Part 5 (2/2)
The following account of the republic of Tlaxcalla throws further light upon the form of government which prevailed throughout Mexico and Central America at the period of the Conquest. ”The Captains of Tlaxcalla, each of whom had his just portion or number of soldiers ... divided their soldiers into four Battails, the one to Tepeticpac, another to Oco-telulco, the third to Tizatlan and the fourth to Quiahuiztlan, that is to say, the men of the Mountains, the men of the Limepits, the men of the Pinetrees, and the Watermen; all these four sorts of men did make the body of the Commonwealth of Tlaxcallan, and commanded both in Peace and War ... The General of all the whole army was called Xico-tencatl, who was of the Limepits ... the Lieutenant General was Maxix-catzin....” (A new survey of the West-Indies ... Thomas Gage, London, 1655, p. 31). In Mexico we find that the four executive officers were the chiefs or representatives of the four quarters of the City of Mexico. In each of these quarters there was a place where periodical offerings were made in reverence of one of the signs: acatl, tecpatl, callii and tochtli, which were the symbols of the cardinal-points, the elements, and served as day and year signs in the calendar (Sahagun, book II, chap. 26).
An interesting indication that the entire dominion of Mexico was also divided into four equal quarters, the rule administration of which was attended to by four lords, inhabiting towns situated within a comparatively short distance from the capital, is furnished by Bernal Diaz (_op. cit._ p. 65). He relates that the four lords who supported Montezuma when he walked in state to meet Cortes were the lords of Texcoco, Iztapalapa, Tacuba and Coyoacan. These towns, which were minor centres of government, were respectively situated at unequal distances to the northeast, southeast, northwest and southwest of the capital.
These facts and the knowledge that ”all lords, in life, represented a G.o.d”
justify the inference that, just as Montezuma represented the central power of the Above or Heaven, the four lords who accompanied him were the personified rulers of the four quarters, a.s.sociated with the elements. In ancient Mexico and Maya records the G.o.ds of the four quarters, also named ”the four princ.i.p.al and most ancient G.o.ds” are designated as ”the sustainers of the Heaven” and it cannot be denied that, on the solemn occasion described, the four lords actually fulfilled the symbolical office of supporting Montezuma, the personification of the Heaven. This striking ill.u.s.tration is but one of a number I could cite in proof of the deeply ingrained mental habit of the native sages to introduce, into every detail of their life, the symbolism of the Centre, the Above and Below and the Four Quarters. I shall but mention here that it can be proven how, in their respective cities the lords of the cardinal points were central rulers who, in turn, directed the administration of the government by means of four dignitaries. Each of these was also the embodiment of a divine attribute or principle, ”All n.o.blemen did represent idols and carried the name of one” (Acosta, Naturall and Morall Historie, lib. 5, p.
349).
Each wore a special kind of symbolical costume and was the ruler or ”advocate,” as he is termed, of a distinct cla.s.s of people. ”For to each kind or cla.s.s of persons they gave a Teotl [=G.o.d or Lord] as an advocate.
When a person died and was about to be buried, they clothed him with the diverse Insignia of the G.o.d to whom he belonged” (Mendieta lib. II, chap.
40). It being established that each of the four year-symbols, acatl, tecpatl, calli and tochtli, ruled four minor symbols, it seems evident that, just as the four lords of the cardinal-points would correspond to the above symbols, each of the minor lords and the category of people they represented would also be a.s.sociated with the minor symbols. The obvious result of this cla.s.sification would be the division of the entire population of the commonwealth into 45=20 categories of people, grouped under twenty local and four central governments, whose representatives in turn were under the rule of the supreme central dual powers. Having thus sketched, in a brief and preliminary way, the expansion of the idea of dividing all things into four parts, the bud of which was the swastika, let us examine the Mexican application of the idea of duality, pausing first to review the data relating to the Cihuacoatl, the personification of the Earth, the Below and the coadjutor of Montezuma.
Nothing has been definitely recorded about his personality, for he seems to have lived in absolute seclusion during the first occupation of Mexico by the Spaniards. He is frequently alluded to, however, and Cortes, Herrera, Torquemada and others, inform us that he had acted as Montezuma's subst.i.tute and led the native troops against the Spaniards. It is interesting to find that after the Conquest Cortes appointed him as governor of the City of Mexico. ”I gave him the charge of re-peopling the capital and in order to invest him with greater authority, I reinstated him in the same position, that of Cihuacoatl, which he had held in the time of Montezuma” (Carta Cuarta, Veytia I, p. 110).
