This concludes the able summing-up presented by Müller, and it is given as I give all theoretical matter, neither accepting nor rejecting it, as simply another ray of light bent in upon the god Quetzalcoatl, whose nature it is not proposed here to either explain or illustrate, but only to reproduce, as regarded from many sides by the earliest and closest observers.
Various accounts of the Birth, Origin, and Derivation of the name of the Mexican War God, Huitzilopochtli, of his Temple, Image, Ceremonial, Festivals, and his deputy, or page, Paynal—Clavigero—Boturini—Acosta—Solis—Sahagun—Herrera—Torquemada—J. G. Müller's Summary of the Huitzilopochtli Myths, their Origin, Relation, and Signification—Tylor—Codex Vaticanus—Tlaloc, God of Water, especially of Rain, and of Mountains—Clavigero, Gama, and Ixtlilxochitl—Prayer in the time of Drought—Camargo, Motolinia, Mendieta, and the Vatican Codex on the Sacrifices to Tlaloc—The Decorations of his Victims and the places of their Execution—Gathering Rushes for the Service of the Water God—Highway Robberies by the Priests at this time—Decorations and Implements of the Priests—Punishments for Ceremonial Offences—The Whirlpool of Pantitlan—Images of the Mountains in honor of the Tlaloc Festival—of the coming Rain and Mutilation of the Images of the Mountains—General Prominence in the cult of Tlaloc, of the Number Four, the Cross, and the Snake.
BIRTH OF HUITZILOPOCHTLI.
Huitzilopochtli, Huitziloputzli, or Vitziliputzli, was the god of war and the especially national god of the Mexicans. Some said that he was a purely spiritual being, others that a woman had borne him after miraculous conception. This legend, following Clavigero, ran as follows:
In the ancient city of Tulla, lived a most devout woman, Coatlicue by name. Walking one day in the temple as her custom was, she saw a little ball of feathers floating down from heaven, which, taking without thought, she put into her bosom. The walk being ended, however, she could not find the ball, and wondered much, all the more that soon after this she found herself pregnant. She had already many children, who now, to avert this dishonor of their house, conspired to kill her; at which she was sorely troubled. But, from the midst of her womb the god spoke: Fear not, O my mother, for this danger will I turn to our great honor and glory. And lo, Huitzilopochtli, perfect as Pallas Athena, was instantly born, springing up with a mighty war-shout, grasping the shield and the glittering spear. His left leg and his head were adorned with plumes of green; his face, arms, and thighs barred terribly with lines of blue. He fell upon the unnatural children, slew them all, and endowed his mother with their spoils. And from that day forth his names were Tezahuitl, Terror, and Tetzauhteotl, Terrible god.
This was the god who became protector of the Mexicans, who conducted them so many years in their pilgrimage, and settled them at last on the site of Mexico. And in this city they raised him that proud temple so much celebrated even by the Spaniards, in which were annually held their solemn festivals, in the fifth, ninth, and fifteenth months; besides those kept every four years, every thirteen years, and at the beginning of every century. His statue was of gigantic size, in the posture of a man seated on a blue-colored bench, from the four corners of which issued four huge snakes. His forehead was blue, but his face was covered with a golden mask, while another of the same kind covered the back of his head. Upon his head he carried a beautiful crest, shaped like the beak of a bird; upon his neck a collar consisting of ten figures of the human heart; in his right hand, a large, blue, twisted club; in his left, a shield, on which appeared five balls of feathers disposed in the form of a cross, and from the upper part of the shield rose a golden flag with four arrows, which the Mexicans pretended to have been sent to them from heaven to perform those glorious actions which we have seen in their history. His body was girt with a large golden snake, and adorned with various lesser figures of animals made of gold and precious stones, which ornaments and insignia had each their peculiar meaning. They never deliberated upon making war without imploring the protection of this god, with prayers and sacrifices; and offered up a greater number of human sacrifices to him than to any other of the gods.[VIII-1]
A different account of the origin of this deity is given by Boturini, showing the god to have been a brave Mexican chief, who was afterward apotheosized:—
While the Mexicans were pushing their conquests and their advance toward the country now occupied by them, they had a very renowned captain, or leader, called Huitziton. He it was that in these long and perilous journeys through unknown lands, sparing himself no fatigue, took care of the Mexicans. The fable says of him that being full of years and wisdom he was one night caught up in sight of his army, and of all his people, and presented to the god Tezauhteotl, that is to say the Frightful God, who, being in the shape of a horrible dragon, commanded him to be seated at his right hand, saying: Welcome, O valiant captain; very grateful am I for thy fidelity in my service and in governing my people. It is time that thou shouldest rest, since thou art already old, and since thy great deeds raise thee up to the fellowship of the immortal gods. Return then to thy sons and tell them not to be afflicted if in future they cannot see thee as a mortal man; for from the nine heavens thou shalt look down propitious upon them. And not only that, but also, when I strip the vestments of humanity from thee, I will leave to thine afflicted and orphan people thy bones and thy skull so that they may be comforted in their sorrow, and may consult thy relics as to the road they have to follow: and in due time the land shall be shown them that I have destined for them, a land in which they shall hold wide empire, being respected of the other nations.
Huitziton did according to these instructions, and after a sorrowful interview with his people, disappeared, carried away by the gods. The weeping Mexicans remained with the skull and bones of their beloved captain, which they carried with them till they arrived in New Spain, and at the place where they built the great city of Tenochtitlan, or Mexico. All this time the devil spoke to them through this skull of Huitziton, often asking for the immolation of men and women, from which thing originated those bloody sacrifices, practiced afterwards by this nation with so much cruelty on prisoners of war. This deity was called, in early as well as in later times, Huitzilopochtli—for the principal men believed that he was seated at the left hand of Tezcatlipoca—a man derived from the original name Huitziton, and from the word mapoche, 'left hand.'[VIII-2]
IMAGE OF HUITZILOPOCHTLI.
Acosta gives a minute description of the image and temple of this god:—
"The chiefest idoll of Mexico was, as I have sayde, Vitziliputzli. It was an image of wood like to a man, set vpon a stoole of the colour of azure, in a brankard or litter, at every corner was a piece of wood in forme of a Serpent's head. The stoole signified that he was set in heaven: this idoll hadde all the forehead azure, and had a band of azure vnder the nose from one eare to another: vpon his head he had a rich plume of feathers, like to the beake of a small bird, the which was covered on the toppe with golde burnished very browne: hee had in his left hand a white target, with the figures of five pine apples, made of white feathers, set in a crosse: and from above issued forth a crest of gold, and at his sides hee hadde foure dartes, which (the Mexicaines say) had beene sent from heaven to do those actes and prowesses which shall be spoken of: In his right hand he had an azured staffe, cutte in fashion of a waving snake. All those ornaments with the rest hee had, carried his sence as the Mexicaines doe shew; the name of Vitziliputzli signifies the left hand of a shining feather. I will speake heereafter of the prowde Temple, the sacrifices, feasts and ceremonies of this great idoll, being very notable things. But at this present we will only shew, that this idoll thus richly appareled and deckt, was set vpon an high Altare, in a small peece or boxe, well covered with linnen clothes, jewells, feathers and ornaments of golde, with many rundles of feathers, the fairest and most exquisite that could be found: hee had alwaies a curtine before him for the greater veneration. Ioyning to the chamber or chappell of this idoll, there was a peece of lesse worke, and not so well beautified, where there was another idoll they called Tlaloc. These two idolls were alwayes together, for that they held them as companions, and of equal power.
