In the MSS. the quarters are often typified by four trees, each springing from the body of the earth-goddess, with a bird perched amidst its branches, and accompanied by the five day-signs belonging to the quarter which it represents (Fig. 10). In Oaxaca, where the 52-year cycle was also observed, the years were assigned in groups of thirteen to the quarters. Those belonging to the east were supposed to be fertile and healthy; those to the north, variable; those to the west, good for mankind but bad for crops; while those to the south were thought to be characterized by excessive heat and drought. [Illustration: FIG. 10.--The Tree of the West. (_Borgia MS., Rome_)] Among the Tarascans too were found gods associated with the world-directions, and, as will be seen later, among the Maya also. The association of the underworld with the north by the Mexicans is interesting as exemplifying a tendency found amongst primitive peoples all over the world. The original home of the Mexicans lay to the north, and consequently it was to the north that departed spirits took their way, just as in Polynesia and Melanesia the disembodied souls were supposed to leap into the sea and disappear in the direction whence their forefathers had arrived. It is therefore particularly interesting to note that among the Mixtec and Zapotec two spots were pointed out as the entrance to the underworld, and that each of these spots lay in the actual territory inhabited by these tribes respectively. The Mixtec believed that the gate to the region of departed spirits was situated at Chalcatongo, and the place was regarded as a burial-ground of peculiar sanctity. While the Zapotec believed that their sacred city Mitla (or rather Lyobaa, Mitla being the Nahua name) stood on the site of the approach to the spirit-world. This belief, together with the peculiarities in religion mentioned in the last chapter, points to the existence among the population of a large element which may be called indigenous in so far as its beliefs were probably evolved locally and before the advent of the Nahua tribes in Mexico, by contact with whom they were so strongly affected in later years. In Mexican ceremonial constant attention was paid to the world-directions, and the victim’s blood was often sprinkled, and incense offered, in the four directions of the compass.