The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 09 of 12)

The leaf comes on the oak.

“Quick, quick, quick!
Bring milk into the dugs.
In the name of the sainted Greta,
Gold-flower shall be thy name,”

and so on.[660 - J. F. L. Woeste, Volksüberlieferungen in der Grafschaft Mark (Iserlohn, 1848), pp. 25 sq.; A. Kuhn, Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertranks

(Gütersloh, 1886), pp. 161 sqq. The ceremony takes its name of “quickening” from Quieke or Quickenbaum, a German name for the rowan-tree. Quicken-tree is also an English name for the rowan.] The intention of the ceremony appears to be to make sure that the heifer shall in due time yield a plentiful supply of milk; and this is perhaps supposed to be brought about by driving away the witches, who are particularly apt, as we have seen,[661 - The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 52 sqq.] to rob the cows of their milk on the morning of May Day. Certainly in the north-east of Scotland pieces of rowan-tree and woodbine used to be placed over the doors of the byres on May Day to keep the witches from the cows; sometimes a single rod of rowan, covered with notches, was found to answer the purpose. An even more effectual guard against witchcraft was to tie a small cross of rowan-wood by a scarlet thread to each beast's tail; hence people said,

“Rawn-tree in red-threed
Pits the witches t' their speed.”[662 - Rev. W. Gregor, Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-east of Scotland (London, 1881), p. 188.]

In Germany also the rowan-tree is a protection against witchcraft;[663 - A. Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube

(Berlin, 1869), p. 106, § 145.] and Norwegian sailors and fishermen carry a piece of it in their boats for good luck.[664 - J. F. L. Woeste, Volksüberlieferungen in der Grafschaft Mark (Iserlohn, 1848), p. 26. Compare A. Kuhn, Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertranks

(Gütersloh, 1886), p. 179.] Thus the benefit to young cows of beating them with rowan appears to be not so much the positive one of pouring milk into their udders, as merely the negative one of averting evil influence; and the same may perhaps be said of most of the beatings with which we are here concerned.

European custom of beating people with branches at Easter to do them good: “Easter Smacks.”

On Good Friday and the two previous days people in Croatia and Slavonia take rods with them to church, and when the service is over they beat each other “fresh and healthy.”[665 - F. S. Krauss, Kroatien und Slavonien (Vienna, 1889), p. 108.] In some parts of Russia people returning from the church on Palm Sunday beat the children and servants who have stayed at home with palm branches, saying, “Sickness into the forest, health into the bones.”[666 - W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 257.] A similar custom is widely known under the name of Schmeckostern or “Easter Smacks” in some parts of Germany and Austria. The regions in which the practice prevails are for the most part districts in which the people either are or once were predominantly of Slavonic blood, such as East and West Prussia, Voigtland, Silesia, Bohemia, and Moravia. While the German population call the custom Schmeckostern, the Slavonic inhabitants give it, according to their particular language or dialect, a variety of names which signify to beat or scourge. It is usually observed on Easter Monday, less frequently on Easter Saturday or Easter Sunday. Troops of boys or lads go from house to house on the morning of Easter Monday beating every girl or woman whom they meet; they even make their way into the bedrooms, and if they find any girls or women still abed, they compel them with blows to get up. Even grown-up men indulge themselves in the pastime of going to the houses of friends and relations to inflict the “Easter Smacks.” In some places, for example in the Leobschütz district of Silesia, the boys and men further claim and exercise the right of drenching all the girls and women with water on Easter Monday; and for this purpose they generally go about armed with squirts, which are not always charged with eau de Cologne. Next day, Easter Tuesday, the women have the right to retaliate on the men; however, they do not as a rule go about the streets but confine their operations to their own houses, beating and chasing from their beds any lads or men they can find lying in them. Children are less discriminating in their “Easter Smacks,” which they bestow impartially on parents and relations, friends and strangers, without observing the subtle distinction of sex. In many places it is only the women who are privileged to receive the smacks. The instrument with which the beating is administered is in some districts, such as Lithuania, Samland, and Neumark, a twig or branch of birch on which the fresh green leaves have just sprouted. If the birch-trees have not budded in time, it is customary to keep the rods in pickle for days or even weeks, nursing them tenderly in warm water; and if that measure also fails, they are heated in the stove-pipe. But more commonly the instrument of torture is a branch of willow with catkins on it, which has also been nursed in warm water or the chimney so as to be ripe for execution on Easter Monday. A number of these birch or willow twigs are usually tied together into a switch, and ornamented with motley ribbons and pieces of silk paper, so that they present the appearance of a nosegay; indeed, in northern Bohemia spring flowers form part of the decoration. In some places, particularly in Silesia and Moravia, pieces of licorice root are substituted for willow twigs; or again in the vine-growing districts of Bohemia vine-branches are used for the same purpose. Sometimes a scourge made of leather straps of various colours takes the place of a green bough. The blows are commonly inflicted on the hands and feet; and in some places, particularly in Bohemia, the victims are expected to reward their tormentors with a present of red Easter eggs; nay sometimes a woman is bound to give an egg for every blow she receives. In the afternoon the lads carry their eggs to high ground and let them roll down the slope; he whose egg reaches the bottom first, wins all the rest. The beating is supposed to bring good luck to the beaten, or to warrant them against flies and vermin during the summer, or to save them from pains in their back throughout the whole year. At Gilgenburg in Masuren the rods or bundles of twigs are afterwards laid by and used to drive the cattle out to pasture for the first time after their winter confinement.[667 - Th. Vernaleken, Mythen und Bräuche des Volkes in Österreich (Vienna, 1859), pp. 300 sq.; O. Freiherr von Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Fest-Kalender aus Böhmen (Prague, preface dated 1861), pp. 163-167; A. Peter, Volksthümliches aus Österreichisch-Schlesien (Troppau, 1865-1867), ii. 285; J. A. E. Köhler, Volksbrauch, Aberglauben, Sagen und andre alte Überlieferungen im Voigtlande (Leipsic, 1867), pp. 173 sq.; M. Toeppen, Aberglauben aus Masuren

, (Danzig, 1867), pp. 69 sq.; A. Wuttke, Der deutsche Volksaberglaube

(Berlin, 1869), p. 70, § 83; W. Mannhardt, Der Baumkultus (Berlin, 1875), pp. 258-263; W. Müller, Beiträge zur Volkskunde der Deutschen in Mähren (Vienna and Olmütz, 1893), pp. 322, 399 sq.; Dr. F. Tetzner, “Die Tschechen und Mährer in Schlesien,” Globus, lxxviii. (1900) p. 340; P. Drechsler, Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube in Schlesien (Leipsic, 1903-1906), pp. 100 sq.; Alois John, Sitte, Brauche und Volksglaube im deutschen Westböhmen (Prague, 1905), pp. 67 sq. Mannhardt's whole discussion of what he calls “the Blow with the Rod of Life” (“Der Schlag mit der Lebensrute”) deserves to be studied. See his Baumkultus, pp. 251-303; and compare his treatment of the same theme, “Der Schlag mit dem Februum,” Mythologische Forschungen (Strasburg, 1884), pp. 113-153. The custom of “Easter Smacks” can be traced back to the twelfth century, when the practice was for women to beat their husbands on Easter Monday and for husbands to retaliate on their wives on Easter Tuesday. See J. Belethus, Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, cap. 120, appended to G. Durandus's Rationale Divinorum Officiorum (Lyons, 1584), p. 546 recto: “Notandum quoque est in plerisque regionibus secundo die post Pascha mulieres maritos suos verberare, ac vicissim viros eas tertio die quemadmodum licebat servis in Decembri dominos suos impune accusare.”]

