Chalchihuitlicue was adored at the etzalqualiztli festival to the Tlaloquê (see Tlaloc) and at the feast ce atl (“one week”), when, says Sahagun, “her festival was celebrated by all who in any way dealt in water, or had any connection with it, water-sellers, fishers and the like. These dressed and ornamented her image and made adorations in the house named calpulli. The great lords and rich merchants at the birth of one of their children paid the greatest attention to this sign, and the day and hour at which the child was born. They at once inquired of the astrologers what fortune the child might expect to encounter, and if the sign was propitious, they had the infant baptized without delay, whereas if it were the opposite they waited until the nearest day which had a propitious sign. Food and drink were distributed freely to all.” PRIESTHOOD Veytia [282] states that King Nauhyotl instituted a college of priests expressly for the service of this goddess. These were celibate and wore long and ample robes of a sombre colour. They went bare-footed in the sanctuary, fasted frequently, and were given to penitence and contemplation. Their high-priest was called Achcauhtli, [283] and the entire cult was modelled on that of Quetzalcoatl. This did not prohibit them, however, from the sacrifice of human beings. NATURE AND STATUS Chalchihuitlicue was the female counterpart of Tlaloc, and the goddess of water and moisture. Sahagun (bk. i, c. ii) says of her: “She was supposed to have her existence in the sea, the rivers and lakes, and had power to take the lives of those who ventured upon them, and to raise tempests.” The name means “She whose raiment consists of green gems,” or “She of the jewelled robe,” and is allegorical of the brilliant surface of flowing rather than stagnant water. She is, says Seler, “an appropriate representative of the sign ‘Snake.’ For the moving, flowing water has everywhere and at all times been likened to the serpent. In cultural centres which are dedicated to the Water-goddess—the Pilon de Azucar, for instance, which has been explored by Hermann Strebel—the ground swarms as well with images of snakes as of frogs.” [284] In Codex Borgia she is seen with a bunch of dried herbs above her, evidently indicating that she had a medicinal side to her character. Certain pictures of her—that, for instance, in the Aubin tonalamatl already described—seem to point to her as the goddess of change in human affairs, of speedy ruin, and this conception was, no doubt, brought about by the ever-changing character of the element she symbolized. She is, indeed, the goddess of water in its mutable and kaleidoscopic form.