The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations Part 5

Two priests are likewise pictured in the act of offering bowls containing human blood to the idol and a third, mounted on a ladder, is pouring the contents of another bowl over its head. It is obvious how the constant a.s.sociations of the earth-mother with sanguinary sacrifices and bloodthirstiness would, in time, give rise to the idea of a hostile, maleficent power, linked with darkness and devouring fire, who, under the aspect of the serpent-woman, waged an eternal warfare on the human race and clamored for victims and b.l.o.o.d.y sacrifices. The natural sequence to the above a.s.sociations is that in ancient Mexico the powers exerting fatal influence upon the human race are all represented as female, viz.: the Cihuacoatl or woman-serpent, the Ciuapipiltin and the Tzit-zime, etc.

These and various other personifications of the female principle are described in detail in my notes and commentary to the B. N. MS.

After considering the foregoing data it seems impossible not to conclude that it must have taken centuries of time for the idea of duality, or of the Above and Below to have taken such a deep hold upon the native mind and to have produced such a growth of symbolism and a.s.sociation in so many ramifications of thought. Let us endeavor to obtain a further insight into the native mode of thought by carefully studying some significant details concerning the social organization of the Mexicans from the time of Acamapichtli to that of Montezuma and the influences it had been subjected to gradually. This, the first ruler, unquestionably ruled as the Cihuacoatl, a name which means either Woman-serpent or Female-twin. This fact in itself testifies to an epoch-making change in the organization of the Mexican government, in the making of which a concession was made to a previously existing order of things, by the retention of the female t.i.tle by a male ruler.

Having carefully studied the question for many years, I have long considered it proven that when the Mexicans settled in the valley of Mexico they came under a series of influences emanating from an ancient and highly cultured centre of civilization situated in the south, which had followed, during untold centuries, the same lines of primitive thought which have been stated. This question of contact and influence from an older civilization is so important and the material I have collected on the subject is so extensive and complex, that it cannot be adequately treated here. Further on I shall discuss at length certain historical data throwing light on ancient contact and influences. Meanwhile I may as well state here that, having carefully weighed all testimony, I accept as amply proven and well supported, the testimony of Las Casas, Torquemada, Mendieta and others, who record that the Mexican culture-hero Quetzalcoatl was an actual person who had come to Mexico from Yucatan twice and had finally returned thither, leaving a small colony of his va.s.sals behind him whose influence upon the religious and social organization and symbolism of the tribes, inhabiting the central plateau, can be plainly discerned.

Montezuma himself, in his famous speech to Cortes, which the latter carefully reported to the Emperor Charles V, states that: "we [the Mexican rulers] were brought here by a lord, whose va.s.sals all of our predecessors were, and who returned from here to his native land. He afterwards came here again, after a long time, during which many of his followers who had remained, had married native women of this land, raised large families and founded towns in which they dwelt. He wished to take them away from here with him, but they did not want to go, nor would they receive or adopt him as their ruler, and so he departed. Hut we have always thought that his descendants would surely come to subjugate this country and claim us as their va.s.sals...." (Historia de Nueva Espana. Hernan Cortes, ed.

Lorenzana, p. 81; see also p. 96). I do not see how it is possible to construe such plain, unadorned statements of simple, common-place facts into the a.s.sumption that Montezuma was recounting a mythical account of the disappearance of the Light-G.o.d from the sky, as upheld by some modern writers, who interpret the whole episode as a sun-myth or legend.

I have already shown that the meaning of the ocelot-skin and the spider, employed as symbols by the Mexicans, is apparent only when studied by means of the Maya language of Yucatan, the land whence the culture-hero is said to have come by the foregoing authorities. I will add here that in the Maya chronicles, it is stated that the culture-hero had ruled in Chichen-Itza, the first part of which name, _Chichen_, means _red_. In Mexican records it is described that he departed by water from the Mexican coast and travelled directly east, bound for Tlapallan-a name which means _red_-land. I draw attention to the fact that any one sailing from the mouth of the Panuco river, for instance, in a straight line towards the east, would inevitably land on the coast of Yucatan, not far from the modern Merida and the ancient ruins of Chichen-Itza.

