of the diseases sent upon earth by Tlaloc or his consort, such as tumors and dropsy, and children sacrificed upon the altars of this god were transported, after death, to Tlalocán, a delightful region of mountains, shady trees and running streams. All those not qualified to go to the home of the Sun or the pleasure regions of Tlaloc were sent to Mictlán, situated, according to some authorities, in the cold and dreary north; according to others, in the gloomy "navel of the earth," where they were forced to lead an aimless existence.

By the Nahuas every phase of nature was personified and had its representative guardian spirit to whom offerings and sacrifices of some kind were made daily or periodically. Among these were household duties, of which every home had several, according to its class, condition and position in society. The sacrifices to the national and tribal gods were attended to by a numerous and opulent priesthood, who ruled in an autocratic manner and exacted heavy contributions for the maintenance of religious institutions and schools, the latter being also under their complete control. These sacrifices, generally slaves or captives taken in war, were offered up upon the stone altars of the temples, the victims being thrown upon their backs and held down by attendants while the officiating priest ripped open the breast and tore out the heart of each and offered it, first to the Sun, and then to the particular divinity to whom the sacrifice had been made. The presentation of fruits, flowers, grain, animals and birds to the family gods was generally made by the head of the family or of the community house, when a number of families lived in one large building, as was often the case in Mexico; while sacrifices were made by individuals to those divinities who were believed to work in the interest of individuals. Tezcatlipoca, a purely tribal divinity of the Texcocans, the most civilized and cultured of the Nahua people, had continued to gather to himself the powers of most of the other divinities, until, at the time of the Conquest, he was looked upon as a great divine ruler and creator and had become identified with the Toltec su

preme divinity, the "Teotl." But he never ceased to be the tribal deity of the Texcocans. Huitzilopochtli, the tribal deity of the Aztecs, had become the great war-god of all the Nahuas because the military successes of the Aztecs had imposed him upon the other nations forming the confederacy. The large bodies of Toltecs who remained in Mexico after the fall of the Toltec empire formed communities, the principal of which was at Cholula, where the presiding deity was Quetzalcoatl, also the foremost divinity of the Zapotecas and, under the name of Yucano, that of the Mixtecas. The Toltecs who went southward carried the worship of this deity into Yucatan and parts of Chiapas, Tabasco and Campeche, where he disputed sovereignty with the older deities of the native races. In the long ages of mythology, hundreds of races surged to and fro across Mexico and the great isthmus of Central America, leaving behind them remnants of their languages, tribal customs and mythologies. Thus we have a mingling of tongues, creeds and customs which has sorely puzzled the antiquarian, the linguist and the student of mythology. The destruction of the native codexes

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and the undecipherable character of the remaining records in stone of the Mayas, Kiches and other highly civilized races of southern and eastern Mexico and Guatemala add greatly to the difficulties of understanding mythologies of the various races of Mexico.

Roughly speaking, the Nahua, Maya and Kiche deities may be classed as gods of the air, to whom belong the culture deities, the lightning, the thunder and the storm gods; the sun, the moon and the planet Venus (the Evening Star) and the Supreme Creator; gods of rain, mist, moisture and the running waters of the earth; grain and other plant deities; special patrons of trades, occupations, games, sports, learning of all kinds, including astronomy, astrology, witchcraft, luck in gaming, medicine and the healing art. The functions of many of these seem to be inextricably mingled and confused. This is due partly to our inexact knowledge of the past institutions, history and mythology of the various races who mingled and blended on this great bridge of the continents throughout unknown centuries before history began. But remains enough have been left to show the complicated nature of the religious system of the Nahuas and other cognate races and to prove that they had advanced to a stage wherein ethical considerations played a very considerable part. The prayers addressed to their gods, the speeches to the sovereign and other officials about to take office, the advice of a father to his son and a mother to her daughter; the poetical effusions of the royal poet of Texcoco, Nezahualcoyotl, and many other like documents which have come down to us, are filled with evidence of the high ethical plane of Nahua religious thought at the time of the Conquest; for every occupation of society, all reasoning, every movement of life had their separate being within the shadow of the Nahua religion,

MYTHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS.