TEMPLE OF HUITZILOPOCHTLI.
There was in Mexico, this Cu, the famous Temple of Vitziliputzli, it had a very great circuite, and within a faire Court. It was built of great stones, in fashion of snakes tied one to another, and the circuite was called Coatepantli, which is, a circuite of snakes: vppon the toppe of every chamber and oratorie where the Idolls were, was a fine piller wrought with small stones, blacke as ieate, set in goodly order, the ground raised vp with white and red, which below gave a great light. Vpon the top of the pillar were battlements very artificially made, wrought like snailes [caracoles], supported by two Indians of stone, sitting, holding candlesticks in their hands, the which were like Croisants garnished and enriched at the ends, with yellow and greene feathers and long fringes of the same. Within the circuite of this court, there were many chambers of religious men, and others that were appointed for the service of the Priests and Popes, for so they call the soveraigne Priests which serve the Idoll.
There were foure gates or entries, at the east, west, north, and south; at every one of these gates beganne a faire cawsey of two or three leagues long. There was in the midst of the lake where the cittie of Mexico is built, foure large cawseies in crosse, which did much beautify it; vpon every portall or entry, was a God or Idoll, having the visage turned to the causey, right against the Temple gate of Vitziliputzli. There were thirtie steppes of thirtie fadome long, and they divided from the circuit of the court by a streete that went betwixt them; vpon the toppe of these steppes there was a walke thirtie foote broad, all plaistered with chalke, in the midst of which walke was a Pallisado artificially made of very high trees, planted in order a fadome one from another. These trees were very bigge, and all pierced with small holes from the foote to the top, and there were roddes did runne from one tree to another, to the which were chained or tied many dead mens heades. Vpon every rod were twentie sculles, and these ranckes of sculles continue from the foote to the toppe of the tree. This Pallissado was full of dead mens sculls from one end to the other, the which was a wonderfull mournefull sight and full of horror. These were the heads of such as had beene sacrificed; for after they were dead, and had eaten the flesh, the head was delivered to the Ministers of the Temple, which tied them in this sort vntil they fell off by morcells; and then had they a care to set others in their places. Vpon the toppe of the temple were two stones or chappells, and in them were the two Idolls which I have spoken of, Vitziliputzli, and his companion Tlaloc. These Chappells were carved and graven very artificially, and so high, that to ascend vp to it, there was a staire of stone of sixscore steppes. Before these Chambers or Chappells, there was a Court of fortie foote square, in the midst thereof, was a high stone of five hand breadth, poynted in fashion of a Pyramide, it was placed there for the sacrificing of men; for being laid on their backes, it made their bodies to bend, and so they did open them and pull out their hearts, as I shall shew heereafter."[VIII-3]
Solis describes this temple also:—
The top of the truncated pyramid on which the idols of Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc were placed was forty feet square, and reached by a stair of a hundred and twenty steps. On this platform, on either hand, at the head of the stairs, stood two sentinel-statues supporting great candlesticks of an extraordinary fashion. And first, from the jasper flags, rose a hump-backed altar of green stone. Opposite and beyond was the chapel wherein behind curtains sat Huitzilopochtli, on a throne supported by a blue globe. From this, supposed to represent the heavens, projected four staves with serpents' heads, by which the priests carried the god when he was brought before the public. The image bore on its head a bird of wrought plumes whose beak and crest were of burnished gold. The feathers expressed horrid cruelty and were made still more ghastly by two stripes of blue one on the brow and the other on the nose. Its right hand leaned as on a staff upon a crooked serpent. Upon the left arm was a buckler bearing five white plumes, arranged in form of a cross; and the hand grasped four arrows venerated as heaven-descended. To the left of this was another chapel, that of Tlaloc. Now these two chapels and idols were the same in every particular. These gods were esteemed brothers—their attributes, qualities, powers, inclinations, service, prayers, and so on, were identical or interchangeable.[VIII-4]
HUITZILOPOCHTLI AND CAMAXTLI.
Sahagun says of Huitzilopochtli, that, being originally a man, he was a sort of Hercules, of great strength and warlike, a great destroyer of towns and slayer of men. In war he had been a living fire, very terrible to his adversaries; and the devise he bore was a dragon's head, frightful in the extreme, and casting fire out of its mouth. A great wizard he had been, and sorcerer, transforming himself into the shape of divers birds and beasts. While he lived, the Mexicans esteemed this man very highly for his strength and dexterity in war, and when he died they honored him as a god, offering slaves, and sacrificing them in his presence. And they looked to it that those slaves were well fed and well decorated with such ornaments as were in use, with ear-rings and visors; all for the greater honor of the god. In Tlaxcala also they had a deity, called Camaxtli, who was similar to this Huitzilopochtli.[VIII-5]
Gage, in a pretty fair translation of Herrera, describes this god with Tezcatlipoca. He says:—
"The gods of Mexico (as the Indians reported to the first Spaniards) were two thousand in number; the chiefest were Vitzilopuchtli, and Tezcatlipoca, whose images stood highest in the temple upon the altars. They were made of stone in full proportion as big as a giant. They were covered with a lawn called Nacar; they were beset with pearls, precious stones, and pieces of gold, wrought like birds, beasts, fishes, and flowers, adorned with emeralds, turquies, chalcedons, and other little fine stones, so that when the lawn was taken away, the images seemed very beautiful and glorious to behold. These two Indian idols had for a girdle great snakes of gold, and for collars or chains about their necks ten hearts of men made of gold; and each of them had a counterfeit visor with eyes of glass, and in their necks Death painted. These two gods were brethren, for Tezcatlipoca was the god of providence, and Vitzilopuchtli, god of the wars, who was worshiped and feared more than all the rest."[VIII-6]
Torquemada goes to some length into the legend and description of this god of war, Huitzilopochtli, or Mexitl:[VIII-7]—
Huitzilopochtli, the ancient god and guide of the Mexicans, is a name variously derived. Some say it is composed of two words: huitzilin, 'a humming-bird', and tlahuipuchtli, 'a sorcerer that spits fire.' Others say that the second part of the name comes not from tlahuipuchtli, but from opuchtli, that is, 'the left hand;' so that the whole name, Huitzilopochtli, would mean 'the shining-feathered left hand.' For this idol was decorated with rich and resplendent feathers on the left arm. And this god it was that led out the Mexicans from their own land and brought them into Anáhuac.
Some held him to be a purely spiritual being, others affirmed that he had been born of a woman, and related his history after the following fashion: Near the city of Tulla there is a mountain called Coatepec, that is to say the Mountain of the Snake, where a woman lived, named Coatlicue, or Snake-petticoat. She was the mother of many sons called Centzunhuitznahua, and of a daughter whose name was Coyolxauhqui. Coatlicue was very devout and careful in the service of the gods, and she occupied herself ordinarily in sweeping and cleaning the sacred places of that mountain. It happened that one day, occupied with these duties, she saw a little ball of feathers floating down to her through the air, which she taking, as we have already related, found herself in a short time pregnant.[VIII-8]
DOUGH STATUE OF HUITZILOPOCHTLI.
