Page:Mexican Archæology.djvu/82

sacrificial stone, who escorted the orb from the eastern horizon to the zenith; and also with the souls of women dying in child-birth, the female counterparts of the warriors, who accompanied it from the zenith to its setting. These female souls were deified under the name of Ciuapipiltin or Ciuateteo, and were supposed to descend to the earth on certain dates and inflict maladies on children (Fig. 3, d). They are included under the general term of Tzitzimime, lightning demons, of whom Itzpapalotl was one, and whose advent to destroy the world was greatly feared during eclipses and at the end of each fifty-two-year period. Associated with the sun as escort was Xolotl, the dog-headed god of twins and monstrosities, and, in invocations, the earth-god Tlaltecutli, Fig. 6.
(Borgia MS., Rome) who, like him, was supposed to be nourished with the blood of warriors killed in fight and sacrifice. The creation of the moon, Meztli,in the person of Tecociztecatl has already been mentioned, but other deities were connected with it, especially those associated with vegetation. The waxing moon, and waning of the moon was supposed to typify the process of nature, and the moon was supposed to exercise an influence over vegetable growth; it is even possible that the phases of this satellite may have possessed a calendrical significance before the invention of the solar year. Consequently we find the earth-goddess Tlazolteotl associated with Meztli, and also the harvest-gods, the Totochtin. Probably the connection with the Totochtin was emphasized by the fact that the Mexicans, instead of the "man in the moon," saw the figure of a rabbit (tochtli) in the disc (Fig. 6). Both Tlazolteotl and the Totochtin wear semi-lunar nose-ornaments, exactly similar to the outline of the moon as shown in manuscripts, which often portray it as a curved bone filled