Page:Mexican Archæology.djvu/83

Rh with water. A more or less constant emblem of the moon-god is a spiral sea-shell, which he bears partly in his capacity as a god of birth.

Another elemental god of great importance in domestic as well as public worship was the fire-god, known to the Aztec under the name of Xiuhtecutli (Fig. 3,c). His worship probably dated from a very early period, and he also bore the name of Ueueteotl, "the old-old god." Among the Tarascans, this deity was the centre of the domestic cult, and the Tepanec and Otomi worshipped him under the name of Otontecutli. Under this name he was invoked in historic times by the inhabitants of the Tepanec cities of Azcapotzalco and Tlacopan and of Colhuacan. At Xochimilco the fire-deity appears as a goddess, under the name of Chantico or Quaxolotl. Xiuhtecutli is generally shown with a horizontally banded face (in this respect the illustration in Fig. 3, c, is not typical), and his prevailing colour is yellow. On his back he bears the fire-snake, xluhcoatl (see Pl. V, 2), and a butterfly, papalotl, frequently appears in his hair. It may be mentioned that in general horizontal face-paint seems to be characteristic of the gods of the immigrant hunter tribes, the vertical of the agricultural gods of the sedentary tribes of the valley. 'The butterfly is closely connected with fire, since the fluttering flight of this insect was supposed to resemble the flicker of a flame. Mexican mythology is full of poetical imagery of this sort, which constitutes a welcome relief to the gruesomeness of many of their rites. The fire-god was connected with perhaps the most horrible of their sacrifices; at his most important feast the victims were cast living into a huge brazier, and dragged thence with hooks before death brought a welcome relief, to have their hearts torn from their bodies in the customary manner. An unexpected feature of this god is exemplified in the belief that he was supposed to dwell in the