Part 3 (2/2)
”She wore a piece of light-green stuff loosely folded around her form at the hips, and falling to a little distance above the ankle; a jacket of red silk gauze with short sleeves and embroidered with gold, clothed the upper part of her person, veiling her bosom, upon which lay a chain of heavy gold pieces, pierced and strung on a cord. Her rich black hair was divided on the forehead, and drawn back in two splendid tresses fastened with blue ribbons, while a white muslin kerchief encircled her head like the calantica of the ancient Egyptians. Never in my life have I seen a more striking figure of an Isis or a Cleopatra.
”There was something strange in her expression. Her eyes were the blackest and the brightest in the world; but there were moments when she suddenly paused, leaned against the billiard table or the wall, and they became fixed and dead like those of a corpse. Then a fiery glance would shoot from beneath her dark lashes, sending a chill to the heart of the one to whom it was directed. Was it madness, or was it, as those around her believed, a momentary absence of soul, an absorption of her spirit into its _nagual_, a transportation into an unknown world? Who shall decide?”[37-*]
=24.= It would be a mistake to suppose that Nagualism was an incoherent medley of superst.i.tions, a ma.s.s of jumbled fragments derived from the ancient paganism. My study of it has led me to a widely different conclusion. It was a perpetuation of a well-defined portion of the native cult, whose sources we are able to trace long anterior to the period of the conquest, and which had no connection with the elaborate and b.l.o.o.d.y ritual of the Aztecs. The evidence to this effect is cogent.
Wherever in later days the Catholic priests found out the holy places and sacred objects of the nagualists, they were in-caves or deep rock-recesses, not in artificial structures. The myths they gleaned, and the names of the G.o.ds they heard, also point to this as a distinguis.h.i.+ng peculiarity. An early instance is recorded among the Nahuas of Mexico.
In 1537 Father Perea discovered a cavern in a deep ravine at Chalma, near Mallinalco (a town famous for its magicians), which was the sanctuary of the deity called _Oztoteotl_, the Cave G.o.d (_oztotl_, cave; _teotl_, G.o.d), ”venerated throughout the whole empire of Montezuma.”[38-*] He destroyed the image of the G.o.d, and converted the cavern into a chapel.
We cannot err in regarding Oztoteotl as merely another name of the Nahuatl divinity, Tepeyollotl, the Heart, or Inside, of the Mountain, who in the Codex Borgia and the Codex Vatica.n.u.s is represented seated upon or in a cavern. His name may equally well be translated ”the Heart of the Place,” or ”of the Town.”
Dr. Eduard Seler has shown beyond reasonable question that this divinity did not originally belong to the Aztec Pantheon, but was introduced from the South, either from the Zapotecs, the Mixtecs, or the Mayan tribes, beyond these.[38-] The Cave G.o.d of the Aztecs is identical with the Votan of the Tzentals of Chiapas, and with the U-q'ux Uleuh of the Quiches of Guatemala, and probably with the Cozaana of the Zapotecs.
The rites of all of these were conducted in caverns, and there have been preserved several interesting descriptions of the contents of these sacred places. That relating to the ”dark house of Votan” is given thus in the work of the Bishop of Chiapas:
”Votan is the third hero who is named in the calendar, and some of his descendants still reside in the town of Teopisca, where they are known as Votans. He is sometimes referred to as Lord of the Sacred Drum, and he is said to have seen the great wall (which must have been the Tower of Babel), and to have divided this land among the Indians, and given to each tribe its language.
”They say further that he once dwelt in Huehuetan, a town in the province of Soconusco. Near there, at the place called Tlazoaloyan, he constructed, by blowing with his breath, a dark house, and put tapirs in the river, and in the house a great treasure, and left all in charge of a n.o.ble lady, a.s.sisted by guardians (_tlapiane_) to preserve. This treasure consisted of earthenware vases with covers of the same material; a stone, on which were inscribed the figures of the ancient native heroes as found in the calendar; _chalchiuites_, which are green stones; and other superst.i.tious objects.