European custom of beating people with branches in the Christmas holidays (Holy Innocents' Day, etc.) to do them good.

In some parts of Germany and Austria a custom like that of “Easter Smacks” is observed at the Christmas holidays, especially on Holy Innocents' Day, the twenty-eighth of December. Young men and women beat each other mutually, but on different days, with branches of fresh green, whether birch, willow, or fir. Thus, for example, among the Germans of western Bohemia it is customary on St. Barbara's Day (the fourth of December) to cut twigs or branches of birch and to steep them in water in order that they may put out leaves or buds. They are afterwards used by each sex to beat the other on subsequent days of the Christmas holidays. In some villages branches of willow or cherry-trees or rosemary are employed for the same purpose. With these green boughs, sometimes tied in bundles with red or green ribbons, the young men go about beating the young women on the morning of St. Stephen's Day (the twenty-sixth of December) and also on Holy Innocents' Day (the twenty-eighth of December). The beating is inflicted on the hands, feet, and face; and in Neugramatin it is said that she who is not thus beaten with fresh green will not herself be fresh and green. As the blows descend, the young men recite verses importing that the beating is administered as a compliment and in order to benefit the health of the victim. For the service which they thus render the damsels they are rewarded by them with cakes, brandy, or money. Early in the morning of New Year's Day the lasses pay off the lads in the same kind.[668 - Alois John, Sitte, Brauch und Volksglaube im deutschen Westböhmen (Prague, 1905), pp. 5, 23 sq., 25, 28. Compare Th. Vernaleken, Mythen und Bräuche des Volkes in Österreich (Vienna, 1859), pp. 301 sq.] A similar custom is also observed in central and south-west Germany, especially in Voigtland. Thus in Voigtland and the whole of the Saxon Erz-gebirge the lads beat the lasses and women on the second day of the Christmas holidays with something green, such as rosemary or juniper; and if possible the beating is inflicted on the women as they lie in bed. As they beat them, the lads say

“Fresh and green! Pretty and fine!
Gingerbread and brandy-wine!”

The last words refer to the present of gingerbread and brandy which the lads expect to receive from the lasses for the trouble of thrashing them. Next day the lasses and women retaliate on the lads and men.[669 - J. A. E. Köhler, Volksbrauch, Aberglauben, Sagen und andre alte Überlieferungen im Voigtlande (Leipsic, 1867), p. 174; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, pp. 264 sq.] In Thüringen on Holy Innocents' Day (the twenty-eighth of December) children armed with rods and green boughs go about the streets beating passers-by and demanding a present in return; they even make their way into the houses and beat the maid-servants. In Orlagau the custom is called “whipping with fresh green.” On the second day of the Christmas holidays the girls go to their parents, godparents, relations, and friends, and beat them with fresh green branches of fir; next day the boys and lads do the same. The words spoken while the beating is being administered are “Good morning! fresh green! Long life! You must give us a bright thaler,” and so on.[670 - August Witzschel, Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen (Vienna, 1878), pp. 181 sq.; W. Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 265. Compare G. Bilfinger, Unterschungen über die Zeitrechnung der alten Germanen, ii., Das Germanische Julfest (Stuttgart, 1901), pp. 85 sq.]

The intention of beating people with fresh green leaves is to renew their life and vigour.

In these European customs the intention of beating persons, especially of the other sex, with fresh green leaves appears unquestionably to be the beneficent one of renewing their life and vigour, whether the purpose is supposed to be accomplished directly and positively by imparting the vital energy of the fresh green to the persons, or negatively and indirectly by dispelling any injurious influences, such as the machinations of witches and demons, by which the persons may be supposed to be beset. The application of the blows by the one sex to the other, especially by young men to young women, suggests that the beating is or was originally intended above all to stimulate the reproductive powers of the men or women who received it; and the pains taken to ensure that the branches with which the strokes are given should have budded or blossomed out just before their services are wanted speak strongly in favour of the view that in these customs we have a deliberate attempt to transfuse a store of vital energy from the vegetable to the animal world.

Hence the custom of beating the human victims at the Thargelia with fig-branches and squills was probably a charm to increase their reproductive energies.

These analogies, accordingly, support the interpretation which, following my predecessors W. Mannhardt and Mr. W. R. Paton, I have given of the beating inflicted on the human victims at the Greek harvest festival of the Thargelia. That beating, being administered to the generative organs of the victims by fresh green plants and branches, is most naturally explained as a charm to increase the reproductive energies of the men or women either by communicating to them the fruitfulness of the plants and branches, or by ridding them of maleficent influences; and this interpretation is confirmed by the observation that the two victims represented the two sexes, one of them standing for the men in general and the other for the women. The season of the year when the ceremony was performed, namely the time of the corn harvest, tallies well with the theory that the rite had an agricultural significance. Further, that it was above all intended to fertilize the fig-trees is strongly suggested by the strings of black and white figs which were hung round the necks of the victims, as well as by the blows which were given their genital organs with the branches of a wild fig-tree; since this procedure closely resembles the procedure which ancient and modern husbandmen in Greek lands have regularly resorted to for the purpose of actually fertilizing their fig-trees. When we remember what an important part the artificial fertilization of the date palm-tree appears to have played of old not only in the husbandry but in the religion of Mesopotamia,[671 - The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 24 sq. It is highly significant that the heathen of Harran celebrated the marriage festival of all the gods and goddesses in the very month (March) in which the artificial fertilization of the date-palm was effected (D. Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus, St. Petersburg, 1856, ii. 36, 251). The frequency with which the artificial fertilization of the palm-tree by a mythical winged figure is represented on Assyrian monuments furnishes strong evidence of the religious and economic importance of the ceremony.] there seems no reason to doubt that the artificial fertilization of the fig-tree may in like manner have vindicated for itself a place in the solemn ritual of Greek religion.

Hence the human victims at the Thargelia may have primarily represented spirits of vegetation.

