CHAPTER VI

THE GODS OF RAIN AND MOISTURE

INTRODUCTORY

The gods of rain proper are clearly to be distinguished from the gods of grain and growth, although they were regarded by the ancient Mexicans as stimulating vegetable plenteousness. That they were paramount in the practical theology of the rain-cult [249] is evident, for, whereas Quetzalcoatl was regarded in one of his phases as the deification of the rain-making priest, Tlaloc and the Tlaloquê possessed the entire disposition of the rainfall. Sahagun’s remarks upon Quetzalcoatl make it clear that in this connection he was regarded as a wind-god who swept the way clear for the rain-gods, or ushered in the rains. Myth related how Quetzalcoatl, the first discoverer of the maize, was robbed of his find by Tlaloc, who afterwards had the governance over its growth and distribution. Although the high-priest of the Mexican hierarchy was called by the name of Quetzalcoatl, the prelate next in importance to him bore the name of Tlaloc.

Although Quetzalcoatl was above all regarded by the Aztecâ as a god of wind, evidence is not lacking that to some extent he was looked upon as a rain-god, or at least a rain-bringing god. But the overwhelming superiority of the Tlaloquê in this cult is witnessed to by the fact that out of eighteen great seasonal festivals, no less than five were dedicated to them. [250]

Those of the Tlaloquê, or gods of rain, whose names are known were: Tlaloc, the father of all, Chalchihuitlicue, his wife and sister, Nappatecutli, god of the mat-makers, who used aquatic reeds in their work, Atlaua, “Lord of the Beaches” or lake shores, Uixtociuatl, goddess of salt, and Opochtli, god of fishers and fowlers, and inventor of the net.

Concerning the Tlaloquê Sahagun remarks: “The Mexicans take for gods all those high mountains from which the rain comes in the rainy season, and for each of these they imagine an idol.... They also believe that certain maladies proceeding from cold have their origin in the mountains and that these gods have the power to visit them upon them. Those who were attacked by such complaints made a vow to this or that mountain, whichever chanced to be in the neighbourhood, or that for which they entertained the most devotion. A similar vow was made by persons on the point of being drowned in the rivers or in the sea. The maladies for which they made these vows were gout in the hands, feet, or any other part of the body, impotence in any member, or in the entire body, rheumatism, the contraction of the members or cramp. Those who were visited with these maladies made a vow to raise a statue to the following gods: to the idols of the volcano called Popocatepetl in the Sierra Nevada, to a mountain named Poyauhtecatl, or any other to which the feeling of devotion inclined them. When they proposed to offer up to the mountain or gods, they made an image in human form, a mass called tzoalli.” [251] These the people did not make themselves, but called in the offices of those priests skilled in the making of idols, who moulded them out of the paste and gave them teeth of calabash pips and eyes of haricot beans. The rest of the process of manufacture is as described in the account of the festival of the atemoztli (see Tlaloc). These small figures were known as tepictoton, and, like the sacrificial victims to the rain-gods, their hair was dressed in two horns or whorls.

TLALOC = “HE WHO MAKES THINGS SPROUT”

Area of Worship: Plateau of Anahuac.

Minor Names: Chicunaui Ocelotl = “Nine Jaguar” (or ocelot).

Calendar Place: Ruler of the seventh day-count, mazatl (deer), and of the seventh tonalamatl division, ce quiautl (one rain).

Compass Direction: The four quarters in his several aspects.

Festivals: Atlacahualco, tozoztontli, etzalqualiztli, tepeilhuitl, atemoztli.

Symbols: His head, with serpentine motif and tusks; the day-sign nine ocelot.

Relationship: Husband (1) of Xochiquetzal; (2) of Matlalcuêyê or Chalchiuhtlicue. Father or brother of the Tlaloquê.

ASPECT AND INSIGNIA

The evolution of the familiar and characteristic face of Tlaloc is perhaps best exemplified in a stone statuette included in the Uhde collection in the Royal Ethnological Museum, Berlin. In this striking example of the Mexican sculptor’s art a representation of the face of the god is skilfully contrived by the arrangement of two snakes or serpents, the tails of which form eye-orbits and a species of nose, the reptiles’ heads meeting in the region of the mouth, their fangs thus serving the god for teeth. It is rarely in aboriginal art that a conception so individual and striking is encountered, and great imaginative ability must be conceded the sculptor who conceived it. It is not known whether the later pictures and carvings of Tlaloc were evolved from this effigy, but it is not unreasonable to suppose that either from it or similar representations the later conception of him came into being. We observe in the examples shown in the illustrations that the custom of representing divine beings in profile resulted in his case in the survival of a mere ring about the eye and a spirally convoluted band forming the upper lip and depending from it for some distance. These are painted blue in the MSS. More faithfully preserved are the long tusk-like teeth, which in certain stone effigies, however, degenerate into several straight, downward strokes. This head of the Rain-god is almost invariably reproduced as the symbol for the day-sign atl (water).

