Part 6 (1/2)
As to the obsidian mirror, which undoubtedly was the symbol of Tezcatlipoca and, consequently, must have pertained to his representative, the priest of the Night, we find that it played a most prominent role in the cult he presided over. In the first case it appears as though it was resorted to in Mexico as in the conquered province of Guatemala, as the oracle which rendered final judgment. A series of ill.u.s.trations, etc., to be published in my final work on the Calendar System, will prove satisfactorily that the Mexican astronomers extensively employed black obsidian mirrors as an aid to astronomical observations, by means of reflection. Besides mirrors on the summits of temples and mountains, certain square columns, placed on an elevation and faced with a broad band of polished obsidian, are pictured in some Codices. It is obvious that the latter in particular, if carefully oriented, would have served as an admirable means of registering the periodical return of planets, stars or constellations to certain positions; they would then be reflected on the polished surface, as in a frame. In certain Codices the double, tau-shaped courtyard or enclosure surrounded by a high wall with battlements, which was employed in the daytime for the national game of ball, figures in combination with obsidian mirrors. I draw attention to the fact that the name of these courtyards was tlach-tli, which literally means the looking place=the observatory and that, amongst the edifices of the great temple, a tezca-tlachtli=obsidian-mirror-observatory, is described. I shall demonstrate more fully, on another occasion, that the chief purpose of these enclosures was to serve as astronomical observatories. Dr. Brinton, Senor Troncoso and other authorities have already observed that the game of ball itself was intended to represent the idea of the perpetual motion of the heavenly bodies. (See American Hero-myths, p. 119.)
Returning to reexamine the divine t.i.tle Tezcatlipoca we see that, when interpreted as ”the lord of the s.h.i.+ning obsidian mirror,” it was the most appropriate t.i.tle of the lord of the Nocturnal Heaven, which myriads of mirrors reflected each night, throughout the land. It is easy to see how the habit of referring to the Temple Minor, in order to ascertain the positions of the stars, would naturally lead to its being consulted more extensively as an oracle later on. We thus clearly perceive how the lord of the Night, whose priests called themselves ”the sons of the Night,”
became intimately a.s.sociated with divination and how the idea of a definite connection between the movements of the stars or human destinies would, in the lapse of centuries, make a deep and indelible impression upon the minds of men.
If the obsidian mirror was the symbol, par excellence, of Mexican star cult, there are evidences that the small mirror of polished pyrites was that of the sun-cult. The latter seems to have been employed, in some way or other, for the concentration of the rays of the sun required for the lighting of the sacred fire, at noon, on the days of the vernal equinox and summer solstice. As in Peru, this duty devolved upon the high priest of the Above or the Son of the Sun, a t.i.tle which undoubtedly pertained also to the Mexican ruler, though not employed so ostentatiously as in Peru. A keen emulation, which may almost be termed an intense rivalry, seems to have existed between the two cults, which Sahagun even goes so far as to designate as two religions. From a chapter of his Historia we even learn that the entire population of Mexico was divided into two halves who respectively belonged to one or the other religion, a fact which naturally affected the position of the two cla.s.ses of people and had created the native ideas, of an upper and a lower cla.s.s or caste which will be further discussed.
Sahagun's informants explained to him that, when a child was born, its parents, according to their cla.s.s, registered it at one of the two educational establishments for the young and took vows to have it educated there as soon as it attained a suitable age. The lower cla.s.s took their offspring to the Telpuchcalli, where they were dedicated to the service of the community and to warfare, _i. e._, the ruling cla.s.s. ”The 'Lords, chieftains or elders,' offered their sons to the Calmecac to be educated for the priesthood.”