If these considerations are just, we must apparently conclude that while the human victims at the Thargelia certainly appear in later classical times to have figured chiefly as public scapegoats, who carried away with them the sins, misfortunes, and sorrows of the whole people, at an earlier time they may have been looked on as embodiments of vegetation, perhaps of the corn but particularly of the fig-trees; and that the beating which they received and the death which they died were intended primarily to brace and refresh the powers of vegetation then beginning to droop and languish under the torrid heat of the Greek summer.

Parallel between the human sacrifices at the Thargelia and the bloody ritual of the Arician Grove.

The view here taken of the Greek scapegoat, if it is correct, obviates an objection which might otherwise be brought against the main argument of this book. To the theory that the priest of Aricia was slain as a representative of the spirit of the grove,[672 - The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, i. 40 sqq., ii. 376 sqq.] it might have been objected that such a custom has no analogy in classical antiquity. But reasons have now been given for believing that the human being periodically and occasionally slain by the Asiatic Greeks was regularly treated as an embodiment of a divinity of vegetation. Probably the persons whom the Athenians kept to be sacrificed were similarly treated as divine. That they were social outcasts did not matter. On the primitive view a man is not chosen to be the mouth-piece or embodiment of a god on account of his high moral qualities or social rank. The divine afflatus descends equally on the good and the bad, the lofty and the lowly. If then the civilized Greeks of Asia and Athens habitually sacrificed men whom they regarded as incarnate gods, there can be no inherent improbability in the supposition that at the dawn of history a similar custom was observed by the semi-barbarous Latins in the Arician Grove.

Chapter VII. Killing the God in Mexico

The custom of sacrificing human representatives of the gods among the Aztecs of Mexico.

By no people does the custom of sacrificing the human representative of a god appear to have been observed so commonly and with so much solemnity as by the Aztecs of ancient Mexico. With the ritual of these remarkable sacrifices we are well acquainted, for it has been fully described by the Spaniards who conquered Mexico in the sixteenth century, and whose curiosity was naturally excited by the discovery in this distant region of a barbarous and cruel religion which presented many curious points of analogy to the doctrine and ritual of their own church. “They took a captive,” says the Jesuit Acosta, “such as they thought good; and afore they did sacrifice him unto their idols, they gave him the name of the idol, to whom he should be sacrificed, and apparelled him with the same ornaments like their idol, saying, that he did represent the same idol. And during the time that this representation lasted, which was for a year in some feasts, in others six months, and in others less, they reverenced and worshipped him in the same manner as the proper idol; and in the meantime he did eat, drink, and was merry. When he went through the streets, the people came forth to worship him, and every one brought him an alms, with children and sick folks, that he might cure them, and bless them, suffering him to do all things at his pleasure, only he was accompanied with ten or twelve men lest he should fly. And he (to the end he might be reverenced as he passed) sometimes sounded upon a small flute, that the people might prepare to worship him. The feast being come, and he grown fat, they killed him, opened him, and ate him, making a solemn sacrifice of him.”[673 - J. de Acosta, The Natural and Moral History of the Indies (London, Hakluyt Society, 1880), ii. 323. I have modernized the spelling of the old English translator, whose version was originally published in 1604. Acosta resided both in Peru and Mexico, and published his work at Seville in 1590. It was reprinted in a convenient form at Madrid in 1894. Compare A. de Herrera, General History of the Vast Continent and Islands of America, translated by Captain John Stevens (London, 1725-1726), iii. 207 sq.]

Sacrifice of a man in the character of the great god Tezcatlipoca at the festival of Toxcatl in the fifth Aztec month.

This general description of the custom may now be illustrated by particular examples. Thus at the festival called Toxcatl, the greatest festival of the Mexican year, a young man was annually sacrificed in the character of Tezcatlipoca, “the god of gods,” after having been maintained and worshipped as that great deity in person for a whole year. According to the old Franciscan monk Sahagun, our best authority on the Aztec religion, the sacrifice of the human god fell at Easter or a few days later, so that, if he is right, it would correspond in date as well as in character to the Christian festival of the death and resurrection of the Redeemer.[674 - B. de Sahagun, Histoire Générale des Choses de la Nouvelle-Espagne, traduite par D. Jourdanet et R. Siméon (Paris, 1880), pp. 61 sq.: “On appelait le cinquième moi toxcatl. Au premier jour on faisait une grande fête en l'honneur du dieu appelé Titlacauan, autrement dit Tezcatlipoca, que l'on croyait être le dieu des dieux. C'était en son honneur que l'on tuait, le jour de sa fête, un jeune homme choisi… Cette fête était la principale de toutes, comme qui dirait la Pâque, et, en réalité, elle se célébrait aux environs de la Pâque de résurrection, ou quelques jours après.” Compare J. de Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, lib. x. cap. 14, vol. ii. p. 256 (Madrid, 1723). As to Tezcatlipoca, the greatest of the Mexican gods, see J. G. Müller, Geschichte der amerikanischen Urreligionen (Bâle, 1867), pp. 613 sqq.; H. H. Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States (London, 1875-1876), iii. 199 sqq., 237 sqq.; E. Seler, Altmexikanische Studien, ii. (Berlin, 1899) pp. 125 sqq. (Veröffentlichungen aus dem königlichen Museum für Völkerkunde, vol. vi. Heft 2/4).] More exactly he tells us that the sacrifice took place on the first day of the fifth Aztec month, which according to him began on the twenty-third or twenty-seventh day of April.[675 - On the twenty-third of April according to the Spanish text of Sahagun's work as translated in French by D. Jourdanet and R. Simeon (p. 52); the twenty-seventh of April according to the Aztec text of Sahagun's work as translated into German by Professor E. Seler (Altmexikanische Studien, ii. 194).] However, according to other Spanish authorities of the sixteenth century the festival lasted from the ninth to the nineteenth day of May, and the sacrifice of the human victim in the character of the god was performed on the last of these days.[676 - J. de Acosta, Natural and Moral History of the Indies (Hakluyt Society, London, 1880), ii. 378, 380; Diego Duran, Historia de las Indias de Nueva España (Mexico, 1867-1880), ii. 99, 101; Manuscrit Ramirez, Histoire de l'Origine des Indiens qui habitent la Nouvelle Espagne selon leurs traditions, publié par D. Charnay (Paris, 1903), pp. 159, 160 sq. According to Clavigero, the fifth Mexican month, in which the sacrifice of the human representative of Tezcatlipoca took place, began on the 17th of May (History of Mexico, translated by C. Cullen, London, 1807, i. 299); but this must be an error.] An eminent modern authority, Professor E. Seler, is of opinion that the festival originally celebrated the beginning of the year, and that it fell on the day when the sun on his passage northward to the tropic of Cancer stood in the zenith over the city of Mexico, which in the early part of the sixteenth century would be the ninth or tenth day of May (old style) or the nineteenth or twentieth day of May (new style).[677 - E. Seler, Altmexikanische Studien, ii. (Berlin, 1899) pp. 117 note 1, 121-125, 153 sq., 166 sq. (Veröffentlichungen aus dem königlichen Museum für Völkerkunde, vol. vi. Heft 2/4).] Whatever the exact date of the celebration may have been, we are told that the “feast was not made to any other end, but to demand rain, in the same manner that we solemnize the Rogations; and this feast was always in May, which is the time that they have most need of rain in those countries.”[678 - J. de Acosta, op. cit. ii. 380; Diego Duran, op. cit. ii. 101; Manuscrit Ramirez, Histoire de l'Origine des Indiens qui habitent la Nouvelle Espagne selon leurs traditions, publié par D. Charnay (Paris, 1903), p. 160; J. de Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, lib. x. cap. 14, vol. ii. p. 257 (Madrid, 1723). I have modernized the spelling of Acosta's old translator (Edward Grimston).]

