtli. The spirit
distilled from the pulque is still known as mexcal or mescal, and is
probably identical with the fiery fluid given to the braves in the
service of the god before going into battle.
[101] Bull. of U.S. Bureau of Ethnology, No. 28, p. 210.
[102] Monarq. Ind., tom. ii, p. 41.
[103] The Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas calls
Uitzilopochtli omitecilt. I think this should be read ome tecitl,
“twice-wizard,” but it may read ome tecutli, “twice-lord.” But the
latter is certainly a title of Tonacatecutli, the creative deity.
[104] Bk. i, c. i.
[105] Sahagun, bk. ii, c. xxiv.
[106] As does an Egyptian sun-god.
[107] The Centzonuitznaua appear to be the same as the Tzitzimimê, whom
Tezozomoc calls the “gods of the air who bring the rains, floods,
thunderclaps, and thunders and lightnings and had to be placed round
Uitzilopochtli” in order to complete the construction of the great
teocalli of Mexico. These “gods of the signs and planets,” in other
words the stars, were regarded as demons of darkness, thinks Seler,
“only because during a solar eclipse the stars became visible in the
day sky.” I think it much more probable that they were looked upon as
demons of darkness because they peopled the darkness every night.
“These,” says the interpreter of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, “are
the sons of Citlalicue.” Now, Citlalicue means “Starry-skirt,” and I
think that here we are not very far from Coatlicue, “Serpent-skirt.” We
know, too, that Citlalicue, like Coatlicue, was connected with the
cipactli, the earth-beast, and with Chicomecoatl (“Seven Serpents”).
The later fusion of Citlalicue with her husband Citlaltonac or
Tonacatecutli, lord of the heavenly vault, as has been shown in the
remarks on these gods, would give her stellar attributes; hence the
seeming discrepancy between her and Coatlicue.
[108] Appendix to bk. ii.
[109] Hist. de los Indios de la Nueva España, tom. ii, p. 240.
[110] See Rendel Harris, The Ascent of Olympus, passim. In his Ascent
of Olympus Dr. Rendel Harris has shown that the sacred oak of Zeus was
regarded as “the animistic repository of the thunder, and in that sense
the dwelling-place of Zeus ... that the woodpecker who nested in it ...
was none other than Zeus himself, and it may turn out that Athena, who
sprang from the head of the thunder-oak, was the owl that lived in one
of its hollows” (p. 57).
In the same way, it may be that the maguey plant may have been regarded
by the Mexicans as a repository of thunder and the heavenly fire.
Octli, its sap, was connected with fire (see octli gods, “Nature and
Status”), and Uitzilopochtli was the humming-bird who dwelt among its
leaves. He springs from his mother’s body fully armed, as does Athena
from the head of Zeus. A similar train of thought appears to be present
in both ideas.
[111] Manuel de Ministros, p. 35.
[112] Commentary on Codex Vaticanus B, p. 91.
[113] Maguey is an Antillean word imported into Mexico by the
Spaniards, but the use of a post-Columbian word does not exclude the
possibility of a synonymous pre-Columbian form.
[114] Manuel de Ministros, p. 37.
[115] Myths of the New World, pp. 129 ff.
[116] Hist. Nat. Ind., c. ix, bk. v (English translation from Purchas
his Pilgrimes).
[117] Obviously an error for tlachialoni.
[118] More probably like a jaguar, one of the forms of the god.
[119] See précis in chapter on Cosmogony.
[120] The Morelosia huañita of the family Styraciñes.
[121] Inga circinalis.
[122] Paper hand.
[123] Face of the temple.
[124] Young brother.
[125] Hist. Gen., bk. i. c. iii.
[126] Hist. Nat. y Moral, c. ix.
[127] Hist. Mex., English translation, vol. i, bk. vi, p. 243.
[128] Hist. Gen., bk. iii, c. vi–ix.
[129] These both mean the same thing, “shield of precious stones.”
[130] Diccionario Universal, Appendix, s.v.
[131] See ante, Aspect and Insignia.
[132] Commentary C. Fejérváry-Mayer, p. 34.
[133] See the Stone of Tizoc for examples of this practice.