I shall also produce evidence, further on, to show that the meaning of the much-discussed name of the culture-hero's home, Tullan, is also furnished by the Maya language. From more than one source, we learn, moreover, that there were several Tullans on the American continent. The conception of _Twin-brothers_ as the personification of the Above and Below had been adopted in Yucatan and it is to the influence emanating from that source that I attribute the movement made in Mexico, to subst.i.tute male twin-rulers in the place of the man and woman, who had previously and jointly ruled the ancient Mexicans.

Let us now a.n.a.lyze the Maya t.i.tle Kukulcan, of which Quetzalcoatl is the Mexican equivalent. As already stated, the word _can_ means serpent and the numeral 4 and is almost h.o.m.onymous with the word for sky or heaven=_caan_. The image of a serpent, therefore, directly suggested and expressed the idea of something quadruple incorporated in one celestial being and appropriately symbolized the divine ruler of the four quarters.

In the word Kukulcan the noun _can_ is qualified by the prefix _kukul_. In the compiled Maya dictionary published by Bra.s.seur de Bourbourg (appendix to de Landa's Relacion) the adjective _ku_ or _kul_ is given as "divine or holy." Kukulcan may therefore be a.n.a.lyzed as "the divine serpent" or the "Divine Four." When Maya sculptors or scribes began to represent this symbol of the divinity they must have searched for some object, easy to depict, the sound of whose name resembled that of ku or kul. The Maya adjective "feathered" being _kuk.u.m_, the artists evidently devised the plan of representing, as an effigy of the divinity, a serpent decorated with feathers and to this simple attempt at representing the "divine serpent" in sculpture or pictography is due, in my opinion, the origin of the "feathered serpent" effigies found in Yucatan and Mexico, which have so puzzled archaeologists.

Of Kukulcan, the culture-hero of the Mayas, it is recounted that he had been one of four brothers who originally ruled at Chichen-Itza, over four tribes. "These brothers chose no wives but lived chastely and ruled righteously, until, at a certain time, one died or departed and two began to act unjustly and were put to death. The one remaining was Kukulcan. He appeased the strife which his brothers' acts had aroused, directed the minds of the people to the arts of peace and caused to be built various edifices. After he had completed his work at Chichen-Itza he founded the great city of Mayapan, destined to be the capital of the confederacy of the Mayas." (See Brinton, Hero-myths, p. 162.) Friar Diego de Landa relates that the current opinion amongst the Indians of Yucatan was that this ruler had gone to Mexico where, after his return (departure?) he was named Cezalcouatl and revered as one of their G.o.ds (Relacion, ed. Bra.s.seur de Bourbourg, p. 36). Before a.n.a.lyzing the Nahuatl rendering of Kukulcan's name I would point out the noteworthy coincidence that, during his reign at Chichen-Itza and Mayapan, he practically united in his person and a.s.sumed the offices formerly fulfilled by four rulers, of which he had been only one.

I would, moreover, draw attention to the remarkable, sculptured columns which support the main portal of the main pyramid-temple called El Castillo at Chichen-Itza. These represent gigantic feathered serpents and are figured on pl. XIV of Mr. Wm. Holmes' most instructive and useful "Archaeological Studies," Part I, "Monuments of Yucatan." The feathers carved on the ma.s.sive columns are evidently the precious tail feathers of the quetzal, which have the peculiarity of exhibiting, according to the way the light falls upon them, blue, red, yellow and green colors-precisely those a.s.signed to the four quarters by the Mexicans and for all we know to the contrary, by the Mayas. Whether this feather was chosen for this peculiarity or for its beauty only, as that with which to deck the effigy of the divinity, can, of course, only be conjectured. In Mexico numberless effigies of feathered serpents exist. The resemblance of the sound of the Nahuatl words: feather=ihuitl, and heaven or sky=ilhui-catl, should be recorded here as a possible reason for the a.s.sociation of feathers with the serpent and as a means of conveying the idea of its divinity. It should also be noted that quetzal, the name of the most precious feathers the natives possessed, resembles in sound, the second part of the Nahuatl words for flame=tle-cuecal-lotl, or for "tongue of fire"=tle-cuecal-nenepilli. That the feathered serpent was an image of the divinity is finally proven, I think, by the following pa.s.sage from Sahagun which establishes that the earliest form, under which the divinity was revered by the Mexicans, was that of fire: "Of all the G.o.ds the [most]