The training and equipment of the human god. The manner of the sacrifice.

At this festival the great god died in the person of one human representative and came to life again in the person of another, who was destined to enjoy the fatal honour of divinity for a year and to perish, like all his predecessors, at the end of it. The young man singled out for this high dignity was carefully chosen from among the captives on the ground of his personal beauty. He had to be of unblemished body, slim as a reed and straight as a pillar, neither too tall nor too short. If through high living he grew too fat, he was obliged to reduce himself by drinking salt water. And in order that he might behave in his lofty station with becoming grace and dignity he was carefully trained to comport himself like a gentleman of the first quality, to speak correctly and elegantly, to play the flute, to smoke cigars and to snuff at flowers with a dandified air. He was honourably lodged in the temple where the nobles waited on him and paid him homage, bringing him meat and serving like a prince. The king himself saw to it that he was apparelled in gorgeous attire, “for already he esteemed him as a god.” Eagle down was gummed to his head and white cock's feathers were stuck in his hair, which drooped to his girdle. A wreath of flowers like roasted maize crowned his brows, and a garland of the same flowers passed over his shoulders and under his arm-pits. Golden ornaments hung from his nose, golden armlets adorned his arms, golden bells jingled on his legs at every step he took; earrings of turquoise dangled from his ears, bracelets of turquoise bedecked his wrists; necklaces of shells encircled his neck and depended on his breast; he wore a mantle of network, and round his middle a rich waist-cloth. When this bejewelled exquisite lounged through the streets playing on his flute, puffing at a cigar, and smelling at a nosegay, the people whom he met threw themselves on the earth before him and prayed to him with sighs and tears, taking up the dust in their hands and putting it in their mouths in token of the deepest humiliation and subjection. Women came forth with children in their arms and presented them to him, saluting him as a god. For “he passed for our Lord God; the people acknowledged him as the Lord.” All who thus worshipped him on his passage he saluted gravely and courteously. Lest he should flee, he was everywhere attended by a guard of eight pages in the royal livery, four of them with shaven crowns like the palace-slaves, and four of them with the flowing locks of warriors; and if he contrived to escape, the captain of the guard had to take his place as the representative of the god and to die in his stead. Twenty days before he was to die, his costume was changed, and four damsels, delicately nurtured and bearing the names of four goddesses – the Goddess of Flowers, the Goddess of the Young Maize, the Goddess “Our Mother among the Water,” and the Goddess of Salt – were given him to be his brides, and with them he consorted. During the last five days divine honours were showered on the destined victim. The king remained in his palace while the whole court went after the human god. Solemn banquets and dances followed each other in regular succession and at appointed places. On the last day the young man, attended by his wives and pages, embarked in a canoe covered with a royal canopy and was ferried across the lake to a spot where a little hill rose from the edge of the water. It was called the Mountain of Parting, because here his wives bade him a last farewell. Then, accompanied only by his pages, he repaired to a small and lonely temple by the wayside. Like the Mexican temples in general, it was built in the form of a pyramid; and as the young man ascended the stairs he broke at every step one of the flutes on which he had played in the days of his glory. On reaching the summit he was seized and held down by the priests on his back upon a block of stone, while one of them cut open his breast, thrust his hand into the wound, and wrenching out his heart held it up in sacrifice to the sun. The body of the dead god was not, like the bodies of common victims, sent rolling down the steps of the temple, but was carried down to the foot, where the head was cut off and spitted on a pike. Such was the regular end of the man who personated the greatest god of the Mexican pantheon.[679 - B. de Sahagun, Histoire Générale des Choses de la Nouvelle Espagne, traduite par D. Jourdanet, et R. Siméon (Paris, 1880), pp. 61 sq., 96-99, 103; E. Seler, Altmexikanische Studien, ii. (Berlin, 1899), pp. 116-165, 194-209 (the latter passage contains the Aztec text of Sahagun's account with a German translation); J. de Acosta, The Natural and Moral History of the Indies (Hakluyt Society, London, 1880), pp. 350 sq.; Manuscrit Ramirez, Histoire de l'Origine des Indiens qui habitent la Nouvelle Espagne selon leurs traditions, publié par D. Charnay (Paris, 1903), pp. 157 sqq., 180 sq.; Diego Duran, Historia de las Indias de Nueva España (Mexico, 1867-1880), ii. 98-105; J. de Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, lib. x. cap. 14, vol. ii. pp. 256 sqq. (Madrid, 1723); F. S. Clavigero, History of Mexico, translated by Charles Cullen, Second Edition (London, 1807), i. 300; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire des Nations civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique-Centrale (Paris, 1857-1859), iii. 510-512; H. H. Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States (London, 1875-1876), iii. 319 sq. According to Torquemada the flesh of the human victim was eaten by the elders “as a sacred and divine flesh”; but this is not mentioned by the other authorities of the sixteenth century cited above. Elsewhere (Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, ii. 92 sq.) I cited this cannibal banquet as an example of a sacramental communion with the deity; but the silence of most early writers on the point makes it doubtful whether the custom has been correctly reported by Torquemada and later writers.]

Sacrifice of a man in the character of the great Mexican god Vitzilopochtli (Huitzilopochtli) in the month of May.