[134] This figure conventionally represents the turkey and strikingly
exhibits the large red wattles and lobe of that bird. In most of the
MSS. it wears Tezcatlipocâ’s smoking mirror at the temple, the
warrior’s headdress of heron-feathers, and in Codex Borbonicus it
appears as a naualli or disguise of the god, having his crown painted
with stars and his anauatl or ring of mussel-shell. On sheet 6 of Codex
Fejérváry-Mayer the bird appears as an image of Tezcatlipocâ and is
represented along with the signs of mortification and blood-letting, as
it is on sheet 17 of the Aubin tonalamatl, where it wears the
bone-piercer in its ears and a red robe edged with blue and brown.
Indeed, it represents the blood-offering connected with the worship of
Tezcatlipocâ. The turkey-cock’s foot, too, is sometimes symbolic of the
god, and the interpretative codices tell us that “of the demons we
often see nothing more than a cock’s or eagle’s foot.” The turkey-cock
is to be conceived as representative of rain, which was believed by the
Nahua to be nothing else than the magically altered blood he shed in
penitence or sacrifice. It may be that the red wattles and lobe of the
turkey suggested the idea of blood, and that the shades in his plumage
were equally suggestive of water. Thus it would come to be regarded as
the blood shed by the stone knife of sacrifice. It is also obvious that
Tezcatlipocâ’s patronage of slaves, who were strictly regarded as his
property, arose out of the idea that those unfortunates, whenever used
for the purposes of sacrificial ritual, constituted the “food” of the
obsidian knife.
[135] Bk. xi, c. 8, § 5.
[136] Bernal Diaz also states that the eyes of Tezcatlipocâ’s idol were
“mirrors.” See ante, “Aspect and Insignia.”
[137] In the myth which recounts his discomfiture of the Toltecs it
will be recalled that he rained stones upon them. See also Introduction
for identification of obsidian with wind and breath.
[138] Gomme, Ethnology in Folklore.
[139] Myth, Ritual, and Religion, vol. i, p. 266.
[140] See Itzlacoliuhqui, pp. 341 ff.
[141] See my article on “Cherokee Religion” in vol. iii, Encyclopædia
of Religion and Ethics.
[142] Brinton, Myths of the New World.
[143] Sahagun, bk. xii, c. iv.
[144] Bk. iii, c. ii.
[145] Bk. xi, c. xlvii.
[146] Bk. v, c. ix.
[147] Seler, The Wall-paintings of Mitla, Bull. 28, Bureau of American
Ethnology.
[148] “The swift ones who serrate the teeth.”
[149] “Mount of the crier.”
[150] Sahagun’s statement that the draught would make Quetzalcoatl
remember those evils is obviously a slip which even his copyist
Torquemada is capable of avoiding.
[151] Bk. iii, c. 3 and 4.
[152] The names throughout the myth merely describe the incident which
took place at the locality alluded to.
[153] Sahagun, bk. iii, c. xii, xiii, xiv.
[154] Monarq. Ind., tom. ii, pp. 48–52.
[155] Monarq. Ind., tom. i, pp. 254–256.
[156] Hist. de los Indios.
[157] Hist. Ecles., pp. 82, 86, 92–93, 97–98.
[158] Hist. Ecles., p. 82.
[159] A Lacandone Indian tribe near Palenque.
[160] Land of Chivim.
[161] The myths relating to him under the name of Tohil appear to me to
identify Tohil more with Tezcatlipocâ. See Brassuer, Le Vuh Popol,
passim.
[162] The circumstance that the two high-priests of Mexico, the
pontiffs of the cults of Uitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, had the name
Quetzalcoatl prefixed to their official descriptions merely indicates
that it had passed into a sacerdotal title. They were in no special
sense attached to the worship of the god.
[163] He was, of course, all of these, but as regards the two latter,
in a subsidiary sense only.
[164] Spanish, hurican; French, ouragan; English, hurricane.
[165] Sahagun reverses the process by calling Quetzalcoatl “a man who
became a god,” bk. i, c. v.
[166] See my article on these books in vol. iii of Hastings’
Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics.