It being impossible to present here in full the data showing how certain primitive conceptions had developed further and how some human occupations had become a.s.sociated with the Above and others with the Below, I will but point out the important fact that the city of Mexico, divided into four quarters, each of which had five subdivisions (calpullis), actually consisted of two distinct parts. One of these was Mexico proper, where the Great Temple stood and where Montezuma and the lords resided; the other was Tlatelolco, where the lower cla.s.ses dwelt and the merchant cla.s.s prevailed. After a certain revolt the inhabitants of this portion of the city were, we are told, ”degraded to the rank of women” (see Bandelier, _op. et loc. cit._). From this it would seem evident that their affairs or lawsuits were settled in the official house named the Cihua-tecpaneca, whilst the affairs of the n.o.bility, residing in Mexico proper, were disposed of in the Tlaca-tecpaneca (see Duran, chap. 3). Knowledge of the prevalence of the division of the population into two parts is gained through a pa.s.sage of Ixtl-ilxo-chitl's Historia (chap. x.x.xV, p. 241): ”To Quetzalmemalitzin was given the lords.h.i.+p of Teotihuacan ... with the t.i.tle of Captain-general of the dominion of the n.o.blemen. All affairs or lawsuits of the lords and the n.o.bility belonging to the towns of the provinces situated in the plain, were to be attended to and settled in his town. The same t.i.tle was bestowed upon Quechaltecpantzin of Otompan, with the difference that he was the captain-general of the commoners and attended to the affairs and claims of the commoners and populace of the provinces in the plains.”
A further detail concerning the position of the ancient capital of Mexico should not be omitted, for it is described as follows by the English friar Thomas Gage, who visited it in 1625: ”The situation of this city is much like that of Venice, but only differs in this, that Venice is built upon the sea-water, and Mexico upon a lake, which seeming one is indeed two; one part whereof is standing water, the other ebbeth and floweth according to the wind that bloweth. That part which standeth is wholesome, good and sweet, and yieldeth store of small fish. That part which ebbeth and floweth is a saltish bitter and pestiferous water, yielding no kind of fish, small or great” (p. 43). Added to other data, this detail seems to indicate that the geographical position of the capital had been chosen with utmost care and profound thought, so that, built on a dual island on a dual lake, it should be in itself an image or ill.u.s.tration of the ideas of organization which I have shown to have dominated the entire native civilization. If it be admitted, as I think is evident, that the site of the capital was chosen and mapped out in accordance with these ideas, then we undoubtedly have, in ancient Mexico, not only one of the most remarkable ”Holy Cities” ever built by mankind, but also the most convincing proof of the great antiquity and high development of the civilization under whose influence one of the greatest capitals of ancient America was founded.
It is impossible to read the following descriptions without recognizing that the identical fundamental ideas had undoubtedly determined the native topography of capitals situated in other parts of the continent. Beginning with Guatemala, which formed a part of ancient Mexico, I refer to the plan of the ancient capital and its description by Fuentes of Guzman, published by Dr. Otto Stoll in his work already cited: ”A deep ditch, running from north to south, divided the town into two portions. One of these, situated to the east, was inhabited by the n.o.bility; whilst the commoners (Macehuales) lived in the western division.” I pause here to call attention to the intentional coincidence that the a.s.sociation of the east with the Above, and the west with the Below, is exemplified here, topographically. The plan shows that the eastern half contained, in its centre, a great, oblong enclosure, surrounded by a high wall. A wall, running from east to west, divided this enclosure into two distinct courtyards with wide separate entrances from the west. The northern courtyard, designated as the ”Place of the Palace,” contains several buildings. The southern one, named the ”Place of the Temple,” contains an edifice on a terraced mound and several others. It is noticeable that, in the exact middle of the central wall, there is a seemingly double, unfortunately indistinguishable object, or building, which marks the exact middle of the entire dual enclosure. It is particularly interesting that the East City is divided into two portions by a wall running from the southeast angle of the wall of the Temple courtyard to the outer wall of the city. The southern half, in which the ”Tribunal or hill of justice is to be seen, is designated as containing the houses of the Ahauas or heads of the Calpuls.” The northern half, containing many houses, lacks designation. The West city is likewise divided into two distinct portions by a broad street, enclosed by a hill wall and conducting from the western and only entrance to the city directly to the Place of the Temple. A deep trench or ditch encloses the entire city, whilst nine watch-towers, on small hills, are placed at equal distances around it.
If this precious doc.u.ment clearly reveals the ground plan on which the native capitals were built, in accordance with the dominant idea, the following native map shows that the ancient dominion of Yucatan, for instance, was figured as an integral whole with form of a flat disc divided into four quarters, Ho, the modern Merida, in its centre. This map, copied from the native Codex Chumazel, has been published by Senor Crescencio Carillo of Ancona in the a.n.a.les del Museo Nacional de Mexico, vol. II, p. 43, as showing the territorial division of Yucatan before the Conquest (fig. 27). According to Herrera and Diego de Landa, the unity of the dominion was destroyed about two centuries before the Conquest by the destruction of the capital, Mayapan. The land then remained divided amongst many independent chiefs or Bacabs. Senor Carillo renders the Maya descriptive text written under the map, as follows: ”Here is Mani. The beginning of the land, or its entrance, is Campeche. The extremity of the wing of the land is Calkini; the (chun) place where the wing grows or begins, is Izamal. The half of the wing is Zaci; the tip of the wing is c.u.mkal. The head of the land is the city, the capital Ho.”