Upon this all her children conspired against her to slay her, and came armed against her, the daughter Coyolxauhqui being the ringleader and most violent of all. Then, immediately, Huitzilopochtli was born, fully armed, having a shield called teuehueli in his left hand, in his right a dart, or long blue pole, and all his face barred over with lines of the same color. His forehead was decorated with a great tuft of green feathers, his left leg was lean and feathered, and both thighs and the arms barred with blue. He then caused to appear a serpent made of torches, teas, called xiuhcoatl; and he ordered a soldier named Tochaucalqui to light this serpent, and taking it with him, to embrace Coyolxauhqui. From this embrace the matricidal daughter immediately died, and Huitzilopochtli himself slew all her brethren and took their spoil, enriching his mother therewith. After this he was surnamed Tetzahuitl, that is to say, Fright, or Amazement, and held as a god, born of a mother, without a father—as the great god of battles, for in these his worshipers found him very favorable to them. Besides the ordinary image of this god, permanently set up in the great temple of Mexico, there was another, renewed every year, made of grains and seeds of various kinds. In one of the halls in the neighborhood of the temple the priests collected and ground up with great devotion a mass of seeds, of the amaranth and other plants, moistening the same with the blood of children, and making a dough thereof, which they shaped into a statue of the form and stature of a man. The priests carried this image to the temple and the altar, previously arranged for its reception, playing trumpets and other instruments, and making much noise and ado with dancing and singing at the head of the procession. All this during the night; in the morning the high-priest and the other priests blessed and consecrated the image, with such blessing and consecration as were in use among them. This done, and the people assembled, every person that could come at the image touched it wherever he could, as Christians touch a relic, and made offerings thereto, of jewels of gold and precious stones, each according to his means and devotion, sticking the said offerings into the soft fresh dough of which the idol was confected. After this ceremony no one was allowed to touch the image any more, nor to enter the place where it was, save only the high-priest. After that they brought out the image of the god Paynalton,[VIII-9]—who is also a war god, being vicar or sub-captain of the said Huitzilopochtli—an image made of wood. It was carried in the arms of a priest who represented the god Quetzalcoatl, and who was decorated with ornaments rich and curious. Before this priest there marched another carrying [the image of] a great snake, large and thick, twisted and of many coils. The procession filed along at great length, and here and there at various temples and altars the priests offered up sacrifices, immolating human captives and quails. The first station, or stopping-place, was at the ward of Teotlachco. Thence the cortège passed to Tlatelulco (where I, Torquemada, am now writing this history); then to Popotlan; then to Chapultepec—nearly a league from, the city of Mexico; then to Tepetoca; then to Acachinanco; then back again to the temple whence it had set out; and then the image of Paynalton was put on the altar where stood that of Huitzilopochtli, being left there with the banner, called ezpaniztli, that had been carried before it during the march: only the great snake, mentioned above, was carried away and put in another place, to which it belonged. And at all these places where the procession appeared, it was received with incensings, sacrifices, and other ceremonies.
This procession finished, it having occupied the greater part of the day, all was prepared for a sacrifice. The king himself acted the part of priest; taking a censer, he put incense therein with certain ceremonies and incensed the image of the god. This done, they took down again the idol, Paynalton, and set out in march, those going in front that had to be sacrificed, together with all things pertaining to the fatal rite. Two or three times they made the circle of the temple, moving in horrid cortège, and then ascended to the top, where they slew the victims; beginning with the prisoners of war, and finishing with the fattened slaves, purchased for the occasion, rending out their hearts and casting the same at the feet of the idol.
SYMBOLIC DEATH OF HUITZILOPOCHTLI.
All through this day the festivities and the rejoicings continued, and all the day and night the priests watched vigilantly the dough statue of Huitzilopochtli, so that no oversight or carelessness should interfere with the veneration and service due thereto. Early next day they took down said statue and set it on its feet in a hall. Into this hall there entered the priest, called after Quetzalcoatl, who had carried the image of Paynalton in his arms in the procession, as before related; there entered also the king, with one of the most intimate servants, called Tehua, of the god Huitzilopochtli, four other great priests, and four of the principal youths, called Telpochtlatoque, out of the number of those that had charge of the other youths of the temple. These mentioned, and these alone, being assembled, the priest named after Quetzalcoatl took a dart tipped with flint and hurled it into the breast of the statue of dough, which fell on receiving the stroke. This ceremony was styled, 'killing the god Huitzilopochtli so that his body might be eaten.' Upon this the priests advanced to the fallen image and one of them pulled the heart out of it, and gave the same to the king. The other priests cut the pasty body into two halves. One half was given to the people of Tlatelulco, who parted it out in crumbs among all their wards, and specially to the young soldiers—no woman being allowed to taste a morsel. The other half was allotted to the people of that part of Mexico called Tenochtlitlan; it was divided among the four wards, Teopan, Atzaqualco, Quepopan, and Moyotlan; and given to the men, to both small and great, even to the men-children in the cradle. All this ceremony was called teoqualo, that is to say, 'god is eaten,' and this making of the dough statue and eating of it was renewed once every year.[VIII-10]
Closely as J. G. Müller studied the character of Quetzalcoatl, his examination of that of Huitzilopochtli, has been still more minute and was indeed the subject of a monograph published by him in 1847. A student of the subject cannot afford to overlook this study, and I translate the more important parts of it in the paragraphs which follow; not, indeed, either for or against the interests of the theory it supports, but for the sake of the accurate and detailed handling, rehandling, and grouping there, by a master in this department of mythological learning, of almost all the data relating to the matter in hand:—
Huitzilopochtli has been already referred to as an original god of the air and of heaven. He agrees also with Quetzalcoatl in a second capital point, in having become the anthropomorphic national god of the Aztecs, as Quetzalcoatl of the Toltecs. On their marches and in their wars, in the establishment of codes and towns, in happiness as well as in misfortune, the Aztecs were guided by his oracle, by the spirit of his being. As the Toltecs, especially in their later national character, differ from the Aztecs, so differ their two chief national gods. If the capital of the Toltecs, Cholula, resembled modern Rome in its religious efforts, so the god enthroned there was transformed into the human form of a high-priest, in whom this people saw his human ideal. In the same manner one might be led to compare the capital of the Aztecs with ancient Rome, on account of its warlike spirit, and therefore it was right to make the national god of the Aztecs a war god like the Roman Mars.
THE NAME HUITZILOPOCHTLI.