In the following account of the more important mythological characters most frequently met with in literature relating to Mexico, the territory in which each plays his part is, unless otherwise stated, the land of the Nahuas.

Bacabs. In the mythology of Yucatan the Bacabs, the upholders of the heavens, were supposed to have their stand at the four cardinal points. They were called Muluc, Cauac, Kan and Ix, North, South, East and West. They were probably related to the four wind deities and to the four rain Tlalocs. The Bacabs were frequently represented in Maya sculpture.

Bat-God. The Bat-God, Zotzilaha Chimalman, the "Dweller in the Bat's House"; a primitive divinity of the Mayas, the Zapotecas and the Mixtecas is met with in the Popol-Vuh, under the name of Camazotzo, where he plays a prominent part in the adventures of the hero gods of the underworld. He seems to have been a god of volcanic fire and to have been closely associated with earthquakes and the lower regions.

Centeotl. A family name given to the maize gods. The female divinity, called Chicomecohuatl, "Seven-serpent," represented water as a fertilizer and was assisted by Chalchiutlicue, the consort of Tlaloc, in fertilizing

the youngest harvest and looking after it. Under the title of Xilenon, "Green-corn-ear," she was the spirit of the green corn. As the earth goddess, she was called Tonacayohua, "She-who-nourishes." In this form she was one of the chief deities of the Totonacas, who erected to her, on the summit of a mountain, a great and imposing temple, to which pilgrims came from far and near. The name Centeotl was also given as a special title to both male and female deities. A summer festival lasting 18 days was held when the maize had attained its full growth. Ceremonial dances formed a part of this celebration at which a female called Xalaquia, who represented Chicomecohuatl, danced with the rest. Her face was painted yellow and red to represent the ripe corn. On the last night of the festival all the women and the head men of the community joined in the "dance of death"; after which the Xalaquia was offered up as a sacrifice to Chicomecohuatl. Not till the conclusion of this festival and its significant closing ceremony was it lawful to partake of the new corn.

Chac was the rain god of Yucatán. He is represented with a long tapir-like snout through which it was believed he blew the rain out over the earth. He corresponds to the Tlaloc of the Mexicans.

Chalchihuitlicue, "the rain goddess," wore a dress of nebulous green, a blue crown decorated with green feathers and a collar of precious stones to which was attached a golden pendant, all emblematic of the varying colors of the water. In her left hand she bore a conventional water-plant, and in her right a yase surmounted by a cross, the sign of the four directions or points from which the wind drove the rain.

Cihuapipiltin, "honored-women," the spirits of women who died in child-birth, were closely related to the Moon Goddess. The moon had two tendencies, one actively beneficent, the other actively malevolent. The Cihuapipiltin partook of this latter tendency. They afflicted infants with certain diseases and they entered the bodies of weakly people, more especially the insane who were popularly supposed to be governed constantly by their influence. Their temples were built at the cross-roads which they were said to haunt.

Citlapol, "the Great Star" (Venus), was the Lord of the Dawn, Tlahuizcalpan Tecutli. This astral deity was thought to influence the events of life very greatly, so whenever the planet was due to rise, the people stopped up their chimneys to prevent the entrance of its harm-bearing light; whenever it reappeared on its circuit, captives were sacrificed to its image or its representation painted upon a column called Ilhuicatlán, "Place in the Sky," erected in the courtyard of the great temple of Tenochtitlán. Owing to the very special importance attached to the movements of this planet by both Mexicans and Mayas, its periods of revolution were carefully watched and recorded with great accuracy. As the evening star, this deity was said to follow the sun on his journey to the underworld. He is represented as having a white body, symbolical of light, which was frequently covered with long, narrow, red stripes and over his eyes was a black mask, sometimes bordered with small white circles.

Coatlicue (Coatlatona), "She with Dress

of Serpents," was the Aztec goddess of flowers and probably identical with the fabled mother of the god of war of the Aztecs. She was the patroness of gardeners who, in the early spring-time, offered her garlands of flowers.