ancient one is the G.o.d of Fire, who dwells in the midst of flowers, in an abode surrounded by four walls and _is covered with s.h.i.+ning feathers like wings_" (_op. cit._ book VI, chap. IV). It is thus shown that whilst the word ihuitl=feather suggested something divine, the word quetzal, besides being the name of a particular kind of feather, conveyed the idea of something resplendent or s.h.i.+ning [like fire]. The name for serpent, coatl, signified twin; thus there is a profound a.n.a.logy between the Maya and Mexican symbol, pointing, however, to the Yucatan form as the most ancient.

Let us see how the name Quetzal-coatl occurs in Mexico. It is given as the name of the "supreme G.o.d whose substance was as invisible and intangible as air," but who was also revered as the G.o.d of fire. The constant reference to air in connection with the supreme divinity caused him to be also adored as the G.o.d of air and of the four winds. On the other hand, the divine t.i.tle of Quetzal-coatl was carried by the culture-hero whose personality has been discussed and who was a Yucatec ruler and high priest. Sahagun (_op. cit._ book III, chap. IX) informs us that "Quequet-zalcoa," the plural form of the word Quetzalcoatl, was employed to designate "_the high priests_ (elsewhere designated as the 'supreme pontiffs') _who were the successors of Quetzalcoatl_." He also states that "the high priest of the temple was [the representative of] the G.o.d Quetzalcoatl" (book I, chap. 5). "The priest who was most perfect in his conduct and in wisdom was elected to be high priest and a.s.sumed the name of Quetzalcoatl.... There were two such high priests equal in rank and honours.... One of these, the Quetzalcoatl Totec Tlamacazqui, was in the service of Huitzilopochtli." Without pausing here to a.n.a.lyze this t.i.tle since it will be discussed in detail in another publication I will only repeat that, after years of careful research, I have obtained the certainty that the foregoing t.i.tle and office were those held by Montezuma at the time of the Conquest. What is more, I can produce ample evidence to prove that he was the living personification of Huitzilopochtli one of the "divine twins" and of the Above. He was not the first Mexican ruler who had filled this exalted role, for it is recorded that Axayacatl, one of Acamapichtli's successors, had represented, in life, "our G.o.d Huitzilopochtli." After his death his effigy "was first covered with a fine robe representing Huitzilopochtli; over this was hung the dress of Tlaloc ... the next garment was that of Youalahua [=the lord of the wheel]

and the fourth was that of Quetzalcoatl" (Duran, vol. I, chap. 39, pp. 304 and 306).

Let us now see how Montezuma's personification of Huitzilopochtli was carried out by his life and his surroundings. According to Bernal Diaz, an eye-witness, when the great Montezuma came forth in state to meet Cortes, he was conveyed on a sumptuous litter, being thus raised above the earth.(6) When he descended from this and walked, the golden soles of his sandals prevented his feet from coming into direct contact with the ground; he was supported, _i. e._ partially held up, by his four princ.i.p.al lords, and a baldachin adorned with light greenish-blue feathers, gold, pearls and jade representing the xoxouhqui-ilhuicatl="the verdant or blue sky" (which was, by the way, a t.i.tle of Huitzilopochtli), was carried over his head. Other lords preceded him, "sweeping the ground and spreading blankets upon it so that he should not tread upon the earth. All of these lords did not dare to think of raising their eyes to look at his face-only the four lords, his cousins, who supported him, possessed this privilege"

(Bernal Diaz, Historia Verdadera de la Conquista. Madrid, 1632, p. 65). A feature, the origin of which can be directly traced back to the a.s.sociation of the star-G.o.d, Polaris, with repose and immovability, was that Montezuma, like his predecessors, was the only person privileged to sit on state occasions, on a throne or raised seat with a high back and rest whilst all other individuals stood or moved about him.