[Ill.u.s.tration.]
Figure 27.
The foregoing text shows that, notwithstanding the circular shape in which it is figured, the dominion was evidently thought of as in the form of a bird, the head of which was the capital.
[Ill.u.s.tration.]
Figure 28.
This figure of speech seems to have been prevalent in Mexico also and to be conveyed by the representation, in the Vienna Codex, of a double tau-shape to which the head, wings and claw, and tail of a quetzal are attached (fig. 28, no. 8). As I shall have occasion to demonstrate further on, the double tau signifies the Above and the Below and their union forming an integral whole. The following Nahuatl terms explain by themselves the symbolism of the bird-figure: cuitlapilli=the tail of an animal or bird, atlapalli=the wings of a bird, or the leaves of a tree, cuitlapalli atlapalli=va.s.sals, the populace or lower cla.s.ses, the laborers.
These words furnish irrefutable evidence that the lower cla.s.s was familiarly known in Mexico as ”the wings and the tail” of the commonwealth or state, or the leaves ”on the trees” of the tribe. Sahagun states, on the other hand, that the Mexicans employed the metaphor of ”a bird with wings and a tail” to designate a lord, governor or ruler. He also records that the terms hair, nails, a thorn, a spine, beard and eyelashes, were used to signify ”someone who was n.o.ble, generous or of the lineage of the lords.” Such metaphors as these may well cause us to despair at arriving at a complete understanding of the native imagery and symbolism. The symbolism of the bird's claw yet remains to be looked into. The Nahuatl for the same is xo-maxaltic, xo-tzayanqui or cho-cholli.
In one of the ancient Mexican harangues, previously quoted, it is said of the supreme ruler that he had been given ”fangs and nails” in order to inspire fear and reverence. Scattered evidence and the fact that in the Codex Mendoza the decorated claws of an eagle, for instance, appear as a military device on the s.h.i.+elds of certain war chiefs, seem to indicate that the warriors were spoken of, metaphorically, as ”the claws or nails”
of the state. The following pa.s.sage finally proves that the tlachtli or courtyard the shape of which was a double tau, as in fig. 28, no. 8, was regarded by the Mexicans as an image of the state itself. In another native harangue it was said of the newly-elected ruler: ”He is now placed or put into the Tlachtli, he has been invested with the leathern gloves, so that he can govern and throw back the ball to the one who throws it to him in the game. For the business of governing very much resembles this game and the game of dice” (Sahagun, book VI, chap. xiii). The latter game alluded to, the patolli, was played on a mat in the shape of a cross, marked off with divisions, with stone markers, the moves of which were decided by the numbers obtained on casting the dice, which consisted of beans with marks on them. It is interesting to find that the word pat-olli seems to be connected with the verb pat-cayotia=to be subst.i.tuted in the place of another, or to succeed another in office or dignity. The above comparison of the game to the business of governing indicates that a feature of the government was a methodical succession or rotation in office or dignity, a point to which I draw special attention, as I shall refer to it later.
