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44 ) Chicome Coatl have already been mentioned, but another most important female divinity, an earthgoddess, but not associated with vegetation, was Tlazolteotl (Fig. 3, a). This deity seems originally to have come from the Olmec, and was identified with the Huaxtec Ixcuina. She is at times identified also with Teteoinnan, and was occasionally honoured with a flaying-sacrifice, but her chief province was the superintendence of carnal sin, confession and penitence. She is shown with a black mouth and chin, a semi-lunar nose-ornament, and a cotton headband in which are stuck two spindles. The cult of this goddess was practised by the Huaxtec, Olmec and Mixtec, but not by the Chichimec or Tarascans.

We must now consider one of the most interesting and important gods of the Mexican pantheon, Tezcatlipoca (Fig. 3, e). It is difficult to give a short, and at the same time clear, account of his manifold functions and manifestations, since there were few departments of native life with which he was not intimately connected. In the first place he was the all-powerful god of the Nahua speaking tribes, worshipped by them in common; as such he was superior to the tribal war- and hunting gods such as Mixcoatl and Uitzilopochtli, and in actual practice he seems to have been regarded with even greater awe. In typical form he appears with face banded with yellow and black, a shell ring breast-ornament, and a mirror from which a spire of smoke issues. This smoking mirror is his especial sign, and constitutes the rebus of his name; in it he was supposed to see all that was occurring on earth, for one of his main functions was the distribution of rewards and punishments. He bears this mirror on his head, or very often in place of one of his feet, a peculiarity explained by the idea that in his capacity of god of the setting sun he lost his foot owing to the premature closing of the doors of the underworld. Sometimes the missing foot is replaced