From several sources we know that Montezuma habitually wore blue or white attire, which sometimes was of open network. He employed gold, precious blue and green feathers, turquoise, pearls and emeralds for his personal ornaments. His diadem with a high point in front, was incrusted with turquoise or was made of burnished gold. He sometimes wore a crown made of featherwork, with a bird's head of gold above his forehead. His emblem was the sun, the orb of day, and he presided over its cult which had developed itself simultaneously with the cult of the Above, a feature of which was the offering of "birds, b.u.t.terflies and flowers." Sometimes he wore, "attached to his sandals, small wings, named tzi-coyolli, resembling the wing of a bird. These produced a sound like that of tiny gold bells when he walked" (Tezozomoc, Cronica, p. 594).

It must be admitted, on reading the foregoing descriptions gleaned from Sahagun's Historia, that it would be impossible to carry out, more perfectly and completely, the idea that Montezuma was the earthly representative of the Upper regions, the blue heaven. By pus.h.i.+ng symbolism so far that he actually wore wings on his feet and avoided contact with the ground, it is not surprising that Montezuma's adversaries, amongst neighboring tribes, should accuse him of exacting divine honors for his own person. At the same time there is no doubt that his own subjects revered him merely as a temporary representative and mouth-piece of the impersonal dual divinity. This idea is clearly conveyed by some native harangues, to which I refer the reader, and from which I extract the following pa.s.sages:

After his election, the ruler is solemnly addressed by one of the chief lords who says to him: "Oh! our humane, pious and beloved lord, who deserves to be more highly esteemed than all precious stones and feathers, you are here present because our sovereign G.o.d has placed thee [above us]

as our lord.... You possess the seat and throne which was given [to your predecessors] by our lord G.o.d" ... "you are the image of our lord G.o.d and represent his person. He reposes in you and he employs you like a flute through which he speaks and he hears with your ears.... Oh, lord king! G.o.d sees what the persons do who rule over his domains and when they err in their office he laughs at them, but in silence, for he is G.o.d, and is omnipotent and can mock at whom he will. For he holds all of us in the palm of his hand and rocks us about, and we are like b.a.l.l.s or round globes in his hands and we go rolling from one side to the other and make him laugh, and he serves himself of us as we go moving about on the palm of his hand!"

"Although thou art our neighbour and friend and son and brother, we are no more thy equals, nor do we consider you as a man, for now you have the person, the image, the conversation and the communion of our lord G.o.d. He speaks inside of you and instructs you and lets himself be heard through your mouth-his tongue is your tongue, and your face is his face ... he has adorned you with his authority and has given you fangs and claws so that you should be feared and reverenced ..." (Sahagun, book VI, chap. 10).

The foregoing figure of speech in which fangs and claws are alluded to as symbols of fear-inspiring power affords as valuable an insight into the native modes of thought and expression as do the similes employed in the following address to the newly-elected ruler by the spokesman of his va.s.sals.

"Oh lord! may you live many years to fill your office prosperously; submit your shoulders to the very heavy and troublesome load; extend your wings and breast as a shelter to your subjects whom you have to carry as a load.

Oh, lord! let your town and va.s.sals enter under your shadow, for you are [unto them] like the tree named puchotl or aueuetl, which casts a great circle or wheel of shade, under which many are gathered in shelter" (_op.

cit._ book VI, chap. II).

The admonition also addressed to the ruler, "Never to laugh and joke again as he had done previously to his election, and to a.s.sume the heart of an old, grave and severe man," explains the true significance of the name of Montezuma or Mo-tecuh-zoma; which was an honorific t.i.tle literally meaning, "our angry or wrathy [looking] lord."

Whilst the above data establish beyond a doubt that the Mexican Quetzalcoatl was regarded as the visible representative of the celestial ruler of the universe and that divine honors were voluntarily accorded to him, it is interesting to read Montezuma's explanation to Cortes concerning this question. The latter writes: "seated on a raised seat Montezuma discoursed as follows: ... 'I know that you have been told by my enemies that I am, or have made myself a G.o.d.'... Raising his robes he showed me his body saying: 'Here you see that I am made of flesh and bone, like yourself or like any one, and that I am mortal and tangible.'