We will commence with the name of the god, which, according to Sahagun, Acosta, Torquemada, and most of the writers, signifies 'on the left side a humming-bird;' from huitzilin, 'a humming-bird,' and opochtli, 'left.' In connecting the Aztec words, the ending is cut off. The image of the god had in reality, frequently, the feathers of the humming-bird on the left foot. The connection of this bird with the god is, in many ways, appropriate. It no doubt appeared to them as the most beautiful of birds, and as the most worthy representant of their chief deity. Does not its crest glitter like a crown set with rubies and all kinds of precious stones? The Aztecs have accordingly, in their way, called the humming-bird, 'sun-beam,' 'or sun-hair;' as its alighting upon flowers, is like that of a sun-beam. The chief god of the Caribs, Juluca, is also decorated with a band of its feathers round the forehead. The ancient Mexicans had, as their most noble adornment, state-mantles of the same feathers, so much praised by Cortés; and even at the present time the Aztec women adorn their ears with these plumes. This humming-bird decoration on the left foot of the god was not the only one; he had also a green bunch of plumage upon his head, shaped like the bill of a small bird. The shield in his left hand was decorated with white feathers, and the whole image was at times covered with a mantle of feathers. To the general virtues which make comprehensible the humming-bird attribute as a divine one, must be added the special virtue of bravery peculiar to this bird, which is specially suited to the war god. The English traveler Bullock tells how this bird distinguishes itself for its extraordinary courage, attacking others ten times its own size, flying into their eyes, and using its sharp bill as a most dangerous weapon. Nothing more daring can be witnessed than its attack upon other birds of its own species, when it fears disturbance during the breeding-season. The effects of jealousy transform these birds into perfect furies, the throat swells, the crest on their head, the tail, and the wings are expanded; they fight whistling in the air, until one of them falls exhausted to the ground. That such a martial spirit should exist in so small a creature shows the intensity of this spirit; and the religious feeling is the sooner aroused, when the instrument of a divine power appears in so trifling and weak a body. The small but brave and warlike woodpecker stood in a similar relation to Mars, and is accordingly termed picus martius.
This, the most common explanation of the name Huitzilopochtli, as 'humming-bird, left side' is not followed by Veytia, with whom Prichard agrees. He declares the meaning of the name to be 'left hand,' from huitzitoc, 'hand,' because Huitzilopochtli, according to the fable, after his death, sits on the left side of the god Tezcatlipoca, Now, Huitzilopochtli is in another place considered as the brother of this god; he also stands higher, and can therefore scarcely have obtained his name from his position with respect to the other deity. Besides, hand in Aztec is properly translated as maitl, or toma.
Over and above this attribute which gives the god his name, there are others which point towards the conception of a war god. Huitzilopochtli had, like Mars and Odin, the spear, or a bow, in his right hand, and in the left, sometimes a bundle of arrows, sometimes a round white shield, on the side of which were the four arrows sent him from heaven wherewith to perform the heroic deeds of his people. On these weapons depended the welfare of the state, just as on the ancile of the Roman Mars, which had fallen from the sky, or on the palladium of the warlike Pallas Athena.
By-names also point out Huitzilopochtli as war god; for he is called the terrible god, Tetzateotl, or the raging, Tetzahuitl. These names he received at his birth, when he, just issued from his mother's womb, overthrew his adversaries.
KINDRED OF HUITZILOPOCHTLI.
Not less do his connections indicate his warlike nature. His youngest brother, Tlacahuepancuextotzin, was also a war god, whose statue existed in Mexico, and who received homage, especially in Tezcuco. In still closer relationship to him stands his brother-in-arms, or, as Bernal Diaz calls him, his page, Paynalton, that is, 'the fleet one;' he was the god of the sudden war alarm, tumultus or general levée en masse; his call obliged all capable of bearing arms to rush to the defence. He is otherwise considered as the representant of Huitzilopochtli and subordinate to him, for he was only a small image, as Diaz says, and as the ending ton denotes. The statue of this little war-crier was always placed upon the altar of Huitzilopochtli, and sometimes carried round at his feast.
Other symbolic attributes establish Huitzilopochtli as the general national god of this warlike people, and symbolized his personal presence. On the march from the ancient home, the priests took their turn, in fours, to carry his wooden image, with the little flag fallen from heaven, and the four arrows. The litter, upon which the image was carried, was called the 'chair of god,' teoicpalli, and was a holy box, such as was used among the Etruscans and Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans, in Ilium, among the Japanese, among the Mongols. In America, the Cherokees are also found with such an ark. The ark of the covenant carried by the Levites through the desert and in battle, was of a similar kind. Wherever the Aztecs halted for some time during their wanderings, they erected an altar or a sacrifice mound to their god, upon which they placed this god's-litter with the image; which ancient observance they kept up, in later times, in their temples. By its side they erected a movable tent, tabernaculum, (Stiftshütte), in the open country, as is customary among nomadic people, such as the Mongols. The god, however, gave them the codes and usages of a cultured people, and received offerings of prisoners, hawks, and quails.
As the head of a sparrow on a human body points to the former worship of Quetzalcoatl under the form of a sparrow, so the humming-bird attribute on the image and in the name of Huitzilopochtli, points him out as an original animal god. The general mythological rule, that such animal attributes refer to an ancient worship of the god in question under the form of an animal, points this out in his case, and the special myth of Huitziton assists here in the investigation of the foundation of this original nature.
When the Aztecs still lived in Aztlan, a certain Huitziton enjoyed their highest esteem, as the fable tells. This Huitziton heard the voice of a bird, which cried "tihui," that is 'let us go.'[VIII-11] He thereupon asked the people to leave their home, which they accordingly did. When we consider the name Huitziton, the nature of the story, and the mythical time to which it refers, no doubt remains as to who this Huitziton is supposed to be. It is evident that he is none other than the little bird itself, which, in our later form of the myth, as an anthropomorphic fable, is separated from him; separated euhemeristically, just as the Latin Picus was separated from his woodpecker. This Picus, whose songs and flight were portentous, was represented as a youth with a woodpecker on his head, of which he made use for his seer-art; but was originally, as denoted by his name, nothing else than a woodpecker, which was adored on the wooden pillar from which it sent its sayings. This woodpecker placed itself upon the vexillum of the Sabines, and guided them to the region which has been named Picenum after it. As this bird guided its people to their new abode, like Huitziton, so many other animal gods have lead those who, in ancient times, sought new homes. Thus a crow conducted Battus to Cyrene; a dove led the Chalcidians to Cyrene; Apollo, in the form of a dolphin, took the Cretans to Pytho; Antinous founded a new settlement, to which a snake had pointed the way; a bull carried Cadmus to Thebes; a wolf led the Hirpinians. The original stock of the South American people, the Mbayas, received the divine order, through the bird Caracara, to roam as enemies in the territories of other people instead of settling down in a fixed habitation—this is an anti-culture myth. As the founding of towns favors the birth of myths like the preceding, so also does the founding of convents, the sites of which, according to the numerous fables of the Christian mediæval age, were pointed out by animals—one of the remnants of old heathenism then existing in the popular fancy. To resume the subject, Huitziton is, therefore, the humming-bird god, who, as oracular god, commanded the Aztecs to emigrate. His name signifies nothing else than 'small humming-bird,' the ending ton being a diminutive syllable, as in Paynalton. Thus the humming-bird was the bearer, at the time of the great flood, of the divine message of joy to the Tezpi of the Michoacans, a people related to the Aztecs. It had been let loose as the water receded, and soon returned with a small twig to the ark.[VIII-12] On the Catherine Islands [islands of Santa Catalina],[VIII-13] in California, crows were adored as interpreters of the divine will. From the above it is also self-evident that Huitziton and Huitzilopochtli were one, which is the conclusion arrived at by the learned researcher of Mexican languages and traditions, the Italian Boturini. The name, myth, and attributes of Huitzilopochtli point then to the humming-bird. Previous to the transformation of this god, by anthropomorphism, he was merely a small humming-bird, huitziton; by anthropomorphism, the bird became, however, merely the attribute, emblem or symbol, and name of the god—a name which changed with his form into 'humming-bird on the left,' or Huitzilopochtli.
