The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations: A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological, and Calendrical SystemsNuttall, Zelia
Religion
The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations: A Comparative Research Based on a Study of the Ancient Mexican Religious, Sociological, and Calendrical Systems
Let us now see how Montezuma’s personification of Huitzilopochtli was
carried out by his life and his surroundings. According to Bernal Diaz, an
eye-witness, when the great Montezuma came forth in state to meet Cortés,
he was conveyed on a sumptuous litter, being thus raised above the
earth.(6) When he descended from this and walked, the golden soles of his
sandals prevented his feet from coming into direct contact with the
ground; he was supported, _i. e._ partially held up, by his four principal
lords, and a baldachin adorned with light greenish-blue feathers, gold,
pearls and jade representing the xoxouhqui-ilhuicatl=“the verdant or blue
sky” (which was, by the way, a title of Huitzilopochtli), was carried over
his head. Other lords preceded him, “sweeping the ground and spreading
blankets upon it so that he should not tread upon the earth. All of these
lords did not dare to think of raising their eyes to look at his face—only
the four lords, his cousins, who supported him, possessed this privilege”
(Bernal Diaz, Historia Verdadera de la Conquista. Madrid, 1632, p. 65). A
feature, the origin of which can be directly traced back to the
association of the star-god, Polaris, with repose and immovability, was
that Montezuma, like his predecessors, was the only person privileged to
sit on state occasions, on a throne or raised seat with a high back and
rest whilst all other individuals stood or moved about him.
From several sources we know that Montezuma habitually wore blue or white
attire, which sometimes was of open network. He employed gold, precious
blue and green feathers, turquoise, pearls and emeralds for his personal
ornaments. His diadem with a high point in front, was incrusted with
turquoise or was made of burnished gold. He sometimes wore a crown made of
featherwork, with a bird’s head of gold above his forehead. His emblem was
the sun, the orb of day, and he presided over its cult which had developed
itself simultaneously with the cult of the Above, a feature of which was
the offering of “birds, butterflies and flowers.” Sometimes he wore,
“attached to his sandals, small wings, named tzi-coyolli, resembling the
wing of a bird. These produced a sound like that of tiny gold bells when
he walked” (Tezozomoc, Cronica, p. 594).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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