Grasping his arms and his body with his hands he continued: 'see how they have like to you.' "... (Historia, Hernan Cortes, ed. Lorenzana, p. 82).

Better than all dissertations, the above words convey an idea of the naf simplicity of the man who uttered them.

Referring the reader to Mr. Ad. Bandelier's study, "On the social organization and mode of government of the ancient Mexicans," for further details concerning the duties respectively filled by Montezuma and his coadjutor, I shall only explain here the conclusion I have reached that the former was the high priest of the cult of the sun and heaven, the visible ruler, the war lord, and the administrator of justice. As stated in a native harangue: "the supreme lord is like unto the heart of the population ... he is aided by two senators in all concerning the administration of the government: one of these was a 'pilli' and was named tlaca-tecuhtli; the other was a warrior and was ent.i.tled tlacoch-tecuhtli.

Two other chieftains aided the supreme lord in the militia: one, ent.i.tled tlaca-teccatl, was a 'pilli' and warrior; the other, named tlacoch-calcatl, was not a 'pilli.' Such is the government or administration of the republic ... and these four officers did not occupy these positions by inheritance but by election" (Sahagun, book VI, chap.

20).

The following account of the republic of Tlaxcalla throws further light upon the form of government which prevailed throughout Mexico and Central America at the period of the Conquest. "The Captains of Tlaxcalla, each of whom had his just portion or number of soldiers ... divided their soldiers into four Battails, the one to Tepeticpac, another to Oco-telulco, the third to Tizatlan and the fourth to Quiahuiztlan, that is to say, the men of the Mountains, the men of the Limepits, the men of the Pinetrees, and the Watermen; all these four sorts of men did make the body of the Commonwealth of Tlaxcallan, and commanded both in Peace and War ... The General of all the whole army was called Xico-tencatl, who was of the Limepits ... the Lieutenant General was Maxix-catzin...." (A new survey of the West-Indies ... Thomas Gage, London, 1655, p. 31). In Mexico we find that the four executive officers were the chiefs or representatives of the four quarters of the City of Mexico. In each of these quarters there was a place where periodical offerings were made in reverence of one of the signs: acatl, tecpatl, callii and tochtli, which were the symbols of the cardinal-points, the elements, and served as day and year signs in the calendar (Sahagun, book II, chap. 26).

An interesting indication that the entire dominion of Mexico was also divided into four equal quarters, the rule administration of which was attended to by four lords, inhabiting towns situated within a comparatively short distance from the capital, is furnished by Bernal Diaz (_op. cit._ p. 65). He relates that the four lords who supported Montezuma when he walked in state to meet Cortes were the lords of Texcoco, Iztapalapa, Tacuba and Coyoacan. These towns, which were minor centres of government, were respectively situated at unequal distances to the northeast, southeast, northwest and southwest of the capital.

These facts and the knowledge that "all lords, in life, represented a G.o.d"

justify the inference that, just as Montezuma represented the central power of the Above or Heaven, the four lords who accompanied him were the personified rulers of the four quarters, a.s.sociated with the elements. In ancient Mexico and Maya records the G.o.ds of the four quarters, also named "the four princ.i.p.al and most ancient G.o.ds" are designated as "the sustainers of the Heaven" and it cannot be denied that, on the solemn occasion described, the four lords actually fulfilled the symbolical office of supporting Montezuma, the personification of the Heaven. This striking ill.u.s.tration is but one of a number I could cite in proof of the deeply ingrained mental habit of the native sages to introduce, into every detail of their life, the symbolism of the Centre, the Above and Below and the Four Quarters. I shall but mention here that it can be proven how, in their respective cities the lords of the cardinal points were central rulers who, in turn, directed the administration of the government by means of four dignitaries. Each of these was also the embodiment of a divine attribute or principle, "All n.o.blemen did represent idols and carried the name of one" (Acosta, Naturall and Morall Historie, lib. 5, p.

349).

Each wore a special kind of symbolical costume and was the ruler or "advocate," as he is termed, of a distinct cla.s.s of people. "For to each kind or cla.s.s of persons they gave a Teotl [=G.o.d or Lord] as an advocate.

