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Rh by a stone knife, and in this manifestation he was known as Itztli, the knife-god. He is thus brought into intimate relation with the hunting deities, of whom this weapon was a symbol. Besides this, attempts seem to have been made by the various tribes to dignify their respective gods by actual identification with the supreme deity. One legend states that he became Mixcoatl, and in this personality invented the production of fire from flint. Or again, he appears under two forms, a red and a black Tezcatlipoca, and the latter is identified with Camaxtli and Uitzilopochtli. This distinction of colour recalls the yellow and black Tiripemes of the Tarascans, of whom the former was identified with Curicavert. One of the many names of Tezcatlipoca was Yoalli Eecatl, the night-wind, and he was supposed to wander through the streets after dark in search of evildoers. Seats were placed for him at crossroads, and a cross-road is often shown as one of his attributes in the manuscripts. When portrayed with bandaged eyes he bore the name of Itztlacoliuhqui, and presided over sin and cold.

As the god of divine punishment he was also a god of confession, and as such was associated with Tlazolteotl, while his connection with war is seen in the fact that he was regarded as the especial patron of the warrior school, or Telpochcalli. In his dual capacity as a night and warrior-god he was supposed to appear in all sorts of grisly shapes in order to test the courage of those he might meet. To flee from one of these phantoms was fatal, but the brave man who seized the apparition and wrestled with it until it gave him one or more spines of the maguey, was rewarded with a similar number of prisoners in his next battle. One of the forms which the god assumed on such occasions was a headless body with two doors in its chest which opened and shut, making a noise like the sound of an axe upon a tree. At the same time this deity possessed a lighter side; as