But he was not the only man who played the part of a god and was sacrificed as such in the month of May. The great god Vitzilopochtli or Huitzilopochtli was also worshipped at the same season. An image of him was made out of dough in human shape, arrayed in all the ornaments of the deity, and set up in his temple. But the god had also his living representative in the person of a young man, who, like the human representative of Tezcatlipoca, personated the divinity for a whole year and was sacrificed at the end. In the month of May it was the duty of the divine man, destined so soon to die, to lead the dances which formed a conspicuous feature of the festivities. Courtiers and warriors, old and young, danced in winding figures, holding each other by the hand; and with them danced young women, who had taken a vow to dance with roasted maize. On their heads these damsels wore crowns of roasted maize; festoons of maize hung from their shoulders and crossed on their breasts; their faces were painted, and their arms and legs were covered with red feathers. Dancing in this attire the damsels were said to hold the god Vitzilopochtli in their arms; but they conducted themselves with the utmost gravity and decorum. If any man so far forgot himself as to toy with one of the maidens, the elder warriors dealt with him promptly and severely, reproaching him for the sacrilege of which he had been guilty. Sahagun compares these May dances to the dances of peasant men and women in old Castile, and the crowns of maize worn by the girls he compares to the garlands of flowers worn by rustic Castilian maidens in the month of May. So they danced till nightfall. Next morning they danced again, and in the course of the day the man who represented the god Vitzilopochtli was put to death. He had the privilege of choosing the hour when he was to die. When the fatal moment drew near, they clothed him in a curious dress of paper painted all over with black circles; on his head they clapped a paper mitre decked with eagle feathers and nodding plumes, among which was fastened a blood-stained obsidian knife. Thus attired, with golden bells jingling at his ankles, he led the dance at all the balls of the festival, and thus attired he went to his death. The priests seized him, stretched him out, gripped him tight, cut out his heart, and held it up to the sun. His head was severed from the trunk and spiked beside the head of the other human god, who had been sacrificed not long before.[680 - B. de Sahagun, Histoire Générale des Choses de la Nouvelle Espagne, traduite par D. Jourdanet et R. Siméon (Paris, 1880), pp. 99-104; E. Seler, Altmexikanische Studien, ii. (Berlin, 1899) pp. 159-165, 202-209; F. S. Clavigero, History of Mexico, translated by Ch. Cullen, Second Edition (London, 1807), i. 301-303; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire des Nations civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique-Centrale, iii. 512-516; H. H. Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States, ii. 321-324. As to the dances of the maidens wearing garlands of maize, see also J. de Acosta, Natural and Moral History of the Indies (London, 1880), ii. 380.]

Sacrifice of a man in the character of the great Mexican god Quetzalcoatl in the month of February.

In Cholula, a wealthy trading city of Mexico, the merchants worshipped a god named Quetzalcoatl. His image, set upon a richly decorated altar or pedestal in a spacious temple, had the body of a man but the head of a bird, with a red beak surmounted by a crest, the face dyed yellow, with a black band running from the eyes to below the beak, and the tongue lolling out. On its head was a paper mitre painted black, white, and red; on its neck a large golden jewel in the shape of butterfly wings; about its body a feather mantle, black, red, and white; golden socks and golden sandals encased its legs and feet. In the right hand the image wielded a wooden instrument like a sickle, and in the left a buckler covered with the black and white plumage of sea-birds.[681 - J. de Acosta, The Natural and Moral History of the Indies (Hakluyt Society, London, 1880), ii. 321; Diego Duran, Historia de las Indias de Nueva España (Mexico, 1867-1880), ii. 118-120; Manuscrit Ramirez, Histoire de l'Origine des Indiens qui habitent la Nouvelle Espagne selon leurs traditions, publié par D. Charnay (Paris, 1903), pp. 182 sq. Acosta's description of the idol is abridged. As to the Mexican god Quetzalcoatl, worshipped especially by the people of Cholula, see J. G. Müller, Geschichte der amerikanischen Urreligionen (Bâle, 1867), pp. 577 sqq.; H. H. Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States (London, 1875-1876), iii. 248 sqq.] The festival of this god was celebrated on the third day of February. Forty days before the festival “the merchants bought a slave well proportioned, without any fault or blemish, either of sickness or of hurt, whom they did attire with the ornaments of the idol, that he might represent it forty days. Before his clothing they did cleanse him, washing him twice in a lake, which they called the lake of the gods; and being purified, they attired him like the idol. During these forty days, he was much respected for his sake whom he represented. By night they did imprison him (as hath been said) lest he should fly, and in the morning they took him out of prison, setting him upon an eminent place, where they served him, giving him exquisite meats to eat. After he had eaten, they put a chain of flowers about his neck, and many nosegays in his hands. He had a well-appointed guard, with much people to accompany him. When he went through the city, he went dancing and singing through all the streets, that he might be known for the resemblance of their god, and when he began to sing, the women and little children came forth of their houses to salute him, and to offer unto him as to their god. Two old men of the ancients of the temple came unto him nine days before the feast, and humbling themselves before him, they said with a low and submissive voice, ‘Sir, you must understand that nine days hence the exercise of dancing and singing doth end, and thou must then die’; and then he must answer, ‘In a good hour.’ They call this ceremony Neyòlo Maxilt Ileztli, which is to say, the advertisement; and when they did thus advertise him, they took very careful heed whether he were sad, or if he danced as joyfully as he was accustomed, the which if he did not as cheerfully as they desired, they made a foolish superstition in this manner. They presently took the sacrifizing razors, the which they washed and cleansed from the blood of men which remained of the former sacrifices. Of this washing they made a drink mingled with another liquor made of cacao, giving it him to drink; they said that this would make him forget what had been said unto him, and would make him in a manner insensible, returning to his former dancing and mirth. They said, moreover, that he would offer himself cheerfully to death, being enchanted with this drink. The cause why they sought to take from him this heaviness, was, for that they held it for an ill augury, and a fore-telling of some great harm. The day of the feast being come, after they had done him much honour, sung, and given him incense, the sacrificers took him about midnight and did sacrifice him, as hath been said, offering his heart unto the Moon, the which they did afterwards cast against the idol, letting the body fall to the bottom of the stairs of the temple, where such as had offered him took him up, which were the merchants, whose feast it was. Then having carried him into the chiefest man's house amongst them, the body was drest with diverse sauces, to celebrate (at the break of day) the banquet and dinner of the feast, having first bid the idol good morrow, with a small dance, which they made whilst the day did break, and that they prepared the sacrifice. Then did all the merchants assemble at this banquet, especially those which made it a trafick to buy and sell slaves, who were bound every year to offer one, for the resemblance of their god. This idol was one of the most honoured in all the land; and therefore the temple where he was, was of great authority.”[682 - J. de Acosta, The Natural and Moral History of the Indies (Hakluyt Society, London, 1880), ii. 384-386. I have modernized the old translator's spelling. The accounts of Duran and the anonymous author of the Ramirez manuscript agree verbally with that of Acosta. It is plain that Acosta and Duran drew on the same source, which may be the Ramirez manuscript. However, Duran is the only one of the three who gives the date of the festival (the third of February). See Diego Duran, Historia de las Indias de Nueva España (Mexico, 1867-1880), ii. 120 sq.; Manuscrit Ramirez, Histoire de l'Origine des Indiens qui habitent la Nouvelle Espagne selon leurs traditions, publié par de Charnay (Paris, 1903), pp. 182 sqq. Compare A. de Herrera, The General History of the Vast Continent and Islands of America, translated by Captain John Stevens (London, 1725-1726), iii. 218 sq.; J. G. Müller, Geschichte der amerikanischen Urreligionen (Bâle, 1867), pp. 589 sq.; H. H. Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States (London, 1875-1876), iii. 286.]