[167] This, too, accounts for his identification with the planet Venus,
which also had a calendric connection, and therefore as the herald of
the dawn, and the child of the virgin goddess Chimalman or
Chalchihuitlicue in her guise as Moon-goddess.
[168] Votan was likewise a builder of subterranean houses and was
worshipped in caves. The god of the rain-cult is, indeed, regarded as
master of the streams which flow under the earth. See Brinton,
Nagualism, p. 41.
[169] A generic name for green precious or semi-precious
stones—turquoise, jadeite, nephrite, emerald, etc.
[170] In Kingsborough, Antiquities of Mexico, vol. vi.
[171] On this identification see also Torquemada, bk. vi, c. xix.
[172] Codex Telleriano-Remensis.
[173] Seler, Codex Vaticanus B, p. 132.
[174] Spence, Popol Vuh. London, 1908.
[175] Tonalamatl of the Aubin-Goupil Collection, 1900–1901.
[176] This circular patch with the centre punched out is worn by the
women of more than one Asiatic country.
[177] Sahagun, Bks. viii and x.
[178] By Seler, in Commentary on Aubin Tonalamatl, p. 93.
[179] Sahagun, bk. i, c. xii.
[180] As regards these translations of hymns throughout the work, some
have been translated by me from the Mexican originals, others have been
translated from the German of Seler. Like that authority I have not
received any enlightenment from Brinton’s “translations” in his Sacred
Chants of the Ancient Mexicans.
[181] Bk. ii, c. xxx; see also Torquemada, bk. x, c. xxxv.
[182] Pyramid temple.
[183] Seler, Commentary on Vaticanus B, p. 262, believes the ceremony
to refer to the parturition of the goddess, who gives birth to
Cinteotl, although he at first elucidated the ceremony as here
indicated. Seler confounds the postures of sexual intercourse and
parturition.
[184] See picture in Codex Borbonicus.
[185] As do Aphrodite, and other goddesses of love.
[186] It is equally the symbol of the fertility-pot.
[187] Bk. ii, c. xxiii.
[188] Lib. x, c. xiii.
[189] A species of wild laurel.
[190] The custom of wearing a mask of the deity worshipped (in this
case the slain woman represented the goddess) is widespread.
[191] Sahagun, bk. ii.
[192] Appendix to bk. ii.
[193] Who, like several of the older Spanish authorities, regarded
Cinteotl as a goddess, a belief now exploded. See vol. i, bk. vi
(English translation).
[194] It might be quoted against this view that the lewd life of
pleasure of which Xochipilli and Macuilxochitl are the representatives
results in that death which is the child of sin, and that these gods
are therefore “brothers” to Cinteotl in this especial connection.
Seler, Comm. Codex Fej.-Mayer, p. 66; Comm. Codex Vat. B, pp. 207–208.
[195] Sahagun, bk. ix, c. xvii.
[196] Sahagun MS.
[197] At the festival of Demeter, with whose worship the serpent was
connected, the earth was struck with rods by the priest who called upon
the goddess. This is also done during the act of divination among the
Zulus, when they call upon spirits. See Callaway, Izinyanga Zokubula,
p. 362.
[198] Lib. ii, c. ii.
[199] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ. du Mex. (quoting a
Cakchiquel MS.), vol. i, p. 248.
[200] Bk. i, c. vi.
[201] Sahagun, bk. i, c. vi.
[202] Idem, bk. 2, Appendix.
[203] Idea, p. 27; vol. i, pp. 419 ff.
[204] See Introduction, pp. 14, 16.
[205] See Uitzilopochtli, pp. 73 ff.
[206] Bk. i, c. xix.
[207] Idea, pp. 63–66. This myth seems to me to show vestiges of a
belief in the theory of the transmigration of souls, and to indicate
that the ascetic, almost on the borders of what is known in Buddhistic
belief as “arahatship,” or promotion to a higher life, was condemned
for his lapse to recommence existence once more under a low form of
life.
[208] Bk. i, c. xix, appendix.
[209] See Appendix in the Tonalamatl, “Day-signs.”
[210] A diacritical point.
[211] Bk. x, c. xxxv.
[212] Bk. x, c. xxxi.