”All of these were taken from the cave, and publicly burned in the plaza of Huehuetan on the occasion of our first diocesan visit there in 1691, having been delivered to us by the lady in charge and the guardians. All the Indians have great respect for this Votan, and in some places they call him 'the Heart of the Towns.'”[39-*]
The English priest, Thomas Gage, who was curate of a parish among the Pokonchi Indians of Guatemala about 1630, relates his discovery of such a cave, in which the idol was preserved, and gives this description of it:
”We found the Idol standing upon a low stool covered with a linen cloth. The substance of it was wood, black s.h.i.+ning like jet, as if it had been painted or smoked; the form was of a man's head unto the shoulders, without either Beard or Mustachoes; his look was grim, with a wrinkled forehead, and broad staring eyes.
”They boasted of this their G.o.d, saying that he had plainly told them they should not believe anything I preached of Christ, but follow the old ways of their forefathers.”[39-]
The black color here mentioned was a relic of ancient symbolism, referring to the night, darkness, and the obscurity of the holy cavern.
Vetancurt informs us that the priests of the ancient paganism were accustomed to rub their faces and bodies with an ointment of fat and pine soot when they went to sacrifice in the forests, so that they looked as black as negroes[TN-3][39-] In the extract from Nunez de la Vega already given, _Ical Ahau_, the ”Black King,” is named as one of the divinities of the nagualists.
In some parts the princ.i.p.al idol found in the caves was the mummied or exsiccated body of some former distinguished priest or chieftain. One such is recorded by Bartholome de Pisa, which was found among the Zapotecs of Coatlan. It bore a name taken from the calendar, that of the tenth day, and was alleged to be the preserved cadaver of a celebrated ruler.[40-*] Another interesting example is narrated by Villa Senor y Sanchez,[40-] who describes it as an eye-witness. It was discovered in a s.p.a.cious cave located some distance to the west of the city of Mexico, in Nahuatl territory, on the side of what was known as ”the Sun mountain”--_la Mesa de Tonati_. He speaks of it as remarkably well preserved, ”both the muscles and the bones.”
”It was seated in an armchair which served for a throne, and was clothed in a mantle, which fell from the shoulders to the feet.
This was richly adorned with precious stones, which, according to the native custom, were sewed into the texture of the cloth. The figure also wore shoulder straps, collars, bracelets and fastenings of silver. From its forehead rose a crown of beautiful feathers of different colors arranged so that one color should alternate with another. The left hand was resting on the arm of the chair, while in the right was a sharp cutla.s.s with silver mountings. At its feet were several vases of fine stone, as marble and alabaster, in which were offerings of blood and meat, obtained from the sacrifices.”
The same writer refers to other examples of these sacred caves which he had seen in his journeys. One was near the town of Teremendo, where the sides and roof had been artificially dressed into the shape of huge arches. A natural altar had been provided in a similar manner, and on it, at the time of his visit, were numerous idols in the figures of men and animals, and before them fresh offerings of copal and food.
Elsewhere he refers to many such caverns still in use as places resorted to by the natives in _la gran Sierra de Tlascala_.[40-]
These extracts prove the extent of this peculiar wors.h.i.+p and the number of these subterranean temples in recent generations. The fame of some of the greater ones of the past still survives, as the vast grotto of Chalcatongo, near Achiutla, which was the sepulchral vault of its ancient kings; that of Totomachiapa, a solemn scene of sacrifice for the ancient priests; that of Justlahuaca, near Sola (Oaxaca), which was a place of wors.h.i.+p of the Zapotecs long after the Conquest; and that in the Cerro de Monopostiac, near San Francisco del Mar.[41-*]
The intimate meaning of this cave-cult was the wors.h.i.+p of the Earth. The Cave G.o.d, the Heart of the Hills, really typified the Earth, the Soil, from whose dark recesses flow the limpid streams and spring the tender shoots of the food-plants, as well as the great trees. To the native Mexican, the Earth was the provider of food and drink, the common Father of All; so that to this day, when he would take a solemn oath, he stoops to the earth, touches it with his hand, and repeats the solemn formula: _Cuix amo nechitla in toteotzin?_ ”Does not our Great G.o.d see me?”
=25.= The ident.i.ty of the Tepeyollotl of the Nahuas and the Votan of the Tzentals is shown not only in the oneness of meaning of the names, but in the fact that both represent the _third_ day in the ritual calendar.
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