Sacrifice of a woman in the character of the Mexican Goddess of Salt in the month of June.

The honour of living for a short time in the character of a god and dying a violent death in the same capacity was not restricted to men in Mexico; women were allowed, or rather compelled, to enjoy the glory and to share the doom as representatives of goddesses. Thus in the seventh month of their year, which corresponded roughly to June, the Aztecs celebrated a festival in honour of Huixtocihuatl, the Goddess of Salt. She was said to be a sister of the Rain Gods, but having quarrelled with them she was banished and driven to take up her abode in the salt water. Being of an ingenious turn of mind, she invented the process of extracting salt by means of pans; hence she was worshipped by all salt-makers as their patron goddess. Her garments were yellow; on her head she wore a mitre surmounted by bunches of waving green plumes, which shone with greenish iridescent hues in the sun. Her robe and petticoats were embroidered with patterns simulating the waves of the sea. Golden ear-rings in the form of flowers dangled at her ears; golden bells jingled at her ankles. In one hand she carried a round shield painted with the leaves of a certain plant and adorned with drooping fringes of parrots' feathers; in the other hand she carried a stout baton ending in a knob and bedecked with paper, artificial flowers, and feathers. For ten days before her festival a woman personated the goddess and wore her gorgeous costume. It was her duty during these days to lead the dances which at this season were danced by the women and girls of the salt-makers. They danced, young, old, and children, in a ring, all holding a cord, their heads crowned with garlands of a fragrant flower (Artemisia laciniata) and singing airs in a shrill soprano. In the middle of the ring danced the woman who represented the goddess, with her golden bells jingling at every step, brandishing her shield, and marking the time of the dance and song with her baton. On the last day, the eve of the festival, she had to dance all night without resting till break of day, when she was to die. Old women supported her in the weary task, and they all danced together, arm in arm. With her, too, danced the slaves who were to die with her in the morning. When the hour was come, they led her, still personating the goddess, up the steps of the temple of Tlaloc, followed by the doomed captives. Arrived at the summit of the pyramid, the butchery began with the captives, while the woman stood looking on. Her turn being come, they threw her on her back on the block, and while five men held her down and two others compressed her throat with a billet of wood or the sword of a sword-fish to prevent her from screaming, the priest cut open her breast with his knife, and thrusting his hand into the wound tore out her heart and flung it into a bowl. When all was over, the salt-makers who had witnessed the sacrifice went home to drink and make merry.[683 - B. de Sahagun, Histoire Générale des Choses de la Nouvelle Espagne, traduite par D. Jourdanet et R. Siméon (Paris, 1880), pp. 64, 115-117; J. de Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana (Madrid, 1723), lib. x. cap. 18, vol. ii. p. 268. Compare F. S. Clavigero, History of Mexico, translated by C. Cullen (London, 1807), i. 305; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire des Nations Civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique-Centrale, iii. 517 sq.; H. H. Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States, ii. 325-327.]

Sacrifice of a woman in the character of the Mexican Goddess of the Young Maize about Mid-summer.

Again, in the eighth month of the Mexican year, which answered to the latter end of June and the early part of July, the Aztecs sacrificed a woman who personated Xilonen, the goddess of the young maize-cobs (xilotl). The festival at which the sacrifice took place was held on the tenth day of the month about the time when the maize is nearly ripe, and when fibres shooting forth from the green ear shew that the grain is fully formed. For eight days before the festival men and women, clad in rich garments and decked with jewels, danced and sang together in the courts of the temples, which were brilliantly illuminated for the purpose. Rows of tall braziers sent up a flickering blaze, and torchbearers held aloft huge torches of pinewood. Some of the dancers themselves carried heavy torches, which flared and spluttered as they danced. The dances began at sundown and lasted till about nine o'clock. None but tried and distinguished warriors might take part in them. The women wore their long hair hanging loose on their back and shoulders, in order that the tassels of the maize might likewise grow long and loose, for the more tassels the more grain in the ear. Men and women danced holding each other by the hand or with their arms round each other's waists, marking time exactly with their feet to the music of the drums and moving out and in among the flaming braziers and torches. The dances were strictly decorous. If any man was detected making love to one of the women dancers, he was publicly disgraced, severely punished, and never allowed to dance and sing in public again. On the eve of the festival the woman who was to die in the character of the Goddess of the Young Maize was arrayed in the rich robes and splendid jewels of the divinity whom she personated. The upper part of her face was painted red and the lower part yellow, probably to assimilate her to the ruddy and orange hues of the ripe maize. Her legs and arms were covered with red feathers. She wore a paper crown decked with a bunch of feathers; necklaces of gems and gold encircled her neck; her garments were embroidered with quaint figures; her shoes were striped with red. In her left hand she held a round shield, in her right a crimson baton. Thus arrayed, she was led by other women to offer incense in four different places. All the rest of the night she and they danced and sang in front of the temple of the goddess Xilonen, whose living image she was supposed to be. In the morning the nobles danced a solemn dance by themselves, leaning, or making believe to lean, on stalks of maize. The women, pranked with garlands and festoons of yellow flowers, danced also by themselves along with the victim. Among the priests the one who was to act as executioner wore a fine bunch of feathers on his back. Another shook a rattle before the doomed woman as she mounted up the steps of the temple of Cinteotl, the Goddess of the Maize. On reaching the summit she was seized by a priest, who threw her on his back, while the sacrificer severed her head from her body, tore out her heart, and threw it in a saucer. When this sacrifice had been performed in honour of Xilonen, the Goddess of the Young Maize, the people were free to eat the green ears of maize and the bread that was baked of it. No one would have dared to eat of these things before the sacrifice.[684 - B. de Sahagun, Histoire Générale des Choses de la Nouvelle Espagne, traduite par D. Jourdanet R. Siméon (Paris, 1880), pp. 65 sq., 118-126; J. de Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana (Madrid, 1723), lib. x. cap. 19, vol. ii. pp. 269-271; E. J. Payne, History of the New World called America, i. (Oxford, 1892) pp. 421-423. Compare Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire des Nations civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique-Centrale, iii. 518-520; H. H. Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States, ii. 326 sq. I have followed Torquemada (vol. ii. p. 269) and the French translators of Sahagun (p. 65, note 2) in deriving the name of Xilonen from xilotl in the sense of “young cobs of maize.” But according to E. J. Payne, the word xilotl means “hair,” and Xilonen is “Hairy Mother” (Mater comata) with reference to the hair-like fibres or tassels that shoot from the maize-cobs. See E. J. Payne, op. cit. i. 417. On either interpretation the goddess is a personification of the young maize. The goddess of the maize in general was called Cinteotl or Centeotl (Centeutl), a name which, according to Torquemada, is derived from centli, “maize-cob” (Monarquia Indiana, lib. vi. cap. 25, vol. ii. p. 52). But E. J. Payne, while he regards Cinteotl as the maize-goddess, explains her name differently. He says (op. cit. i. 416 sq.): “The Totonacs worshipped the corn-spirit under names which were translated into Mexican as Tzinteotl (goddess of beginning or origin) and Tonacayohua (provider of our food). They considered her to be the wife of the sun, their supreme god. Theoretically subordinated to him, the maize-goddess was in practice the chief deity of the Totonacs: it was to her service that the principal warriors, quitting their wives and children, dedicated themselves in their old age.” Similarly Clavigero, who lived many years in Mexico and learned the Mexican language, explains Cinteotl (Tzinteotl) to mean “original goddess”; he adds that the Maize Goddess changed her name “according to the different states of the grain in the progress of its growth” (History of Mexico, translated by C. Cullen, i. 253 note p). Another name applied to the Maize Goddess Cinteotl was Chicomecohuatl or “Seven Snakes.” See J. de Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, lib. x. cap. 13, vol. ii. p. 255; J. G. Müller, Geschichte der amerikanischen Urreligionen (Bâle, 1867), pp. 491 sqq.; E. Seler, Altmexikanische Studien, ii. (Berlin, 1899) pp. 108 sq., 112. Some have held that Cinteotl was a Maize God rather than a Maize Goddess. See H. H. Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States, iii. 349 sqq.]