[213] Seler, Commentary on Aubin Tonalamatl, p. 119.
[214] Seler, Commentary on Codex Vaticanus B, p. 161.
[215] But see the song to Cinteotl in the portion dealing with that
god, which in a manner refers to Xochipilli.
[216] Commentary on Aubin Tonalamatl, p. 87.
[217] Bk. i, c. xiv.
[218] Cronica Mexicana. See picture of Axayacatl in Boban’s catalogue
of the Goupil collection, Paris, 1891, pp. 14, 15.
[219] The best authority on Xipe’s costume is Sahagun (Mexican MS.).
[220] Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, pp. 417 ff.
[221] Sahagun, bk. v, c. xiii.
[222] Werenfels, Dissertation upon Superstition, p. 6 (London, 1748).
Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. ii, pp. 719 ff.
[223] Roscher, Über Selene und verwandtes (Leipzig, 1890), pp. 49 ff.
[224] Pliny, Nat. Hist., vol. ii, p. 223; Payne, Hist. New World, vol.
i, p. 495.
[225] Or calpulli, a muster-place at several festivals.
[226] “They who seize the head,” alluding to the custom of taking the
victims by the hair.
[227] Sahagun states that the “hair” of the uauantin was kept as a
trophy. This seems to me analogous to the North American Indian custom
of scalping, which is sometimes spoken of as “losing one’s hair,” a
phrase which, through its use among American border fighters, has
passed into slang.
[228] Tezcatlipocâ took the form of a coyote and lay in wait for
travellers. Sahagun, bk. v, c. xiii.
[229] Or coyote.
[230] Sahagun, bk. ii, Appendix.
[231] Sahagun, bk. ii, Appendix.
[232] Seler, Commentary on Codex Vaticanus B, p. 175.
[233] Decade iii, lib. iii, c. xv.
[234] Tezozomac, Cronica Mexicana, c. xci.
[235] J. Lecœur, Esquisses du Bocage Normand, vol. ii, p. 240.
[236] Athenæus, vol. ix, 47, p. 392 d.
[237] Religion of the Semites, new edition, 1914, p. 469.
[238] Bk. ii. c. viii.
[239] Bk. x, c. xix.
[240] Hist. de Tlaxcallan, c. v.
[241] This deer is two-headed; so is Quaxolotl a variant of Chantico,
the Fire-goddess, with whom Itzpapalotl seems to have many points of
resemblance.
[242] See Xochipilli.
[243] In some myths of the Old World the butterfly is the soul or
ghost. This would explain her connection with the Ciuateteô, or dead
women.
[244] Vol. i, bk. vi (English translation).
[245] Bk. i, c. ix.
[246] Hist. de los Indios de la Nueva España (Epistola Proemial).
[247] Sahagun, bk. ii., c. xxxvi; Torquemada, bk. x, c. xxix.
[248] It occurred to the writer that the expression tititl may have had
reference to the act of sexual impregnation, as in the case of
Tlazolteotl (q.v.), who “widens herself, stretches herself out” at the
foot of the teocalli of Uitzilopochtli, when she is impregnated by that
deity. This consideration scarcely seems to apply to the present
instance, however, and that indicated above appears preferable.
[249] See remarks upon the Tlaloc cult in the Introduction.
[250] See my remarks upon Quetzalcoatl in the section which deals with
him, and where he is identified with the trade-wind which brings the
rain.
[251] Bk. i, c. xxi.
[252] See Appendix, the Tonalamatl and the Solar Calendar.
[253] See digest of the passage in chapter on Cosmogony, p. 49.
[254] See Spence, The Popol Vuh. London, 1908.
[255] Sahagun (bk. x, c. xxviii, § 10) states that Tlalocan was in the
Olmec or Mixtec country; but Camargo (Hist. de Tlaxcallan, Nouvelles
annales des Voyages, 1843, tom. 99, pp. 135–137) is a better authority
on this particular subject.
[256] Wood-mountain.
[257] Place of Might.
[258] Flower-feather.
[259] Place of Darkness.
[260] Beside the stalle (or banner).
[261] Pearl-serpent.
[262] Rows of pearls.
