Page:Mexican Archæology.djvu/66

40 kings. In invocations his ceremonial name was "night-drinker," and he was prayed to give moisture to the crops. "Put on your golden garment; why does it not rain? It might be that I perished, I, the young maize-plant." In this connection another form of sacrifice was practised in his honour; a captive was tied to a scaffold and shot with darts so that his blood streamed down upon the ground (Fig. 5, a). This proceeding may be regarded in the light of imitative magic, to secure fertilizing rain for the earth. It was first performed, so the legend says, in honour of the earth-deities, and occurred also in South America among the tribes of Colombia. In the illustration, the victim is shown wearing the peculiar form of head-dress associated with Xipe. A particular emblem carried by the water and fertility deities is the chicauaztli, or rattle-staff (see PL IV, ), often seen in the hands of Xipe, Chicome Coatl and Cinteotl, and associated in invocations with Tlaloc. This instrument, like the rattlestaves of West Africa, may almost certainly be regarded as a charm to bring rain by imitating its sound. Besides the functions already mentioned, Xipe also exercised that of protector of goldsmiths, since the yellow skin in which he was clad was supposed to typify an overlay of gold foil.

Among the fertility gods must be mentioned the goddess of flowers, love and pregnancy, Xochiquetzal (PI. IX, 6; p. 8 2), especially worshipped by the Tlalhuica (also at Tlaxcala), and mentioned as the wife of Cinteotl, though one legend makes her the first wife of Tlaloc, stolen by Tezcatlipoca, the Mexican Jupiter. Her distinguishing insignia are two large feather plumes upon her head, and she seems to be akin to the Tarascan goddess of Tzintzuntzan, Xaratanga, who was associated with Curicaveri as his wife. The functions of this deity however were rather more extended, since she was also regarded as an earth-and maize-goddess, and was