Sacrifice of a woman in the character of the Mexican goddess “Our Mother”on Christmas Day.

Again, in the seventeenth month of the Mexican year,[685 - The Mexican year of three hundred and sixty-five days was divided into eighteen months of twenty days each, with five supplementary days over. See J. de Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, lib. x. cap. 36, vol. ii. p. 300 (Madrid, 1723); B. de Sahagun, Histoire Générale des Choses de la Nouvelle Espagne, traduite par D. Jourdanet et R. Simeon (Paris, 1880), p. lxvii.; F. S. Clavigero, History of Mexico, translated by C. Cullen (London, 1807), i. 290 sq.] which corresponded to the latter part of December and the early part of January, the Aztecs sacrificed a woman, who personated the goddess Ilamatecutli or Tonan, which means “Our Mother.” Her festival fell on Christmas Day, the twenty-fifth of December. The image of the goddess wore a two-faced mask with large mouths and protruding eyes. The woman who represented her was dressed in white robes and shod with white sandals. Over her white mantle she wore a leathern jerkin, the lower edge of which was cut into a fringe of straps, and to the end of each strap was fastened a small shell. As she walked, the shells clashed together and made a noise which was heard afar off. The upper half of her face was painted yellow and the lower half black; and she wore a wig. In her hand she carried a round whitewashed shield decorated in the middle with a circle of eagle feathers, while white heron plumes, ending in eagle feathers, drooped from it. Thus arrayed and personating the goddess, the woman danced alone to music played by old men, and as she danced she sighed and wept at the thought of the death that was so near. At noon or a little later the dance ceased; and when the sun was declining in the west, they led her up the long ascent to the summit of Huitzilopochtli's temple. Behind her marched the priests clad in the trappings of all the gods, with masks on their faces. One of them wore the costume and the mask of the goddess Ilamatecutli, whom the victim also represented. On reaching the lofty platform which crowned the pyramidal temple, they slew her in the usual fashion, wrenched out her heart, and cut off her head. The dripping head was given to the priest who wore the costume and mask of the goddess and waving it up and down he danced round the platform, followed by all the other priests in the attire and masks of the gods. When the dance had lasted a certain time, the leader gave the signal, and they all trooped down the long flight of stairs to disrobe themselves and deposit the masks and costumes in the chapels where they were usually kept. Next day the people indulged in a certain pastime. Men and boys furnished themselves with little bags or nets stuffed with paper, flowers of galingale, or green leaves of maize, which they tied to strings, and used them as instruments to strike any girl or woman they might meet in the streets. Sometimes three or four urchins would gather round one girl, beating her till she cried; but some shrewd wenches went about that day armed with sticks, with which they retaliated smartly on their assailants. It was a penal offence to put stones or anything else that could hurt in the bags.[686 - B. de Sahagun, Histoire Générale des Choses de la Nouvelle Espagne, traduite par D. Jourdanet et R. Simeon (Paris, 1880), pp. 75, 158-160; J. de Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, lib. x. cap. 29, vol. ii. pp. 284 sq. (Madrid, 1723). Compare F. S. Clavigero, History of Mexico, translated by C. Cullen (London, 1807), i. 312; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire des Nations Civilisées du Mexique et de l' Amérique-Centrale, iii. 535 sq.; H. H. Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States, ii. 337 sq.]

Sacrifice of a woman in the character of the Mexican goddess the Mother of the Gods at the end of August or beginning of September.

In the preceding custom, what are we to make of the sacrifice of a woman, who personated the goddess, by a man who also wore the costume and mask of the goddess, and who immediately after the sacrifice danced with the bleeding head of the victim? Perhaps the intention of the strange rite was to represent the resurrection of the slain goddess in the person of the priest who wore her costume and mask and dangled the severed head of her slaughtered representative. If that was so, it would explain another and still ghastlier rite, in which the Mexicans seem to have set forth the doctrine of the divine resurrection. This was to skin the slain woman who had personated the goddess and then to clothe in the bloody skin a man, who pranced about in it, as if he were the dead woman or rather goddess come to life again. Thus in the eleventh Mexican month, which corresponded to the latter part of August and the early part of September, they celebrated a festival in honour of a goddess called the Mother of the Gods (Teteo innan) or Our Ancestress (Toci), or the Heart of the Earth, and they sacrificed a woman clad in the costume and ornaments of the goddess. She was a slave bought for the purpose by the guilds of physicians, surgeons, blood-letters, midwives and fortune-tellers, who particularly worshipped this deity. When the poor wretch came forth decked in all the trappings of the goddess, the people, we are told, looked on her as equivalent to the Mother of the Gods herself and paid her as much honour and reverence as if she had indeed been that great divinity. For eight days they danced silently in four rows, if dance it could be called in which the dancers scarcely stirred their legs and bodies, but contented themselves with moving their hands, in which they held branches of blossoms, up and down in time to the tuck of drum. These dances began in the afternoon and lasted till the sun went down. No one might speak during their performance; only some lively youths mimicked by a booming murmur of the lips the rub-a-dub of the drums. When the dances were over, the medical women, young and old, divided themselves into two parties and engaged in a sham fight before the woman who acted the part of the Mother of the Gods. This they did to divert her and keep her from being sad and shedding tears; for if she wept, they deemed it an omen that many men would die in battle and many women in childbed. The fight between the women consisted in throwing balls of moss, leaves, or flowers at each other; and she who personated the goddess led one of the parties to the attack. These mock battles lasted four days.

The farewell to the market. The skin of the sacrificed woman flayed and worn by a man who personated the goddess.

