Aztec mythology; Indian mythology -- Mexico; Mexico -- Religion
Codex Vaticanus A.—Sheet 20: Here Tlaloc is represented with the body
painted black, the fore-part of the face black and the hinder portion
yellow. His chin is bearded and the lip-band is prolonged, as described
above. In front of his mantle is a stone knife, from which fire issues.
His attire is painted in alternate stripes of black and green, flecked
with melted rubber. He wears the fillet of Tonatiuh, the Sun-god, and
the strips of hide which fall from the panache of feathers on his head
are also part of the Sun-god’s insignia. He holds a burnt offering of
firewood and rubber in his hand, enveloped in a covering painted black
and green, flecked alternately. The type of the tarns or pools into
which such offerings were cast is depicted in front of him, in the
depths of which are seen fishes and snails.
Codex Magliabecchiano.—Sheet 92: Here he is represented in female
costume and, as in the Sahagun MSS., a white circular spot or patch
with black dots is visible on the god’s cheek, which, the text implies,
was made of the crushed seed of the Mexican prickly poppy (Argemone
Mexicana).
General.—Other details in the costume of the Rain-god are eloquent of
his nature and characteristics. In the Borgia group of codices his
garment and headdress are dark green, flecked with melted rubber,
whilst in those codices from the Mexican country proper we find them
painted blue, bespotted with the same unpleasant incense. His robe, the
anachxecilli (“dripping-garment,” “cloud-garment”), is said to be “set
with green gems,” and in his ear is a broad plate with a dependent band
on which are worked smaller figures made of chalchihuitl stones. On his
breast he wears a wide collar of plaited stuff (reeds?) also enriched
with the precious green stone typical of water, and a large gold disk.
In Codex Vaticanus A, the Codex Magliabecchiano, and the Sahagun MSS.
we find him wearing at the nape of his neck a large crescent-shaped
loop which projects on each side of the head and is secured in the
middle by a rosette, as well as his crown of heron-feathers. In the
Codex Vaticanus B a large fan-shaped object painted dark green and
white projects behind the head of the god. In Codex Borgia (sheet 14),
too, he wears the headdress of Mayauel, the goddess of the agave plant,
but the colours in which it is painted (dark green and white with
rubber flecking) are his own and not the blue and white of the female
divinity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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