When a person died and was about to be buried, they clothed him with the diverse Insignia of the G.o.d to whom he belonged" (Mendieta lib. II, chap.

40). It being established that each of the four year-symbols, acatl, tecpatl, calli and tochtli, ruled four minor symbols, it seems evident that, just as the four lords of the cardinal-points would correspond to the above symbols, each of the minor lords and the category of people they represented would also be a.s.sociated with the minor symbols. The obvious result of this cla.s.sification would be the division of the entire population of the commonwealth into 45=20 categories of people, grouped under twenty local and four central governments, whose representatives in turn were under the rule of the supreme central dual powers. Having thus sketched, in a brief and preliminary way, the expansion of the idea of dividing all things into four parts, the bud of which was the swastika, let us examine the Mexican application of the idea of duality, pausing first to review the data relating to the Cihuacoatl, the personification of the Earth, the Below and the coadjutor of Montezuma.

Nothing has been definitely recorded about his personality, for he seems to have lived in absolute seclusion during the first occupation of Mexico by the Spaniards. He is frequently alluded to, however, and Cortes, Herrera, Torquemada and others, inform us that he had acted as Montezuma's subst.i.tute and led the native troops against the Spaniards. It is interesting to find that after the Conquest Cortes appointed him as governor of the City of Mexico. "I gave him the charge of re-peopling the capital and in order to invest him with greater authority, I reinstated him in the same position, that of Cihuacoatl, which he had held in the time of Montezuma" (Carta Cuarta, Veytia I, p. 110).

Quite indirectly, it is possible to learn what sort of military equipment had been adopted by the Cihuacoatl when he acted as war-chief. Amongst certain presents, which were sent by Cortes to Charles V and are minutely described in vol. XII of the "Doc.u.mentas ineditas del Archivio de Indias,"

p. 347, there are several suits of armor, which could only have been appropriately worn by the "woman serpent." One suit consisted of a "corselet with plates of gold and with woman's b.r.e.a.s.t.s" and a skirt with blue bands. Another suit, instead of the b.r.e.a.s.t.s, exhibited a great wound in the chest, like that of a person who had been sacrificed. In another list (by Diego de Soto, p. 349) a s.h.i.+eld is described "which displayed a sacrificed man, in gold, with a gaping wound in his breast, from which blood was streaming...." It is obvious that the first of these suits of armor conveyed figuratively the name and the second the office of the Cihuacoatl of whom Duran speaks as follows:

"He whose office it was to perform the rite of killing [the victim] was revered as the supreme pontiff and his name or t.i.tle and pontifical robes varied according to the different periods [of the year] and the ceremonies which he had to perform. On the present occasion his t.i.tle was Topiltzin, one of the names of the great lord ... (Quetzalcoatl) and he appeared carrying a large flint knife in his hand ..." (_op. cit._, chap. Lx.x.xI).

The following pa.s.sage shows definitely that Montezuma's coadjutor, his Quetzalcoatl or divine twin, had an equal share of divine honors accorded to him. "The head priest of the temple, named Quetzalcoatl, never came out of the temple or entered into any house whatever, because he was very venerable and very grave and was esteemed as a G.o.d. He only went into the royal palace" (Sahagun, book VI, chap. 39). The same authority designates the second "divine twin" as the Tlalocan-tlamacazqui or, Tlalocan-tlenamacac and states that he served the Tlalocan-tecuhtli.

Before proceeding further, let us pause and inquire into the reason why the name Tlaloc, which is formed of tlalli=earth and is defined by Duran, for instance, as meaning "an underground pa.s.sage or a great cave" (_op.

cit._, chap. 84), should be the well-known t.i.tle of the "G.o.d of rain." The explanation is to be found in the text of the Vatican Codex, A.

