mentioned as a female deity), who appears originally to have been a Totonac god. He is usually shown with a vertical line leading down his cheek, probably representing tears and symbolizing the fertilizing rain. On certain occasions his priest wore a mask made from the skin of the thigh of the victim sacrificed in honour of Teteoinnan. At first sight it is a little surprising to find this god appearing as one of the tutelary deities of the lapidaries of Xochimilco, but no doubt the reason of this is that the ripe maize-cob, nature’s mosaic, recalled the incrusted work which formed one of their principal manufactures. Closely associated with all these deities was a maize-goddess, Chicome Coatl, sister of Tlaloc, who presided over agriculture and was honoured with a flaying-sacrifice; while the young maize-ear had an especial protector in the goddess Xilonen, perhaps the same as the Chichimec Xilo worshipped by the inhabitants of the Amantlan district of Mexico. Another goddess who seems to be connected with maize was Ilamatecutli, also called Cozcamiauh (maize-necklace), though she appears to have been a star-goddess as well. She, Teteoinnan and Xilonen were associated in a peculiar form of sacrifice in which the victim was decapitated, and which perhaps represented the reaping of the maize-ear. The sacrifice by decapitation seems to be particularly connected with the earth-goddesses, who are sometimes shown in the MSS. with head almost severed from the body, and with two snakes, perhaps representing streams of blood, issuing from the trunk. Of such a representation the colossal figure in the Mexican Museum (see Pl. III) is an example. This deity is either Chicome Coatl or Coatlicue, probably the latter, to judge from the skirt of serpents which she wears. In this case the two snakes which spring from her decapitated body are placed snout to snout, and from the two profiles is compounded a grotesque face, or rather two such faces, one in front and one behind. It is worthy of note that the mask of the goddess Ilamatecutli, apparently another fertility goddess, is said to have been double-faced. [Illustration: _British Museum_ MEXICO 1, 2. STONE MASK REPRESENTING XIPE; THE REVERSE SHOWS THE ENTIRE FIGURE OF THE GOD [SYMBOL] TEZCOCO (Scale: ⅓rd)]