The evidence that the Mexicans regarded the form of the courtyard, named tlachtli, as that of the state itself is noteworthy. On the other hand, the native map contained in the Codex Mendoza, p. 1, shows us that they figured their territory as a square, surrounded by water and divided into four equal parts by diagonal cross-streams or ca.n.a.ls. As in the Maya map the centre of this is occupied by the well-known hieroglyph or rebus of Te-noch-ti-tlan, the ancient capital, which consisted of Mexico and Tlatelolco. In three of the four triangular divisions, two chieftains are figured, whilst in one there are four, the complete number of chieftains thus being ten. The incontrovertible evidence that the dominion of the Mexicans, as well as that of the Mayas, was figured and regarded as an integral whole has seemed to me to be of extreme importance, because it points to a fresh interpretation of the much-discussed meaning of the name Tullan, ”the glorious centre of culture where the high priest Quetzalcoatl, had dwelt and whence he had been driven by the wiles of his enemies. It is a place that we hear of in the oldest myths and legends of many and different races. Not only the Aztecs, but the Mayas of Yucatan and the Kiches and Cakchiquels of Guatemala, bewailed in woful songs, the loss of that beautiful land and counted its destruction as the common starting-point in their annals.... According to the ancient Cakchiquel legends, however, ... 'there were four Tullans, as the ancient men have told us.' The most venerable traditions of the Maya race claimed for them a migration from Tullan in Zuyva.”... ”When it happened to me,” says Friar Duran, ”to ask a [Mexican] Indian who cut this pa.s.s through the mountains or who opened that spring of water or who built that old ruin? the answer was: The Tultecs, the disciples of Papa,” _i. e._, Quetzalcoatl. (See Brinton, American Hero-Myths, p. 88.) Considering that the ident.i.ty of Tullan has not yet been satisfactorily established, that several Tullans are said to have existed and that a small town, about a dozen leagues to the northeast of Mexico, is named Tullan-tzinco=little Tullan, I should like to direct the attention of Americanists to the following Maya words: Tul-um=fortification, edifice, wall and enclosure. Tula-cal, Tuliz, adjectives=whole, entire, undivided, integral. Tul-ul, adjective=general, universal. Tul-tic, verb=to belong, to correspond to something. Tul=all around or full. Tul=in composition, to have abundance. Tulnah=to be too full, to overflow, to proceed, to issue, abound, high-tide. Tulaan=past participle of tul.
I am of opinion that, after carefully examining the foregoing words and their meanings, we must admit that an intelligible and satisfactory derivation and signification of the much-discussed Tula of the Mexicans, which has been vainly sought in the Nahuatl language, are obtained if we connect it with the Maya words for fortress, or stronghold, an enclosed place, an integral whole, an overflowing source of abundance and plenty.
If we do this, then the problematic term Tolteca, given by Mexicans to the superior people from whom they had derived their culture and knowledge, means nothing more than such persons who had belonged (Maya verb tultic) or were members of a highly cultured commonwealth or ancient centre of civilization, such as had flourished during countless centuries, in Yucatan and the present Chiapas, Honduras and Guatemala.
Reserving this subject for future, more detailed, discussion, I point out that the name Ho, given to the capital, which is designated in the map as the ”head of the land,” is obviously derived from the Maya hol, hool, or hoot, which means not only head but also chieftain. The circ.u.mstance that a single word, Ho, conveyed the triple meaning of a capital, a chieftain and a head, is particularly noteworthy, as it affords not only important clues to native symbolism, which I shall trace later on, but also shows that the presence of the syllable Ho or O, in certain native names of localities, may possibly indicate that it was a capital, the residence of a chieftain. Further light is shed upon the following native a.s.sociation of ideas when the following words are studied. The ancient Maya name for a pyramid or artificial mound was ho-m and the pyramidal elevations on which temples or palaces were built were designated as ho-mul or o-mul (see Vocabulary, Bra.s.seur de Bourbourg). The t.i.tle Holpop was moreover that of the ”chieftain of the mat,” whose prerogative it was to sit on a mat and to beat the sacred drum during the public dances or ritual performances (Cogolludo). The ancient word for vase, vessel or cup in general was ho-och, whilst o-och meant food or maintenance (Arte de la lengua Maya, Fray Beltram de Santa Rosa, ed. Espinosa, Merida, 1859). If the foregoing data be summarized we find that the word ho, the ancient name of the head of the land, which is figured in its centre, is not only h.o.m.onymous with capital and chieftain, but also with pyramid, vase or receptacle and maintenance, and finally with the numeral 5, also ”ho.” We shall see that the identical ideas were similarly a.s.sociated in ancient Mexico.