Kingsborough, V, p. 190. This teaches us that the last syllable of the name Tlaloc does not represent oc=inside of, but stands for octli, the name of the native wine now known as pulque, which is obtained from the agave plant. Tlaloc thus meant "earth-wine" and "by this metaphor they wanted to express that just as the fumes of wine make mankind gay and happy, so the earth when saturated with water, is gay and fresh and produces its fruits and cereals." By the light of this explanation we see that the t.i.tles conferred upon Montezuma's coadjutor were literally "the priest or lord, or dealer-of-fire in the place of the earth-wine." "The clouds, rain, thunder and lightning were attributed to the lord Tlaloc who had many tlalocs and priests under him, who cultivated all foods necessary for the body, such as maize, beans, etc., and sent the rains so that the earth should give birth to all of its products. During their festival in springtime the priests went through the streets dancing and singing and carrying a shoot of green maize in one hand and a pot with a handle in the other. In this way they went asking for the [ceremonial] boiled maize and all fanners gave them some" ... (Sahagun, book VI, chap. 5).

The above and many scattered allusions throw light upon the group of ideas a.s.sociated with the Cihuacoatl and clearly indicate what were his duties.

To him devolved the care of the earth and his one thought was to secure abundance of rain and of crops. In order to ensure the proper cultivation of the ground, he had, under him, innumerable agents, who strictly superintended the cultivation of all food-plants, the irrigation of barren lauds, etc. These agents, who also resorted to ceremonial usages in order to bring rain or avert hail-storms and other disasters, were collectively named "the 400 pulque or octli-G.o.ds"-an appellation which developed into tochtli-G.o.ds, when the rabbit (=tochtli) had become the pictograph habitually employed to convey the sound of the word octli, and had been adopted as the symbol of the earth and of prolific reproduction in connection with this. The latter idea is born out of the female t.i.tle, that of the earth-mother, who "always brought forth twins." The Cihuacoatl thus stands out as the representative of the bountiful mother-earth and as the lord of agriculture, one of whose duties was the careful collection, storage and distribution of all food products. He presided over the cult of the fertility of the earth, of the nocturnal heaven, of the stars and moon, which were a.s.sociated with the female principle and with growth in general. The following record proves that amongst his other duties he offered sacrifices to the invisible hidden powers of darkness and earth.

"During the night, in the feast t.i.titl, the high priest named Tlillan tlenamacac [=the dealer with fire in the land of darkness=tlilli=black, evidently a t.i.tle a.n.a.logous to that of Tlill-potonqui-cihuacoatl, given by Tezozomoc, in Cronica, chap. 33], sacrificed a victim in honour of the G.o.d of the Underworld" (Sahagun, book II, appendix). In this, as on similar occasions, he was a.s.sisted by four priests who succeeded him in rank.

Mr. Bandelier has already recognized that judicial sentences were ultimately referred to the "woman-serpent," who p.r.o.nounced the "final sentence, which admitted of no appeal." There are more reasons than can conveniently be presented here, proving that in Mexico, as in Guatemala, the priest of the Below, the personification of Tezcatli-poca=s.h.i.+ning Mirror, employed an actual mirror made of polished obsidian, as an aid in p.r.o.nouncing final judgment on criminals.

The Cakchiquel procedure is described by Fuentes of Guzman, who is quoted by Dr. Otto Stoll in his most instructive and valuable work on the Ethnology of the Indian Tribes of Guatemala (Internationales Archiv fur Ethnographie, band I, supplement I, 1888): "A road leads [from the ancient city of Guatemala] to a hill [figured with a large tree growing from it]; on its top there is a flat circular cement floor, enclosed by a low wall.

In the centre is a pedestal, polished and s.h.i.+ning like gla.s.s. No one knows of what substance it is made. This was the tribunal or court of the Cakchiquel Indians, where public trials were held and where the sentences were executed. The judges sat in a circle on the low wall. After the sentence had been p.r.o.nounced, it had to be confirmed or vetoed by another authority. Three messengers, acting as deputies of the council, went to a deep ravine situated to the north of the palace, where, in a sort of hermitage or prayer-house, there was the oracle of the devil, which was a black, transparent stone, like gla.s.s, but more costly than [ordinary]

obsidian. In this stone the devil revealed to the messengers, the sentence to be executed. If it agreed with the judgment p.r.o.nounced, this was immediately executed upon the central pedestal [of the hill of justice] on which the criminal was also tortured, at times." If nothing was seen in the mirror, and it gave no sign, the prisoner was p.r.o.nounced free.