The identity of the two, in spite of the different explanations of the name, is accepted by Veytia, who gives Huitzitoc as the name of the chief who led the Aztec armies during their last wanderings from Chicomoztoc, or the Seven Caves, into Anáhuac. Under his leadership the Aztecs were everywhere victorious, and for this reason he was placed, after his death, on the left side of the god Tezcatlipoca; since which time he was called Huitzilopochtli.
HUITZITON AND PAYNALTON.
The identity of Huitziton and Huitzilopochtli, is also shown by other facts besides the name, the attribute, and the mythological analogy: the same important acts are ascribed to both. We have seen that Huitziton commanded the Aztecs to leave their home; according to another account of Acosta, this was done on the persuasion of Huitzilopochtli. If other Spanish authors state that this was done by instigation of the devil, they mean none other than Huitzilopochtli, using a mode of speech which had become an established one. This name became a common title of the devil in Germany, under the form of Vizliputzli, soon after the conquest of Mexico, as may be seen in the old popular drama of Faust. The fable further relates of Huitziton that he taught the Aztecs to produce fire by friction, during their wanderings. The gift of fire is usually ascribed to a culture-god. Huitzilopochtli was such a deity; he introduced dress, laws, and ceremonies among his people. The statement that Huitziton had at some time, given fire to the people, has no historical meaning; there is no people without fire, and a formerly told myth mentions that man made fire even before the existence of the present sun. The signification of the fable is a religious one, it is a myth in which the Aztecs ascribe the origin of all human culture to Huitziton their culture-god, afterward Huitzilopochtli.
SACRIFICE MYTHS.
This god wore also a band of human hearts and faces of gold and silver; while various bones of dead men, as well as a man torn in pieces, were depicted on his dress. These attributes like those of the Indian Schiwa and Kali, clearly point him out as the god to whom human sacrifices were made. It was extensively believed among the nations composing the Mexican Empire that human sacrifices had been introduced by the Aztecs within the last two centuries. Before that time only bloodless offerings had been made. A myth places the commencement of human sacrifices in the fourteenth century, in which the three first successive cases thereof are said to have occurred.
The Colhuas, the ruling nation at that time in the valley of Anáhuac, are said to have fought a battle with their enemies of Xochimilco, which was decided in favor of the Colhuas, owing to the impetuous attack made by the tributary Aztecs in their aid. While the Colhuas were presenting a large number of prisoners before their king, the Aztecs had only secured four, whom they kept secreted, but exhibited, in token of their bravery, a number of ears that they had cut from their slain enemies, boasting that the victory would have been much delayed had they lost time in making prisoners. Proud of their triumph, they erected an altar to Huitzilopochtli, in Huitzilopochco, and made known to their lord, the king of the Colhuas, that they desired to offer this god a costly and worthy sacrifice. The king sent them, by the hands of priests, a dead bird, which the messengers laid irreverently upon the altar, and departed. The Aztecs swallowed their chagrin, and set a fragrant herb with a knife of iztli beside the bird. As the king with his suite arrived at the festival, more for the sake of mocking the proceedings than to grace them, the four prisoners taken from the Xochimilcos were brought out, placed upon the stone of sacrifice, their breasts cut open with the iztli, and the palpitating heart torn out. This sacrifice brought consternation upon the Colhuas, they discharged the Aztecs from their service and drove them away. The Aztecs wandered for some time about the country, and then, at the command of their god, founded the town of Tenochtitlan, or Mexico, on a site where they had found a nopal (Opuntie) growing upon a rock.
At the second sacrifice a Colhua was the victim. An Aztec was hunting, on the shore of the lake, for an animal to offer his patron deity, when he met a Colhua called Xomimitl; he attacks him furiously, bears him down, and the defeated man is made to bleed upon the sacrifice stone.
Both myths are aitiological, and explained by the sacrifice system (Opferkultus). This is shown in the case of the four prisoners, of whom we shall learn more in the third story. The second story personifies the Aztec and the Colhua peoples in the two men, the second nation supplying the first with human sacrifices. With the sacrifice of Xomimitl, the parallelism of which to the four Xochimilcos cannot be overlooked by any one, the first temple of Huitzilopochtli, in Tenochtitlan, was inaugurated.
The third sacrifice shows still more closely the religious basis (Kultusgrundlage) of the myth. Here also, as in the former, we have to do with a Colhua. The Aztecs offered the Colhua king to show divine honors to his daughter and to apotheosize her into the mother of their national god, declaring that such was the will of the deity. The king, rejoicing at the honor intended for his daughter, let her go, and she was brought to Tenochtitlan with great pomp. No sooner, however, had she arrived than she was sacrificed, flayed, and one of the bravest youths dressed in her skin. The king was invited to the solemn act of the deification of his daughter, and only became aware of her death when the flame from the copal gum revealed to him the bloody skin about the youth placed at the side of the god. The daughter was, however, at once formally declared mother of Huitzilopochtli and of all the gods.
TETEIONAN.
This aitiological cultus-myth is easily explained. The name of the daughter is Teteionan, whom we have learned to know as the gods'-mother, and as Tocitzin, 'our grandmother.'[VIII-14] She was never the daughter of a human king, but has been transformed into one by euhemerism, somewhat as Iphigenia is to be considered as originally Artemis. The goddess Teteionan had her special festival in Mexico, when a woman, dressed as goddess, was sacrificed; while held on the back of another woman, her head was cut off, then she was flayed, and the skin carried by a youth, accompanied by a numerous retinue, as a present to Huitzilopochtli. Four prisoners of war were, moreover, previously sacrificed.
Similar to this story, told by Clavigero, is another, narrated by Acosta. According to the latter, Tozi was the daughter of the king of Culhuacan, and was made the first human sacrifice by order of Huitzilopochtli, who desired her for a sister. Tozi is, however, none other than Tocitzin, and is also shown to be 'our grandmother.' According to the Aztec version, the custom of dressing priests in the skin of sacrificed beings dates from her—such representations are often seen, especially in Humboldt; the Bâsle collection of Mexican antiquities possesses also the stone image of a priest dressed in a human skin. The fourth month, Tlacaxipehualitzli, this is, 'to flay a man,' derived its name from this custom, which is said to have been most frequent at this period of the year.
Goddesses, or beings representing goddesses, are sacrificed in both of these fables. We have met with human sacrifices among the Muyscas in Central America, and in connection with many deities of the Mexicans, in which the human victim represents the god to whom he is to be sacrificed. Slaves impersonating gods were also sacrificed among the northern Indians, the so-called Indios bravos. The person sacrificed is devoured by the god, is given over to him, is already part of him, is the god himself. Such was the case with the slave that personated Quetzalcoatl in the merchants' festival in Cholula.
The critic is only able to admit the relative truth of the recentness of the period in which the origin of Mexican human sacrifices is placed by these three myths. We already know that human sacrifices are very ancient in all America, and that they have only been put aside at a few places by humane efforts; as in Peru to some extent by means of the Incas. We have met with them throughout all South America.
The statement so generally made that the Toltec Quetzalcoatl preached against human sacrifices, certainly implies the previous existence of such sacrifices. This statement about Quetzalcoatl also points out the way to the assimilation of the varying accounts, fables, and myths. In very ancient times human sacrifices predominated everywhere. The Toltecs, like the Incas, endeavored more or less to abolish them, and, even if not altogether successful, they reduced them considerably. The Aztecs reintroduced them. In the East Indies, these sacrifices date back to the era before the flood, and the Greeks there met with remains of anthropophagy, the basis thereof.