[263] Servant.
[264] Covered with mugwort.
[265] Bk. ii, c. xx.
[266] Bk. ii, c. iii.
[267] The Pantitlan = “Near the Stake.”
[268] Bk. ii, c. vi.
[269] All of the deities known by these names were octli-gods.
[270] Temple precinct.
[271] Bk. i, c. xiii.
[272] Bk. ii, c. xxxv.
[273] Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones, p. 41, states that girls were
sacrificed by the Toltecs to Tlaloc and buried.
[274] Hist. de Tlaxcallan, in Ternaux-Compan’s Nouvelles annales de
Voyages, 1843, tom. 99, pp. 133, 135–7.
[275] Vol. i, bk. vi, p. 251 (English translation). See also
Torquemada, bk. vi, c. xxiii; Veytia, vol. i, p. 27; Velasquez de Leon,
Nevadade Toluca, Bd. Inst. Nac. Geog. Estad. Mex., 1850.
[276] Bk. vi, c. vii.
[277] Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas, c. ii.
[278] Förstemann, Die Maya-Handschrift-zu Dresden, Leipzig, 1880.
Second edition, 1892.
[279] Codex Borgia, sheet 14, and Codex Fejérváry-Mayer, sheets 1 and
3.
[280] Unless the costume be spotted like that of her spouse Tlaloc,
with ulli rubber-gum, to represent rain.
[281] This picture of Tlaloc and Chalchihuitlicue is reminiscent of the
Japanese myth of Susa-no-o and his sister Ama-terasu, the Sun-goddess,
who, desirous of progeny, stood one on either side of a “river” (the
Milky Way), dipped jewels into the “river,” crushed them into dust and
“blew them away”; gods were born from the dust so breathed upon. See
Kojiki, translated by Basil Hill Chamberlain, in supplement to vol. x
of Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, 1882, pp. 47–49. The
Mexican picture has probably a similar generative significance.
[282] Hist. Antig. de Mej., tom. i, c. xxviii.
[283] “Chief Eagle.”
[284] Commentary on the Aubin Tonalamatl, p. 56.
[285] The resemblance of this festival to the uei teciulhuitl, the
feast of Xilonen, is obvious. (For a fuller description, see Sahagun,
bk. ii, c. xxvii.)
[286] Bk. i, c. xiii.
[287] Bk. vi, c. xvii.
[288] Bk. ix, c. iii.
[289] Bk. vi, c. iv.
[290] Bk. vi, c. ix.
[291] Bk. ii, c. xxix.
[292] Bk. ii, c. xxxvii.
[293] Bk. ii, c. xix.
[294] Bk. ii, Appendix.
[295] See Sahagun, bk. ii, Appendix.
[296] Seler, Commentary on Tonalamatl of the Aubin Goupil Collection,
p. 73.
[297] Commentary on the Tonalamatl of the Aubin Collection, p. 71.
[298] See also T. L. Preuss, Die Feuergötter als Ausgangspunkt zum
Verständnis der Mexikanischen Religion (“Mittheilungen der
Anthropologische Gesellschaft in Wien,” vol. xxxiii, Vienna, 1903, pp.
129–233).
[299] Bk. ix, c. xvii.
[300] “Wizard-prince,” evidently a patron of sorcerers and cunning
workmanship.
[301] “Five House.”
[302] Bk. ii, Appendix.
[303] Sahagun states that the dog is the symbol of fire (bk. iv, c.
xxii).
[304] Bk. ii, Appendix.
[305] The locus classicus for representations of the octli-gods is the
Codex Magliabecchiano, which presents a most valuable series of them,
pp. 49–59.
[306] Bk. i, c. xxii.
[307] “Mirror covered with Straw.”
[308] See Seler, “Temple-pyramid of Tepoxtlan,” Bulletin 28, U.S.
Bureau of Ethnology, p. 349.
[309] Teatro Mexicana, tom. i.
[310] Hist. de los Indios, tom. ii, p. 240.
[311] Bk. i, c. xiii.
[312] Manuel de los Ministros, p. 35.
[313] Bk. i, Appendix.
[314] In The Ascent of Olympus.
