Aztec mythology; Indian mythology -- Mexico; Mexico -- Religion
white, except that portion at the neck, which is blue. Small golden
bells adorn the necklace and wristlets. In this statuette we have
evidently a very late and highly developed figure of the deity, showing
a considerable departure from the earlier drawings and statues of him.
In the Anthropological Museum at Berlin is a stone statue of
Macuilxochitl, also in a squatting attitude, in which the circular
motif above the ear, with its accompanying plug, is strongly in
evidence. A number of stone statuettes of the god were found at Tepeaca
in the state of Puebla and are now housed in the Natural History Museum
at Vienna. These do not differ from the examples already described,
save that in one of them the Greek fret-pattern takes the place of the
circular ear-plug motif. A stone figure of the god was found amid the
ruins of the Castillo de Teayo, a teocalli, or pyramid, in Vera Cruz.
In this, which is also a squatting figure, the god is covered by a
mantle which is surmounted by the bird’s comb, as seen in
Magliabecchiano and elsewhere. Around the head are three of the
circular holes above mentioned, one above each ear and one at the back
of the head, from which depend a double strip of cotton or other
textile.
ASPECT AND INSIGNIA (as Xochipilli)
Codex Vaticanus B.—Sheet 26: In this MS. the god is painted a light
yellow colour. His light hair is bound with a jewelled strap ornamented
on the frontal side with a conventional bird’s head. Round his head he
also wears the fillet of the Sun-god, ornamented with a feather tuft.
As a breast ornament he has a large gold disk suspended from a broad
gold chain, hung with bells. His right hand clasps a bundle of grass,
and in his left he bears a staff embellished with turquoise mosaic and
flowers, probably intended for a rattle-stick. Above the twilight
symbol of the west in the water are instruments of mortification. On
sheet 32 he is represented as of a blue colour with a jewelled chain in
front of his mouth.
Codex Fejérváry-Mayer.—The description of the god in this MS. is
similar to that just given. In his hand he supports a dish with
ornaments, a bangle for the upper arm, a feather tuft and a neck-chain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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