Brahmanism sought to exterminate these ancient sacrifices, and the Vedas forbid them, a prohibition which, in connection with the custom of pretending to sacrifice human beings, gives evidence of a former use of actual sacrifices. The later sect of Shiwaits again introduced them.
However ancient the national political phase of Huitzilopochtli may be, the nature phase is still older. This god, too, has a nature-basis which not only explains his being, but throws light upon his further unfolding as a national or war god. All searchers who do not begin with this basis, see nothing but inexplicable riddles and contradictions before them.
TWO MOTHERS OF HUITZILOPOCHTLI.
This nature-basis is first seen in the myth about his birth. In the neighborhood of Tulla there was a place called Coatepec, where lived a god-fearing woman, called Coatlicue. One day, as she was going to the temple, according to her custom, a gaily colored ball of feathers fell down from heaven; she picked it up, and hid it in her bosom, intending to decorate the altar therewith. As she was on the point of producing it for this purpose, it could not be found. A few days afterward she was aware of being pregnant. Her children, the Centzunhuitznahuas, also noticed this, and, in order to avoid their own disgrace, they determined to kill her before she was delivered. Her sorrow was however, miraculously consoled by a voice that made itself heard from within her womb, saying: Fear not, O mother, I will save thee to thy great honor, and to my great fame! The brothers, urged on by their sister, were on the point of killing her, when, behold, even as the armed Athena sprang from her father's head, Huitzilopochtli was born; the shield in his left hand, the spear in his right, the green plumage on his head, and humming-bird feathers on his left leg; his face, arms, and legs being, moreover, striped with blue. At once he slew his opponents, plundered their dwellings, and brought the spoils to his mother. From this he was called Terror and the Frightful God.
If we dissect this myth, we notice that another mother appears than the one formerly sacrificed in his honor, Teteionan. Two mothers present nothing remarkable in mythology, I have only to mention Aphrodite and Athena, who according to different accounts, had different fathers. So long as the formation of myths goes on, founded upon fresh conceptions of nature, somewhat different ideas (for wholly different, even here, the two mothers are not) from distinct points of view, are always possible. It is the anthropomorphism of the age that fixes on the one-sided conclusion. Teteionan is Huitzilopochtli's mother, because she is the mother of all the gods. The mother, in this instance, is the Flora of the Aztecs, euhemerized into a god-fearing woman, Coatlicue, or Coatlantana, of whose worship in Coatepec and Mexico we have already spoken.
The second point prominent in the myth, is the close connection of Huitzilopochtli with the botanical kingdom. The humming-bird is the messenger of spring, sent by the south to the north, by the hot to the temperate region. It is the means of fructifying the flowers, its movements causing the transfer of the pollen from the stamens to the germ-shells. It sticks its long, thin little bill deep into the flower, and rummaging beneath the stamens, drinks the nectar of the flower, while promoting the act of plant-reproduction. In the Latin myth also, Mars stands in close connection with Flora: Juno gives him birth with Flora's aid, without the assistance of Jupiter. In our mythology of the north, Thor is on a friendly footing with Nanna, the northern Flora. We are already acquainted also with a fable of the Pimas, according to which the goddess of maize became pregnant by a raindrop, and bore the forefather of the people, he who built the great houses.
SISTERS OF HUITZILOPOCHTLI.
The question, why Huitzilopochtli should be the son of the goddess of plants, and what his real connection with the botanical kingdom consists in, is solved by examining his worship at the three ancient yearly feasts, which take place exactly at those periods of the year that are the most influential for the Mexican climate, the middle of May, the middle of August, and the end of December. As a rule, in the first half of May the rain begins. Previous to this, the greatest drought and torpidness reign; the plants appear feeble and drooping; nature is bare, the earth gray with dry, withered grass. After a few days of rain, however, the trees appear in a fresh green, the ground is covered with new herbs, all nature is reanimated. Trees, bushes, plants, develop their blossoms; a vapory fragrance rises over all. The fruit shoots from the cultivated field, the juicy, bright green of the maize refreshes the eye. Mühlenpfordt, who stayed a long time in these regions, gives this description of the season. Völker's statement that rain and water stand as fructifying principles in the first rank in ancient physics, and that they meet us in innumerable myths, holds doubly good for the tropics. It requires little imagination to understand what a powerful impression transformed nature, with all its beauty and blessings, must produce in the soul of the child of nature. It is on this account that the ancient Tlaloc came to enjoy so high a regard among the Aztecs, nor has Quetzalcoatl disdained to adorn his mantle with the crosses of a rain-god. And so Huitzilopochtli's first feast of the year, the festival of the arrival of the god, of the offering of incense, stands at the beginning of the season of the reinvigorating of nature by the rain. The pagan Germans used to say that Nerthus, Freya, Hulda, Bertha, Frieg, and other divinities, entered the country at this period. The Aztecs prepared especially for this feast an image of their chief god, made of edible plants and honey, of the same size as the wooden image; and the youths sang the deeds of their god before it, and hymns praying for rain and fertility. Offering of multitudes of quails, incense-burning, and the significant dance of priests and virgins, followed. The virgins, who on this day were called sisters of Huitzilopochtli, wore garlands of dry maize-leaves on their heads, and carried split reeds in their hands; by this representing the dry season. The priests, on the contrary, represented the quickened nature, having their lips smeared with honey.
Now although, according to Max von Wied, there were no bees in America before the arrival of the Europeans, the bees are here represented by humming-birds, also called honey or bee birds, which, hovering and humming like bees, gather their food from the tube-shaped flowers. This food consists of a small insect that lives on honey, and they feed their young by letting them suck at the tongue covered with this honey. The priests bore, further, another symbol of spring: each one held a staff in his hand, on which a flower of feathers was fixed, having another bunch of feathers fixed over it; thus too, Freya's hawk-plumage denoted the advent of the fine season. A prisoner had been selected a year in advance as a victim, and was called 'wise lord of the heaven,' for he personated the god, and had the privilege of choosing the hour of the sacrifice; he did not die, like the other prisoners, on the sacrifice stone, but on the shoulders of the priests. The little children were consecrated to the god of their country, at this festival, by a small incision on the breast.
So also Mars appears as god of spring, he to whom the grass and the sacred spring time of the birth of animals (ver sacrum) were dedicated, whose chief festival and whose month are placed at the commencement of spring, at which time the Salii also sang their old religious songs, and a man personated the god. The Tyrian festival of the awaking of Hercules fell also in spring, for the same reason. Thus, in the myth of the birth of Huitzilopochtli, and in his first festival, spring, or the energy that produces spring, is made the basis of his being. His warlike attributes are appendages of the anthropomorphized national and war god.
The second great festival of the deity takes place in the middle of August. The rains which have lasted and refreshed up to this time, become intermittent, and the fine season approaches, during which the azure sky of the tropics pours its splendor and its beneficial warmth upon men, animals, and plants, scattered over a plain situated 8500 feet above the level of the sea. This is the twelfth month there, the month of ripe fruits. The idols in all temples and dwellings are decorated with flowers. It is now no longer the rain which is the blessing, but the blue sky which cherishes the variegated flower-world. For this reason the image of Huitzilopochtli was blue, his head was wound round with an azure ribbon, in his right hand he held an azure staff or club, and he sat on an azure stool, which, according to ancient accounts, represents heaven as his dwelling-place. His arms and legs had also blue stripes, and costly blue stones hung round his neck. The Egyptian god of fertility, Khem, was also represented in blue.