Ehchuah, the "Black-God," was the patron divinity of merchants and cacao planters in Yucatán.

Gucumatz, "Green-feathered-serpent," the great Maya-Kiche culture deity, the equivalent of Quetzalcoatl, of which the name is a literal translation.

Huechaana, one of the two Zapoteca creation deities, was the creator of all men and fishes; Cozaana was the creator of all beasts. As the story relating to these two creator divinities is also told in another form by the Mixtecas, and as the eagle and the snake play a prominent part in this latter form of the myth, it is probable these two Zapoteca deities were closely related to the culture gods of other Mexican peoples.

Huehueteotl, "Oldest of the Gods," the fire deity, was also called Xiutecutli, "Lord of the Year," while he was generally addressed as "tata" or our father. He was represented with a black face and a red body, typical of fire. He wore a headdress of green feathers, a sign of royalty or divinity in pre-Columbian Mexico, and on his back he bore a yellow serpent, symbolical of his own special functions and of his relationship to the gods of the air. His connection with the sun, the father of all heat, was shown by a golden mirror. As Xiutecutli, he was a very much revered household god to whom an offering of drink and bread was made by every Mexican on rising in the morning. It was before his idol that the new fire was kindled every year. It was thought to be necessary for the existence of a new-born infant that a fire should be kept burning for four days in honor of its arrival and as a sign of gratitude to the Lord of the Year.

Huitzilopochtli (Mexilli), "Humming-bird's Feathers on the Left (leg)," the tribal deity of the Aztecs and their great god of war. He was the son of the Sun God and of Coatlicue (Coatlatona), "She with dress of serpent," the Aztec goddess of flowers and the reputed mother of the gods. He was born with a shield in one hand and a blue spear in the other, fully armed for war; and he proceeded at once to the extermination of his sister and his brothers, a fabled tribe of demi-gods, who had conspired to kill their mother. He pursued them four times around a mountain, killing many. Others were drowned in a near-by lake, while a few surrendered and made peace. Huitzilopochtli usually wore a headdress of humming-bird's feathers; in his left hand he carried a shield and in his right four darts. On account of his prowess in war and of the prominence of the Aztecs at the front of the Mexican confederacy, he was the religious head of the Mexican priesthood. He had power over all growing things; the feather markings of his shield were in the form of a cross composed of dots, thus connecting him with the Tlalocs; his face and his limbs were marked with stripes of blue, and he was seated on a pedestal of blue, at each of the four corners of which was a serpent. Across his face and his forehead, from ear to ear, was an azure band, all typical of his dominion over the sky,

where, as a tribal deity, he ruled as the god of lightning, of thunder and of terrifying winds.

Huistocihuatl was the protecting goddess of salt and salt-makers throughout the Aztec Empire, where the gathering of salt from the salt deposits along the low coast-lands was a business of great importance.

Hurakán, “He who hurls below," the MayaKiche god of the storm, of wind in motion, was accompanied in his work by violent manifestations of nature by three assistant deities, Cakulha-Hurakán (Lightning), Raxa-Cakulha (Lightning-track) and Chipi-Cakulha (Lightning-flash). Hurricane, Spanish huracán, is supposed to be derived from the name of this deity.

Itzamná, "Dew of clouds and heaven," father of gods and men, the tutelar divinity of Yucatán, and more especially of the Itzaes, was credited with possessing most of the powers of Quetzalcoatl, of ruling over more or less the same phase of human life and of performing more or less the same acts in behalf of humanity, and all evidence tends to show that he was but an earlier peninsular form of the great American culture myth. He was the universal life-giver and hence the patron divinity of birth and of growing vegetation. He was also the culture god who was popularly believed to have taught the Itzaes the civilization they had acquired. He was the fabled founder of Itzamal; and in his capital, in semi-historical times, was a magnificent temple dedicated to his worship.

Ixtlilton, "He of the Black Face," the god of medicine and healing, was also addressed as Tlatetecuin, the "earth-digger." He was said to be brother of Macuilxochitl. Sick children were carried to his temple to dance, and recite prayers and incantations, after which the priests gave them a special medicine contained in tlilatl "black-water jars." If the patient got better, the image of the god was taken to the house of his residence, where offerings and ceremonial dances were made in his honor.