Quite indirectly, it is possible to learn what sort of military equipment had been adopted by the Cihuacoatl when he acted as war-chief. Amongst certain presents, which were sent by Cortes to Charles V and are minutely described in vol. XII of the ”Doc.u.mentas ineditas del Archivio de Indias,”
p. 347, there are several suits of armor, which could only have been appropriately worn by the ”woman serpent.” One suit consisted of a ”corselet with plates of gold and with woman's b.r.e.a.s.t.s” and a skirt with blue bands. Another suit, instead of the b.r.e.a.s.t.s, exhibited a great wound in the chest, like that of a person who had been sacrificed. In another list (by Diego de Soto, p. 349) a s.h.i.+eld is described ”which displayed a sacrificed man, in gold, with a gaping wound in his breast, from which blood was streaming....” It is obvious that the first of these suits of armor conveyed figuratively the name and the second the office of the Cihuacoatl of whom Duran speaks as follows:
”He whose office it was to perform the rite of killing [the victim] was revered as the supreme pontiff and his name or t.i.tle and pontifical robes varied according to the different periods [of the year] and the ceremonies which he had to perform. On the present occasion his t.i.tle was Topiltzin, one of the names of the great lord ... (Quetzalcoatl) and he appeared carrying a large flint knife in his hand ...” (_op. cit._, chap. Lx.x.xI).
The following pa.s.sage shows definitely that Montezuma's coadjutor, his Quetzalcoatl or divine twin, had an equal share of divine honors accorded to him. ”The head priest of the temple, named Quetzalcoatl, never came out of the temple or entered into any house whatever, because he was very venerable and very grave and was esteemed as a G.o.d. He only went into the royal palace” (Sahagun, book VI, chap. 39). The same authority designates the second ”divine twin” as the Tlalocan-tlamacazqui or, Tlalocan-tlenamacac and states that he served the Tlalocan-tecuhtli.
Before proceeding further, let us pause and inquire into the reason why the name Tlaloc, which is formed of tlalli=earth and is defined by Duran, for instance, as meaning ”an underground pa.s.sage or a great cave” (_op.
cit._, chap. 84), should be the well-known t.i.tle of the ”G.o.d of rain.” The explanation is to be found in the text of the Vatican Codex, A.
Kingsborough, V, p. 190. This teaches us that the last syllable of the name Tlaloc does not represent oc=inside of, but stands for octli, the name of the native wine now known as pulque, which is obtained from the agave plant. Tlaloc thus meant ”earth-wine” and ”by this metaphor they wanted to express that just as the fumes of wine make mankind gay and happy, so the earth when saturated with water, is gay and fresh and produces its fruits and cereals.” By the light of this explanation we see that the t.i.tles conferred upon Montezuma's coadjutor were literally ”the priest or lord, or dealer-of-fire in the place of the earth-wine.” ”The clouds, rain, thunder and lightning were attributed to the lord Tlaloc who had many tlalocs and priests under him, who cultivated all foods necessary for the body, such as maize, beans, etc., and sent the rains so that the earth should give birth to all of its products. During their festival in springtime the priests went through the streets dancing and singing and carrying a shoot of green maize in one hand and a pot with a handle in the other. In this way they went asking for the [ceremonial] boiled maize and all fanners gave them some” ... (Sahagun, book VI, chap. 5).
The above and many scattered allusions throw light upon the group of ideas a.s.sociated with the Cihuacoatl and clearly indicate what were his duties.
To him devolved the care of the earth and his one thought was to secure abundance of rain and of crops. In order to ensure the proper cultivation of the ground, he had, under him, innumerable agents, who strictly superintended the cultivation of all food-plants, the irrigation of barren lauds, etc. These agents, who also resorted to ceremonial usages in order to bring rain or avert hail-storms and other disasters, were collectively named ”the 400 pulque or octli-G.o.ds”-an appellation which developed into tochtli-G.o.ds, when the rabbit (=tochtli) had become the pictograph habitually employed to convey the sound of the word octli, and had been adopted as the symbol of the earth and of prolific reproduction in connection with this. The latter idea is born out of the female t.i.tle, that of the earth-mother, who ”always brought forth twins.” The Cihuacoatl thus stands out as the representative of the bountiful mother-earth and as the lord of agriculture, one of whose duties was the careful collection, storage and distribution of all food products. He presided over the cult of the fertility of the earth, of the nocturnal heaven, of the stars and moon, which were a.s.sociated with the female principle and with growth in general. The following record proves that amongst his other duties he offered sacrifices to the invisible hidden powers of darkness and earth.
”During the night, in the feast t.i.titl, the high priest named Tlillan tlenamacac [=the dealer with fire in the land of darkness=tlilli=black, evidently a t.i.tle a.n.a.logous to that of Tlill-potonqui-cihuacoatl, given by Tezozomoc, in Cronica, chap. 33], sacrificed a victim in honour of the G.o.d of the Underworld” (Sahagun, book II, appendix). In this, as on similar occasions, he was a.s.sisted by four priests who succeeded him in rank.
Mr. Bandelier has already recognized that judicial sentences were ultimately referred to the ”woman-serpent,” who p.r.o.nounced the ”final sentence, which admitted of no appeal.” There are more reasons than can conveniently be presented here, proving that in Mexico, as in Guatemala, the priest of the Below, the personification of Tezcatli-poca=s.h.i.+ning Mirror, employed an actual mirror made of polished obsidian, as an aid in p.r.o.nouncing final judgment on criminals.
The Cakchiquel procedure is described by Fuentes of Guzman, who is quoted by Dr. Otto Stoll in his most instructive and valuable work on the Ethnology of the Indian Tribes of Guatemala (Internationales Archiv fur Ethnographie, band I, supplement I, 1888): ”A road leads [from the ancient city of Guatemala] to a hill [figured with a large tree growing from it]; on its top there is a flat circular cement floor, enclosed by a low wall.