DEATH OF VEGETATION.
The third festival of Huitzilopochtli takes place during the winter solstice, a period which plays a great rôle in all worships and myths. The best-known festival of this kind is the one held on the 25th of December throughout the Roman Empire, to celebrate the birth of Mithras, the invincible sun. The Chipewas in North America call December the month of the small spirit, and January that of the great spirit. The Mexican festival of this month represented the character of the entering season, and the new state of nature. The cold sets in, the mountains are covered with snow, the ground dries up, the plants search in vain for their nourishment, many trees lose their foliage—in a word, nature seems dead. And so it happened with their god. The priests prepared his image of various seeds kneaded with the blood of sacrificed children. Numerous religious purifyings and penances, washings with water, blood-lettings, fasts, processions, burning of incense, sacrifices of quails and human beings, inaugurated the festival. One of Quetzalcoatl's priests then shot an arrow at this image of Huitzilopochtli, which penetrated the god who was now considered as dead. His heart was cut out, as with human victims, and eaten by the king, the representative of the god on earth. The body, however, was divided among the various quarters of the city, so that every man received a piece. This was called teoqualo 'the god who is eaten.'
The meaning of the death of this god is, on the whole, evident; it corresponds with the death of vegetation; and a comparison of the myth of his birth, with the two other feasts of Huitzilopochtli, leads to the same conclusion. This third feast is, therefore, at the same time, a festival in honor of the brother of this god, Tezcatlipoca, the god of the under-world, of death, of drought, and of hunger, whose rule commences where that of his brother ends. The myth gives a similar form and sense to the death of Osiris, who is killed by Typhon, and the death of Dionysos and Hercules in the Phœnician colonies. Adonis lives with Aphrodite during one half of the year, and with Persephone the other half; the Indian Krishna leaves for the under-world; thus, too, Brahma and the Celtic sun-god, Hu, died yearly, and were yearly born again. The festival of the self-burning of the Tyrian Heracles is also of this kind; it takes place at the time of the dying off of vegetation, even if this should be in the summer.
As regards the custom of eating the god, this also occurs at another feast which is celebrated during this season, in honor of the gods of the mountains and the water. Small idols of seeds and dough were then prepared, their breasts were opened like those of human victims, the heart was cut out, and the body distributed for eating. The time at which this occurs, shows that it stands in necessary connection with the death of the god. When the god dies it must be as a sacrifice in the fashion of his religion, and when the anthropomorphized god dies, it is as a human sacrifice amid all the necessary usages pertaining thereto: he is killed by priests, the heart is torn out, and his body eaten at the sacrifice meal, just as was done with every human sacrifice. Could it be meant that the god, in being eaten, is imparted to, or incorporated with, the person eating him? This is no doubt so, though not in the abstract, metaphysical, Christian or moral sense, but only with regard to his nature-sense, (seiner Naturseite), which is the real essence of the god. He gives his body, in seed, to be eaten by his people, just as nature, dying at the approach of the winter, at this very period, has stored up an abundance of its gifts for the sustenance of man. It gives man its life-fruit, or its fruit of life as a host or holy wafer. As a rule, the god, during the time of sacrifice, regales with the offering those bringing sacrifices; and, the eating of the flesh of the slave, who so often represents the god to whom he is sacrificed, is the same as eating the god. We have heard of the custom among some nations of eating the ashes of their forefathers, to whom they give divine honors, in order to become possessors of their virtues. The Arkansas nation, west of the Mississippi, which worshiped the dog, used to eat dog-flesh at one of its feasts. Many other peoples solemnly slaughter animals, consume their flesh, and moreover pay divine honors to the remains of these animals. Here the eating of the god, in seeds, is made clear—this custom also existed among the Greeks. The division of the year-god by the ancients, in myth and religious system, has, for the rest, no other sense than has this distribution of the body of Huitzilopochtli. This is done with the sun-bull at the festival of the Persian Mithras, as at the feast, and in the myth of the Dionysos-Zagreus, of Osiris and Attys.
YEARLY LIFE OF THE PLANT-WORLD.
The three yearly festivals, as well as the myth of his birth, all tend to show the positive connection of Huitzilopochtli with the yearly life of the plant-world. The first festival is the arrival of the god, as the plant-world is ushered in, with its hymns praying for rain, its virgins representing the sisters of the god and the inimical drought, in the same sense as the brothers and sister, especially the latter, are his enemies in the myth of his birth, and, as Tezcatlipoca, the god of drought is his brother. Brothers and sisters not seldom represent parallel contrasts in mythology and worship. The second celebration presents the god as the botanical kingdom in its splendor, for which reason the Mexicans call the humming-bird the sunbeam, from the form assumed by the god at this time. The humming-bird, moreover, takes also his winter sleep, and thus the god dies in winter with the plants. The Greenlanders asked the younger Egede if the god of heaven and earth ever died, and, when answered in the negative, they were much surprised, and said that he must surely be a great god. This intimate connection with the plant-world is also shown in the birth-myth of Huitzilopochtli, who here appears as the son of the goddess of plants. It now becomes easier to answer the question of Wuttke: has the fable of this birth reference merely to the making a man out of a god already existing, or to the actual birth of the god? The Aztecs, it is true, were undecided on this point, some conceding to him a human existence on earth, others investing him with a consciousness of his nature being. We, however, answer this question simply, from the preceding: the birth of the god is annual, and the myth has therefrom invented one birth, said to have taken place at some period, while the anthropomorphism fables very prettily the transformation into a man. Of the former existence of a born god, the myth knows nothing, for it is only afterward that it raises the god into heaven. It has not, however, come to euhemerism in the case of Huitzilopochtli, though it has with Huitziton. In placing the god in the position of son to the plant-goddess, the myth separates his being from that of the mother, consequently, Huitzilopochtli is not the plant-world himself, however closely he may be related to it. This is made clearer by following up the birth-myth, which makes him out to be not only the son of Coatlicue, but also of the force causing her fructification. The variegated ball of feathers which fell from heaven, is none other than Huitzilopochtli himself, the little humming-bird, which is the means of fructifying the plants, and the virile, fructifying nature-force manifested by and issuing from him in the spring. He is also born with the feather-tuft, and this symbol of the fine season never leaves him in any of his forms, it remains his attribute.