[315] See Sahagun, bk. vii, cs. x–xiii, for a much more detailed
description.
[316] See Sahagun, bk. iii, Appendix, c. iv.
[317] Historia de los Indios de la Nueva España, Preface, in
Izcazbalceta, vol. i, 1858, pp. 7, 10.
[318] Izcazbalceta, vol. iii, 1891, p. 237.
[319] Appendix to bk. i, c. xiv.
[320] Brinton, Myths of the New World, p. 190.
[321] Commentary on Codex Vaticanus B, p. 287.
[322] Bulletin 28 of U.S. Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 355 ff.
[323] See Commentary on the Codex Vaticanus B, p. 90. It seems to me
that, as Tezozomoc says, these were gods of the “signs and planets,”
i.e. of the tonalamatl in its augural or astrological sense. If so, the
definitely astrological nature of the tonalamatl might be argued
therefrom.
[324] See L. Spence, The Popol Vuh. London, 1908.
[325] Commentary on Codex Fejérváry-Mayer, p. 43.
[326] See Section on Tezcatlipocâ.
[327] Las Casas, Apologetica, c. cxcix; Herrera, 4, 10, c. xiii.
[328] Seler (Commentary on Codex Vaticanus B, p. 102) sees in a passage
in Sahagun (bk. v, c. 1) an association between the omen of a jaguar
roaring in the mountains by night and the echo thereof and Tepeyollotl.
[329] Bk. i, c. xix; bk. ix, passim.
[330] Nat. Rac. Pac. States, vol. iii, p. 417, note.
[331] Bradford, American Antiquities, p. 333; Schoolcraft, Indian
Tribes, vol. i, p. 271; Von Tschudi, Beiträge, p. 29.
[332] See Seler, Bull. 28, American Bureau of Ethnology, p. 94.
[333] Bk. i, c. xvi.
[334] See also Sahagun, bk. i, c. xv.
[335] Bk. i, c. xv.
[336] The most convincing modern writers on the tonalamatl are Morley,
Bowditch, De Jonghe, and Seler. A bibliography of works on the subject
will be found at the end of this appendix.
[337] We speak of “numbers.” More accurately, the numbers employed by
the Mexicans were merely simple dots. Thus a single dot represented our
numeral 1, and thirteen dots our numeral 13.
[338] It will be seen that, although the first ten day-gods take the
first ten week-signs, these signs are, naturally, not in the same order
as the day-signs, as has been pointed out, therefore these gods could
not take precisely the same sign as in the day-signs, but only the same
place.
[339] For Seler’s point of view on this question see his Commentary on
the Aubin Tonalamatl, London and Berlin, 1900–1, pp. 197–228.
De Jonghe, Le Calendrier Mexicain (Journal of the Americanist Society
of Paris, New Series, vol. iii, 1906, pp. 197–228), believes that the
“Lords of the Night” are connected with the days of the tonalamatl. He
states that the combination of these “Lords of the Night” with the
day-names sufficed to distinguish the days of the year which by the
tonalamatl reckoning would take the same numeral and sign. Thus if the
year began with 1 acatl, the 261st day would also be 1 acatl, but would
have a different “Lord of the Night.” This is denied by Seler.
[340] These are depicted in the Aubin tonalamatl along with their
thirteen bird-disguises in the second and first vertical rows of the
upper and the second, and first cross-rows of the lower half of the
sheets, and are displayed in a similar manner in Codex Borbonicus.
There are discrepancies between the two MSS., but these are by no means
irreconcilable. Thus in the seventh place Codex Borbonicus has the
Maize-god Cinteotl and the Aubin tonalamatl Macuilxochitl or
Xochipilli, who, however, in one of the songs to the gods, is addressed
as “Cinteotl,” and so forth.
[341] This, however, clashes with Seler’s enumeration of the day and
night hours elsewhere.
[342] Sahagun, bk. ii, c. xix.
[343] These month-names bear a striking resemblance to those of certain
North American Indian tribes, and are certainly seasonal in their
origin.
[344] The Venus Period in the Borgian Codex Groups, English translation
in Bull. 28 of the U.S. Bureau of Ethnology.