[Footnote 1: Sahagun, _Historia_, Lib. vi, cap. xxv. The bisexual nature of the Mexican gods, referred to in this passage, is well marked in many features of their mythology. Quetzalcoatl is often addressed in the prayers as "father and mother," just as, in the Egyptian ritual, Chnum was appealed to as "father of fathers and mother of mothers" (Tiele, _Hist. of the Egyptian Religion_, p. 134). I have endeavored to explain this widespread belief in hermaphroditic deities in my work entitled, _The Religious Sentiment, Its Source and Aim_, pp. 65-68, (New York, 1876).] It is recorded in the old histories that the priests dedicated to his service wore a peculiar head-dress, imitating a snail shell, and for that reason were called _Quateczizque_.[1] No one has explained this curiously shaped bonnet. But it was undoubtedly because Quetzalcoatl was the god of reproduction, for among the Aztecs the snail was a well known symbol of the process of parturition.[2] [Footnote 1: Duran, in Kingsborough, vol. viii, p. 267. The word is from _quaitl_, head or top, and _tecziztli_, a snail shell.] [Footnote 2: "Mettevanli in testa una lumaca marina per dimostrare que siccome il piscato esce dalle pieghe di quell'osso, o conca. cosi vá ed esce l'uomo _ab utero matris suae_." _Codice Vaticana, Tavola XXVI._] Quetzalcoatl was that marvelous artist who fashions in the womb of the mother the delicate limbs and tender organs of the unborn infant. Therefore, when a couple of high rank were blessed with a child, an official orator visited them, and the baby being placed naked before him, he addressed it beginning with these words:-- "My child and lord, precious gem, emerald, sapphire, beauteous feather, product of a noble union, you have been formed far above us, in the ninth heaven, where dwell the two highest divinities. His Divine Majesty has fashioned you in a mould, as one fashions a ball of gold; you have been chiseled as a precious stone, artistically dressed by your Father and Mother, the great God and the great Goddess, assisted by their son, Quetzalcoatl."[1] [Footnote 1: Sahagun, _Historia_, Lib. vi, cap. xxxiv.] As he was thus the god on whom depended the fertilization of the womb, sterile women made their vows to him, and invoked his aid to be relieved from the shame of barrenness.[1] [Footnote 1: Torquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, Lib. xi, cap. xxiv.]