Kinich-Ahau, "Lord of the Sun's Face," the Sun-god of Yucatán, presided over the North. He was also called Kinich-kakmo, "Sun-bird" and Arara, "Fire-bird." The figure of the Sun is frequently represented upon ancient buildings in Chiapas, Yucatán and Guatemala; and in the latter country certain Indian tribes still wear, on festive occasions, a gala dress with a great, yellow sun depicted on both front and back of the garment. They call themselves "Children of the Sun."

a literal

Kukulcán, "Feathered-serpent," translation of Quetzalcoatl, was the great Maya culture god. He is said to have been the first king of Mayapán, just as tradition makes Quetzalcoatl one of the kings of Tula.

Macuilxochitl, "Five-flower," Xochipilli, "Source-of-flowers," was the patron of luck in gambling. His worship was general throughout the Aztec Empire and nations to the south of it; and he was held in high honor among the Zapotecas and Mixtecas. At a yearly festival dedicated to him, offerings of cakes, animals and human beings were made and ceremonial dances performed in which the people, richly dressed, took part.

Metztli, "the Moon goddess," Yohualticit, "Lady of the night," was patroness of harvest and fertility. The Zapotecas and Nahuas be

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lieved that women stood in a very special relationship to this deity.

Mixcoatl, "Cloud-serpent," the Aztec and Otomi god of the chase, was sometimes represented as a deer or a rabbit. He carried a sheaf of arrows to typify his office. On the site of a famous ancient shrine of Mixcoatl stands Mixcoac, the "city of gardens," one of the most popular suburbs of the Mexican capital.

Nanahuatl, "Lord of lepers and those afflicted with skin diseases," is always connected with the moon, and diseased persons under his protection were believed to be sacrifices peculiarly acceptable to her, for whose service they were set apart. The moon goddess was intimately connected with the art of healing and she also took a special interest in lepers.

Napatecutli, "Four-times-lord," protector of mat-makers, one of the numerous rain gods, was one of the ministers of Tlaloc. He presided over the low, swampy lands where the reeds grow from which mats are still extènsively made in Mexico.

Omactl, "Two-reeds," Nahua god of festivities and rejoicing, whose image always presided over the feasts of the well-to-do, was cermonially eaten in the form of a great bone of Indian corn meal at every festival. The idol had a recess in the region of the stomach into which provisions were put. The image wore a paper coronet and a cloak fringed with flowers and carried a sword.

Opochtli, "Left-handed," Aztec god of fishing, also called, in Chalco, Amimit, was said to be the inventor of the fish-hook, line and spear and other means of catching fish. The similarity of his name with that of the Aztec god of war would seem to connect him with the latter, especially when it is remembered that Huitzilopochtli was the tribal god of the Aztecs when they were mainly fishers.

Sun-god, the supreme deity of the Toltecs, played an important part in the mythologies of the Nahuas, Itzaes, Mayas, Zapotecas, Mixtecas and other races of Mexico and Central America. He was called Ipalnemohuani, "Heby-whom-we-live." As the god of warriors the priest and nobles claimed descent from him. His golden image was hung upon the wall of his court where the first rays of the rising sun fell directly upon it. Human sacrifices were offered to the Sun, whose strength was sustained by the blood of these victims, otherwise he would not be able to continue his journey through the sky. Even the hearts of the captives offered to Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca were first presented to the sun. Some of the most magnificent temples of Mexico, Central America and Peru were erected to the Sun-god.

Tepeyollotl, "Heart-of-the-hills," personification of the echo of the mountains, was one of the nine attendants of the night and lord of the 13 days following the flood, in which no sacrifices were good, and during which the feast of the jaguar was held. He was a southern deity highly Honored among the Zapotecas and the Mixtecas and bordering tribes.

Tezcatlipoca, "Fiery-mirror," the tribal deity of the Colhuas, was a god of the winds and the tempest and the giver of breath and hence of life. In the Nahua legend he is the