In the centre is a pedestal, polished and s.h.i.+ning like gla.s.s. No one knows of what substance it is made. This was the tribunal or court of the Cakchiquel Indians, where public trials were held and where the sentences were executed. The judges sat in a circle on the low wall. After the sentence had been p.r.o.nounced, it had to be confirmed or vetoed by another authority. Three messengers, acting as deputies of the council, went to a deep ravine situated to the north of the palace, where, in a sort of hermitage or prayer-house, there was the oracle of the devil, which was a black, transparent stone, like gla.s.s, but more costly than [ordinary]
obsidian. In this stone the devil revealed to the messengers, the sentence to be executed. If it agreed with the judgment p.r.o.nounced, this was immediately executed upon the central pedestal [of the hill of justice] on which the criminal was also tortured, at times.” If nothing was seen in the mirror, and it gave no sign, the prisoner was p.r.o.nounced free.
This oracle was also consulted before wars were undertaken ... ”During the first years of the Spanish occupation, when the bishop Marroquin heard about this stone, he had it cut out and consecrated it as an altar, which is still in use in the convent of San Francisco in the capital. It is a precious stone of great beauty and is half a vara long.”
A picture in the Vatican Codex B (p. 48) represents a temple, on the summit of which a large obsidian mirror is standing on its edge. Inside the doorway there are many small black spots, which obviously represent small mirrors and convey the idea that the interior walls were incrusted with such. These ill.u.s.trations would prove that sacred edifices were a.s.sociated with obsidian mirrors even if Sahagun did not mention, as he does (book II, appendix), no less than three sacred edifices in the great temple of Mexico, which were a.s.sociated with obsidian mirrors. It is, moreover, stated by Duran that ”in Mexico the image of the G.o.d Tezcatlipoca was a stone, which was very s.h.i.+ning and black, like jet. It was of the same stone of which the natives make razors and knives,” _i.
e._, obsidian (Duran II, p. 98).
What is more, Bernal Diaz relates that the image of Tezcatlipoca, which he saw beside the idol of Huitzilopochtli in the hall of the great temple of Mexico, had s.h.i.+ning eyes which were made of the native mirrors=tezcatl.
”In connection with the s.h.i.+ning eyes” of the G.o.d it is interesting to note that when, as Duran states, he was represented under another form, his idol ”carried in its hand a sort of fan made of precious feathers. These surmounted a circular gold disc which was very brilliant and polished like a mirror. This meant that, in this mirror, he saw all that went on in the world. In the native language they named it 'itlachiayan,' which means, that in which he looks or sees” (Duran, _op. cit._, vol. II, p. 99).
Sahagun mentions an a.n.a.logous sceptre which consisted of ”a gold disc pierced in the centre, and surmounted by two b.a.l.l.s, the upper and smaller of which supported a pointed object. This sceptre was called tlachieloni, which means 'that through which one looks or observes;' because with it one covered or hid one's face and looked through the hole in the middle of the gold plate.” This kind of sceptre is not exclusively a.s.sociated with Tezcatlipoca in the native picture writings, for it figures in the hand of Chalchiuhtlycue ”the sister” of Tlaloc and of Omacatl whose attributes, the reeds and chalchiuite or jade beads, prove him to be also a.s.sociated with the water. On the other hand the same sceptre is also a.s.signed by Sahagun to the G.o.d of fire.
A clue to the truth and significance of this emblematic sceptre is furnished by the fact that, in order to express the divine t.i.tle Tlachiuale, meaning ”the Maker or Lord of all creatures or of young life,”
the native scribes were naturally obliged to employ the verb tlachia=to look or see, in order to convey its sound. It is obvious that they cleverly agreed to express this verb by picturing some object which could be or was looked through. They therefore adopted a sceptre with a hollow disc, as an emblem, which was carried by the living representative of certain divinities, whose entire costume was in reality a sort of rebus, and in the case of Tlaloc, the lord of earthwine and fertility and the Tlachiuale or ”Creator of young life,” par excellence, they once and for all designated his t.i.tle by surrounding his eyes with two blue rings, accentuating thereby the action of seeing or looking. But this probably conveyed even more than the above t.i.tle, for there is a Nahuatl noun tlachiuhtli, which means, ”something made or formed or engendered,” or ”earth which is ploughed and sown.” Then there is the verb tlachipaua which means, ”the smile of dawn, the break of day, the clearing up of the weather,” also the purification and cleansing, all of which were supposed to be under the dominion of the rain-G.o.d and of his living representatives on earth, the rain-priests. The seemingly conflicting fact that the tlachieloni sceptre was also a.s.signed to the G.o.d of fire is explained by the existence of the verb tiachinoa=to burn up the fields or forests, and of the noun tlachi-noliztli=the act of burning up or scorching the fields or forests, and finally, metaphorically, tlachinoli-teuotl=war or battle=destruction. It is only when we thus realize all the natives could express by the image of an eye, looking through a circle, that we begin to grasp its full meaning when employed as a symbol in their picture writings.
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