After that they led the woman who was to die to the market-place, that she might bid it farewell; and by way of doing so she scattered the flour of maize wherever she went. The priests then attended her to a building near the temple in which she was to be sacrificed. The knowledge of her doom was kept from her as far as possible. The medical women and the midwives comforted her, saying, “Be not cast down, sweetheart; this night thou shalt sleep with the king; therefore rejoice.” Then they put on her the ornaments of the goddess, and at midnight led her to the temple where she was to die. On the passage not a word was spoken, not a cough was heard; crowds were gathered to see her pass, but all kept a profound silence. Arrived at the summit of the temple she was hoisted on to the back of one priest, while another adroitly cut off her head. The body, still warm, was skinned, and a tall robust young man clothed himself in the bleeding skin and so became in turn a living image of the goddess. One of the woman's thighs was flayed separately, and the skin carried to another temple, where a young man put it over his face as a mask and so personated the maize-goddess Cinteotl, daughter of the Mother of the Gods. Meantime the other, clad in the rest of the woman's skin, hurried down the steps of the temple. The nobles and warriors fled before him, carrying blood-stained besoms of couchgrass, but turned to look back at him from time to time and smote upon their shields as if to bid him come on. He followed hard after them and all who saw that flight and pursuit quaked with fear. On arriving at the foot of the temple of Huitzilopochtli, the man who wore the skin of the dead woman and personated the Mother of the Gods, lifted up his arms and stood like a cross before the image of the god; this action he repeated four times. Then he joined the man who personated the maize-goddess Cinteotl, and together they went slowly to the temple of the Mother of the Gods, where the woman had been sacrificed. All this time it was night. Next morning at break of day the man who personated the Mother of the Gods took up his post on the highest point of the temple; there they decked him in all the gorgeous trappings of the goddess and set a splendid crown on his head. Then the captives were set in a row before him, and arrayed in all his finery he slaughtered four of them with his own hand: the rest he left to be butchered by the priests. A variety of ceremonies and dances followed. Amongst others, the blood of the human victims was collected in a bowl and set before the man who personated the Mother of the Gods. He dipped his finger into the blood and then sucked his bloody finger; and when he had sucked it he bowed his head and uttered a dolorous groan, whereat the Indians believed the earth itself shook and trembled, as did all who heard it. Finally the skin of the slain woman and the skin of her thigh were carried away and deposited separately at two towers, one of which stood on the border of the enemy's country.[687 - B. de Sahagun, Histoire Générale des Choses de la Nouvelle Espagne, traduite par D. Jourdanet et R. Simeon (Paris, 1880), pp. 18 sq., 68 sq., 133-139: J. de Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana (Madrid, 1723), lib. x. cap. 23, vol. ii. pp. 275 sq.; Diego Duran, Historia de las Indias de Nueva España (Mexico, 1867-1880), ii. 185-191. Compare Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire des Nations civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique-Centrale, iii. 523-525; H. H. Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States, iii. 353-359; E. J. Payne, History of the New World called America, i. (Oxford, 1892), pp. 470 sq. A statue of basalt, about half the size of life, said to have come from Tezcuco, represents a man clothed in a human skin which he wears on his body, his arms, and his face; his own skin is painted bright red, the other skin a dirty white. See H. H. Bancroft, op. cit. iv. 522; Marquis de Nadaillac, L'Amérique Préhistorique (Paris, 1883), p. 295, fig. 119. In the Art Museum (Kunst-Museum) at Bâle there is a statuette of the same sort. It is labelled: “Xipe. Der in einer Menschenhaut gekleidete Gott. Gesch. v. H. Luk. Vischer (1828-1837).” The figure is about eighteen inches high and appears to be made of a porous stone. It represents a man seated on his haunches with his feet crossed in front of him and his hands resting on his knees. His own skin, of which the legs, feet, hands, wrists, neck and part of the face are visible, is coloured a terra-cotta red. The rest of his body is covered by the representation of the skin of a human victim, of a greyish colour, quite distinct from that of the wearer, and this skin is also worn like a mask on his face. At his back the jacket of human skin only partially meets, displaying the wearer's red skin under it for some distance; it is as if the skin of the human victim had been split up the back and then drawn together and fastened at the back of the wearer like an ill-fitting and imperfectly buttoned coat. The hands of the human victim are represented dangling at the wrists of the seated figure. I saw this remarkable statuette in the Museum at Bâle on July 25th, 1912, but I was not able to remove it from the case for closer examination. As to Xipe, the Mexican god clad in a human skin, whom the statuette represents, see below, pp. 296 sqq.]

Young girl chosen to personate the Mexican Goddess of the Maize, Chicomecohuatl.

This remarkable festival in honour of the Mother of the Gods is said to have been immediately preceded by a similar festival in honour of the Maize Goddess Chicomecohuatl.[688 - As to this name for the Maize Goddess, see above, p. 286 (#x_22_i16), note 1.] The image of this goddess was of wood and represented her as a girl of about twelve years of age wearing feminine ornaments painted in gay colours. On her head was a pasteboard mitre; her long hair fell on her shoulders; in her ears she had golden earrings; round her neck she wore a necklace of golden maize-cobs strung on a blue ribbon, and in her hands she held the likeness of maize-cobs made of feathers and garnished with gold. Her festival, which was observed throughout the whole country with great devotion on the fifteenth day of September, was preceded by a strict fast of seven days, during which old and young, sick and whole, ate nothing but broken victuals and dry bread and drank nothing but water, and did penance by drawing blood from their ears. The blood so drawn was kept in vessels, which were not scoured, so that a dry crust formed over it. On the day before the fast began the people ate and drank to their heart's content, and they sanctified a woman to represent Atlatatonan, the Goddess of Lepers, dressing her up in an appropriate costume. When the fast was over, the high priest of the temple of Tlaloc sacrificed the woman in the usual way by tearing out her heart and holding it up as an offering to the sun. Her body, with all the robes and ornaments she had worn, was cast into a well or vault in the temple, and along with the corpse were thrown in all the plates and dishes out of which the people had eaten, and all the mats on which they had sat or slept during the fast, as if, says the historian, they had been infected with the plague of leprosy. After that the people were free to eat bread, salt, and tomatoes; and immediately after the sacrifice of the woman who personated the Goddess of Leprosy they sanctified a young slave girl of twelve or thirteen years, the prettiest they could find, to represent the Maize Goddess Chicomecohuatl. They invested her with the ornaments of the goddess, putting the mitre on her head and the maize-cobs round her neck and in her hands, and fastening a green feather upright on the crown of her head to imitate an ear of maize. This they did, we are told, in order to signify that the maize was almost ripe at the time of the festival, but because it was still tender they chose a girl of tender years to play the part of the Maize Goddess. The whole long day they led the poor child in all her finery, with the green plume nodding on her head, from house to house dancing merrily to cheer people after the dulness and privations of the fast.

Adoration of the girl who personated the Goddess of the Maize.