This oracle was also consulted before wars were undertaken ... "During the first years of the Spanish occupation, when the bishop Marroquin heard about this stone, he had it cut out and consecrated it as an altar, which is still in use in the convent of San Francisco in the capital. It is a precious stone of great beauty and is half a vara long."

A picture in the Vatican Codex B (p. 48) represents a temple, on the summit of which a large obsidian mirror is standing on its edge. Inside the doorway there are many small black spots, which obviously represent small mirrors and convey the idea that the interior walls were incrusted with such. These ill.u.s.trations would prove that sacred edifices were a.s.sociated with obsidian mirrors even if Sahagun did not mention, as he does (book II, appendix), no less than three sacred edifices in the great temple of Mexico, which were a.s.sociated with obsidian mirrors. It is, moreover, stated by Duran that "in Mexico the image of the G.o.d Tezcatlipoca was a stone, which was very s.h.i.+ning and black, like jet. It was of the same stone of which the natives make razors and knives," _i.

e._, obsidian (Duran II, p. 98).

What is more, Bernal Diaz relates that the image of Tezcatlipoca, which he saw beside the idol of Huitzilopochtli in the hall of the great temple of Mexico, had s.h.i.+ning eyes which were made of the native mirrors=tezcatl.

"In connection with the s.h.i.+ning eyes" of the G.o.d it is interesting to note that when, as Duran states, he was represented under another form, his idol "carried in its hand a sort of fan made of precious feathers. These surmounted a circular gold disc which was very brilliant and polished like a mirror. This meant that, in this mirror, he saw all that went on in the world. In the native language they named it 'itlachiayan,' which means, that in which he looks or sees" (Duran, _op. cit._, vol. II, p. 99).

Sahagun mentions an a.n.a.logous sceptre which consisted of "a gold disc pierced in the centre, and surmounted by two b.a.l.l.s, the upper and smaller of which supported a pointed object. This sceptre was called tlachieloni, which means 'that through which one looks or observes;' because with it one covered or hid one's face and looked through the hole in the middle of the gold plate." This kind of sceptre is not exclusively a.s.sociated with Tezcatlipoca in the native picture writings, for it figures in the hand of Chalchiuhtlycue "the sister" of Tlaloc and of Omacatl whose attributes, the reeds and chalchiuite or jade beads, prove him to be also a.s.sociated with the water. On the other hand the same sceptre is also a.s.signed by Sahagun to the G.o.d of fire.

A clue to the truth and significance of this emblematic sceptre is furnished by the fact that, in order to express the divine t.i.tle Tlachiuale, meaning "the Maker or Lord of all creatures or of young life,"

the native scribes were naturally obliged to employ the verb tlachia=to look or see, in order to convey its sound. It is obvious that they cleverly agreed to express this verb by picturing some object which could be or was looked through. They therefore adopted a sceptre with a hollow disc, as an emblem, which was carried by the living representative of certain divinities, whose entire costume was in reality a sort of rebus, and in the case of Tlaloc, the lord of earthwine and fertility and the Tlachiuale or "Creator of young life," par excellence, they once and for all designated his t.i.tle by surrounding his eyes with two blue rings, accentuating thereby the action of seeing or looking. But this probably conveyed even more than the above t.i.tle, for there is a Nahuatl noun tlachiuhtli, which means, "something made or formed or engendered," or "earth which is ploughed and sown." Then there is the verb tlachipaua which means, "the smile of dawn, the break of day, the clearing up of the weather," also the purification and cleansing, all of which were supposed to be under the dominion of the rain-G.o.d and of his living representatives on earth, the rain-priests. The seemingly conflicting fact that the tlachieloni sceptre was also a.s.signed to the G.o.d of fire is explained by the existence of the verb tiachinoa=to burn up the fields or forests, and of the noun tlachi-noliztli=the act of burning up or scorching the fields or forests, and finally, metaphorically, tlachinoli-teuotl=war or battle=destruction. It is only when we thus realize all the natives could express by the image of an eye, looking through a circle, that we begin to grasp its full meaning when employed as a symbol in their picture writings.