Representations of Tlaloc in the codices of the Borgia group occasionally show a development of the lip-band, which rises upwards and includes the nose, thus, perhaps, indicating a transition form. In the Vatican B, Fejérváry-Mayer, and Laud Codices the prolongation of the lip-band and its serpentine character are apparent, the snake’s teeth and eye being clearly visible.

Codex Borgia.—Sheet 14: In this place the body-paint of Tlaloc is green, although, as a rule, it is black elsewhere. The face is half-black, half-yellow. The eye and lip-bands are blue. The head is crowned with white heron-feathers, such as are worn by the octli gods. A fillet surrounds the forehead, and from this spring four rosettes, which may symbolize the four quarters from which the rain falls. The headdress and its accompanying ornaments are painted in alternate stripes, green and white, sprinkled with liquid rubber. A paper tie adorns the shoulder, such as was used for the decoration of offerings, or in the ceremonial arrangement of the dead. The ear-plug is square, to indicate, perhaps, the four quarters. It is in this codex (sheet 12) that we obtain the best evidence of the reflection of the various points of the compass upon the character of the great god of rain.

But the most important pictures in Codex Borgia relating to Tlaloc are those on sheet 27, which illustrate the cycle of fifty-two years, and show in the four corner compartments the four days which form the initial days of the four quarters of the cycle. They do not, however, commence with ce acatl, “one reed,” ce tecpatl, “one flint,” ce calli, “one house,” ce tochtli, “one rabbit,” as might be expected, [252] but with ce cipactli, “one earth-beast,” ce miquiztli, “one death,” ce ozomatli, “one monkey,” and ce cozcaquauhtli, “one vulture,” for the reason that the tonalamatl signs here shown are hieroglyphic of the four quarters of the heavens, rather than allusive to the dates of the grand cycle of fifty-two years. The middle or fifth region, which is without a hieroglyph, is ascribed to the central figure. The lower to the right represents the east. To it belongs the first division of the calendar, as well as the first day of the great cycle. Tlaloc in this picture is painted a dark colour, and wears the cipactli head of the first calendar division as a helmet-mask. The sky above him is figuratively drawn to represent a cloudy firmament holding rain about to fall, and he stands upon the cipactli, or earth-beast, which symbolizes the fruitful earth, from whose body springs the maize-plant, represented as a tiny head or mask, on each side of which sprout leaves. The god empties his jar upon the soil, and its contents are seen to be a renewed supply of maize-ears, indicating the bounteous nature of the eastern Tlaloc.

The figure on the upper right shows the deity in his northern aspect. The second division of the tonalamatl and of the cycle are indicated in its dating and on its helmet-mask. The yellow colour of the god in this picture is supplemented by the symbolism of a bright atmosphere sending down sharp rays of light, shown in conventional form by V-shaped emblems stabbing downwards from aloft. Beneath the god are shown three vessels filled with the brown-coloured water which falls when the Rain-god is unpropitious. Indeed, it bears within it the symbols of death, the death’s-head eye and bony nasal spine. The artistic effort is to portray water which has been sucked up by the parched and cracked soil of a Mexican June—water which has been insufficient in quantity, or has fallen too late. There are present, too, in the picture, the vampire shapes of such insects as devour the maize, each decorated with the death’s-head. But, more fatal sign than all, from the pitcher of the god descends the lightning-axe, wrapped in symbolic fire. The northern Tlaloc, then, is no deity of plenty, but obviously represents the Rain-god in his most deadly and terrible aspect. The god in his western complexion is painted blue, and wears as a helmet-mask the sign of the third calendar division. A cloudy sky flecked with rain shows the partial descent of the serpent-like showers, and the maize-plants beneath him stand in heavy puddles of water. The southern aspect of Tlaloc (that on the lower left) is painted red, and the helmet-mask is in vulture form, as in consonance with the sign of the fourth calendar division. From a cloudless sky dart the conventional sun-rays as described in the second picture, but beneath the foot of the divinity are representations of the maize-plant run to seed. Small animals, the faces of which bear some resemblance to a death’s-head, devour them. Once again the lightning-axe falls from the jar held by t