Referring once more to the ancient map of Yucatan and to the peculiarity that the head of the figurative bird, the capital, Ho, is supposed to occupy the centre of the state, I point out nos. 1 and 5 (fig. 28) from the Bodleian and Selden MSS. as somewhat a.n.a.logous representations of a central capital or chief, and nos. 3 and 6 as possibly being images of a territorial subdivision of the state, resembling a spider's web. In an unpublished Mexican MS., which has been recently brought to light, the middle of the concentric circles is painted blue and suggests the idea of a system of distribution or irrigation, proceeding from a central supply of water and radiating in all directions. An accentuation of centrality is brought into relief in fig. 28, no. 6, where the spider's web is placed in the middle, between the two peaks of a mountain. In no. 2 a small quadruple sign, which frequently occurs in the Vienna Codex, always painted in the colors of the four quarters and united by a cross-band across the centre (no. 4). also figures between two peaks, above two feet, the significance of which I do not venture to determine. A remarkable circular disc resembling the Maya map, and also divided into four parts by cross lines, but exhibiting footsteps denoting rotation, is represented in the entrance of a temple, in the Vienna Codex (fig. 28, no. 7). These figures will be referred to again further on.
Let us now bestow attention upon the names of the Mexican capital and first note that the edifice of the Great Temple, in which the Cihuacoatl performed an annual ceremony already mentioned, was called tlal-xic-co, literally ”in the navel of the earth or land” (from tlalli=earth, land or country, xictli=navel and co=in) (Sahagun, book II, appendix). Besides this edifice there was, in the middle of the lagoon of Chalco, an island, which, to this day, bears the name of Xico=in the navel or centre. This indicates the curious circ.u.mstance that the edifice and island had apparently been regarded as forming ”ideal centres,” and shows that the name of Mexico itself may have been a.s.sociated with the same conception being, as it was, the central seat of government. Gomara states that ”the city was divided into two halves or parts, one named Tlal-telolco=small island (literally, 'in the earth-mound') and the other named Mexico, which means 'something which flows,' ” (Histoire Generalle des Indes, Paris, 1634, chap. 38). The Nahuatl word alluded to can be no other than the verb memeya which, according to Molina, signifies ”water, or something liquid which issues or flows in many directions.” I have already pointed out that the Maya words to express water which rises and overflows, high tide and, by extension, abundance and plenty, are tul, tulnah and, finally, tulaan, past participle of tul. If the particle ”me” conveyed the above idea, its combination with xico would cause the name Mexico to be replete with significance and to mean ”the figurative centre whence all maintenance proceeded and flowed in all directions, throughout the land.”
The Borgian Codex furnishes representations of identical meaning. On page 4 a human body, the centre of which forms a large red disc, is stretched across the double tau-shaped tlachtli which obviously represents the four quarters, being painted with their four symbolic colors. It is particularly noteworthy that the limbs of the central figure are represented as wearing the green skin of a lizard, while its face is enclosed in the open jaws of the reptile. It should also be noted here that whilst the Nahuatl names are cuetz-palin and topitzin, the Maya term for lizard is mech or ix-mech. On the same page a similar, but smaller, figure is depicted on a background representing the nocturnal heaven. On the following page the figure of a dead woman is stretched on a red disc whilst a priest is drilling the fire-stick into a circular symbol, with four b.a.l.l.s, which is the well-known symbol for chalchiuitl=jade. As the name of the female water G.o.ddess is Chalchiutlycue, this detail is significant and will be referred to later on. It is noteworthy that on both pages 5 and 6 the performance of the above rite is accompanied by the image of the G.o.ddess of the earth and underworld, represented with a death's head, and with her hair strewn with stars. Her body is that of a green lizard, and she carries ears and blossoms of maize and holds a blue garment on which the chalchihuitl symbol figures.
In connection with representatives of the human form outstretched in sacrifice, on whose body the rite of kindling the sacred fire or of extracting the heart is being performed, it seems evident that, under the dominion of the fundamental ideas I have been discussing, the native sages regarded and utilized the human form as an image of the Middle and Four Quarters. It is well known that the number 20 was termed ”one count” and connected with the number of fingers and toes, distributed equally on his four extremities. The human victim thus formed a living swastika or cross and became not only the consecrated image of the supreme, creative, central divinity who controlled the Four Quarters, but also an image of the central government with its supreme ruler; whilst the four chiefs of the Quarters were symbolized by the four limbs. Each of these terminated in a symbolized group consisting of a hand, maitl, with a thumb (=touey mapilli or vei mapilli, literally, the great finger, or our great finger) and four fingers (mapilli); or of a great toe, touei xopil or topec-xopil (literally, our great toe, or our lord toe) and of four toes=xopilli.
[Ill.u.s.tration.]