The Tapuas in South America have, after a similar symbolism, the custom, at their yearly seed-sowing festivals, of letting some one hang a bunch of ostrich-feathers on his back, the feathers being spread over like a wheel. This feather-bunch is their symbol of the fructifying power which comes from heaven. Their belief that bread falls from heaven into this tuft of feathers is thus made clear. In this myth we find the natural basis of such a birth-myth. In our northern mythology, Neekris, the ball, is, in the same manner, the father of Nanna, the northern Flora. That this virile power of heaven is made to appear as a ball of feathers, suits the humming-bird god. The Esths also imagined their god of thunder, as the god of warmth, in the form of a bird. In the same sense, doves were consecrated to Zeus, in Dodona and Arcadia, and a flying bird is a symbol of heaven among the Chinese. This force may, however, be symbolized in another form, and give rise to a birth-myth of exactly the same kind. Thus, the daughter of the god Sangarius, in the Phrygian myth, hid in her bosom the fruit of an almond-tree, which had grown out of the seed of the child of the earth, Agdistis: the fruit disappeared, the daughter became pregnant and bore the beautiful boy Attes. According to Arnobius, it was the fruit of a pomegranate-tree, which fructified Nanna. Among the Chinese, a nymph, called Puzza, the nourisher of all living things, became pregnant by eating a lotus-flower, and gave birth to a great law-giver and conqueror. Danaë, again, becomes pregnant from the golden shower of Zeus—an easily understood symbolism. It is always the virile nature-power, either as seen in the sun, or in the azure sky (for which reason Huitzilopochtli is called the lord of the heaven, Ochibus or Huchilobos), which puts the variegated seed into the womb of the plant-world, 'at the same time bringing himself forth again, and making himself manifest in the plant-world.' This heavenly life-force no sooner finds an earthly mother-womb than its triumph is assured, even before birth, while developing its bud; just as the inner voice, in the myth, consoled the mother, and protected her against all her enemies. It is only after his birth that the myth holds Huitzilopochtli as a personal anthropomorphic god.
THE VIRILE NATURE-POWER.
This is the natural signification of Huitzilopochtli, which we have accepted as the basis of all other developments of the god, and for this universal reason, namely, that the most ancient heathen gods are nature-gods, mythologic rules being followed, and that the pagan religion is essentially a nature-worship as well as a polytheism. The special investigation and following up of the various virtues have led to the same result. But, as this view has not yet been generally accepted in regard to this god, a few words concerning the union of the anthropomorphic national aspect of Huitzilopochtli, with his natural one may be added. It has been thought necessary to make the martial phase of Huitzilopochtli the basis of the others, as with Mars. War is, from this point of view, a child of spring, because weapons are then resumed after the long winter armistice. This is not at all the case with Huitzilopochtli, because the rainy season, setting in in spring, when the arrival and birth of the god are celebrated, renders the soft roads of Mexico unsuitable for war expeditions. Wars were originally children of autumn, at which time the ripe fruits were objects of robbery. But the idea of a war and national god is easily connected with the basis of a fructifying god of heaven. This chief nature-god may either be god of heaven, as Huitzilopochtli, as the rain-giving Zeus is made the national god by Homer, to whom human sacrifices were brought in Arcadia down to a late period, or he may be a sun-god, like Baal, to whom prayers for rain were addressed in Phœnicia, to further the growth of the fruit, and who also received human sacrifices. The Celtic Hu is also an ethereal war god, properly sun-god, who received human sacrifices in honor of the victory of spring; none the less is Odin's connection with war, battle, and war horrors; he is a fire-god, like Moloch and Shiva, to whom human sacrifices were made for fear of famine and failure of crops. The apparent basis of such a god has not to be considered so much as the point that the people ascribed to him the chief government of the course of the year. In such a case, the chief ruler also becomes the national god, the life of the nation depending immediately on the yearly course of nature. Is the nation warlike, then, the national god naturally becomes a war god as well. As anthropomorphism connects itself with the nature-god only at a later period, so does his worship as war god and national god. In the case of Mars, as well as of Picus and Faunus, the same succession is followed. Mars, for example, is called upon in a prayer which has been preserved by Cato, to protect shepherds and flocks, and to avert bad weather and misgrowth; Virgil refers to him as a god of plants. In the song of the Arvalian brothers, he is called upon as the protector of the flowers. Thus, in his case also, the nature side is the basis. The Chinese symbolism of the union of the two sides or phases, is expressed in such a manner as to make spears and weapons representations of the germs of plants. This union has already been illustrated among the Aztecs, in the humming-bird, the sunbeam which plays round the flowers, in whose little body the intensest war spirit burns. Among the Egyptians, the beetle was placed upon the ring of the warrior, with whom it signified world and production.
SNAKE SYMBOLISM.
It remains to speak of another attribute of Huitzilopochtli, the snake attribute. Huitzilopochtli is also a snake-god. We have already, when treating of the snake-worship of the Mayas, referred to the numerous snakes with which this god is connected by myth and image, and how this attribute was added to the original humming-bird attribute, in Coatepec, where the snake-goddess Coatlicue gave him birth. If the snake signifies, in one case, time, in another, world, and in another instance, water, or the yearly rejuvenation of germs and blossoms, the eternal circle of nature, domination, soothsaying—it is quite proper; for all these qualities are found united in the god. Still other qualities, not seemingly possessed by him, we pass over, such as a connection with the earth and with the healing power, to be found in other Mexican gods, or the evil principle, which is entirely wanting. Just as the snake changes its skin every year, and takes its winter sleep, so does Huitzilopochtli, whose mother, Flora, is, therefore, a snake-goddess. Even so the snake represents the seed-corn in the mysteries of Demeter. In the Sabazii it represents the fructifying Zeus and the blessing. It is also the symbol of productive power and heat, or of life, attribute of the life-endowing Shiva; among the Egyptians it represents the yearly rejuvenation of germs and blossoms. The snake Agathodæmon appears with ears of grain and poppies, as the symbol of fertility. If the god exhibits this nature of his, in spring, in the rain, then the snake is a suitable attribute. In India, snakes are genii of seas, and the Punjab, whose fertility is assured by the yearly inundations, has the name of snake lands (Nagakhanda), and claims an ancient worship. The sustaining water-god, Vishnu, also received the snake attribute. Among the Chinese, the water could be represented by a snake. The Peruvians call the boa constrictor the mother of nature.
The idea of the yearly renewal of nature is also connected with that of time forever young, and the Aztecs, therefore, encircle their cycle with a snake as the symbol of time. The more positive signification which the snake, placed by the side of the humming-bird, gives to Huitzilopochtli, is that of a soothsaying god, like the snake Python among the Greeks. The snake signified 'king' among the Egyptians, and this suits Huitzilopochtli also, who may properly enough be considered the real king of his people. If, as connected with Huitzilopochtli, the snake also represents the war god, on account of its spirited mode of attack, I cannot with certainty say, but the myth as well as the worship places it in this relation to the war goddess Athene. Although the idea of a national and a war god is not quite obscured in the snake attribute, yet the nature side is especially denoted by it, as in the southern countries, where snake worship prevailed; the reference to the southern nature of this god is quite evident in the snake attribute. In the north, moisture, represented by the snake, has never attained the cosmological import which it has in the hot countries of the south. There, the snake rather represents an anticosmogonic, or a bad principle.[VIII-15]
WINTER-SOLSTICE FESTIVAL.
Mr Tylor, without committing himself to any extent in details, yet agrees, as far as he goes, with Müller. He says: "The very name of Mexico seems derived from Mexitli, the national war-god, identical or identified with the hideous gory Huitzilopochtli. Not to attempt a general solution of the enigmatic nature of this inextricable compound parthenogenetic deity, we may notice the association of his principal festival with the winter solstice, when his paste idol was shot through with an arrow, and being thus killed, was divided into morsels and eaten, wherefore the ceremony was called the teoqualo, or 'god-eating.' This, and other details, tend to show Huitzilopochtli as originally a nature-deity, whose life and death were connected with the year's, while his functions of war-god may be of later addition."[VIII-16]