[107] The Centzonuitznaua appear to be the same as the Tzitzimimê, whom Tezozomoc calls the “gods of the air who bring the rains, floods, thunderclaps, and thunders and lightnings and had to be placed round Uitzilopochtli” in order to complete the construction of the great teocalli of Mexico. These “gods of the signs and planets,” in other words the stars, were regarded as demons of darkness, thinks Seler, “only because during a solar eclipse the stars became visible in the day sky.” I think it much more probable that they were looked upon as demons of darkness because they peopled the darkness every night. “These,” says the interpreter of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, “are the sons of Citlalicue.” Now, Citlalicue means “Starry-skirt,” and I think that here we are not very far from Coatlicue, “Serpent-skirt.” We know, too, that Citlalicue, like Coatlicue, was connected with the cipactli, the earth-beast, and with Chicomecoatl (“Seven Serpents”). The later fusion of Citlalicue with her husband Citlaltonac or Tonacatecutli, lord of the heavenly vault, as has been shown in the remarks on these gods, would give her stellar attributes; hence the seeming discrepancy between her and Coatlicue. [108] Appendix to bk. ii. [109] Hist. de los Indios de la Nueva España, tom. ii, p. 240. [110] See Rendel Harris, The Ascent of Olympus, passim. In his Ascent of Olympus Dr. Rendel Harris has shown that the sacred oak of Zeus was regarded as “the animistic repository of the thunder, and in that sense the dwelling-place of Zeus ... that the woodpecker who nested in it ... was none other than Zeus himself, and it may turn out that Athena, who sprang from the head of the thunder-oak, was the owl that lived in one of its hollows” (p. 57). In the same way, it may be that the maguey plant may have been regarded by the Mexicans as a repository of thunder and the heavenly fire. Octli, its sap, was connected with fire (see octli gods, “Nature and Status”), and Uitzilopochtli was the humming-bird who dwelt among its leaves. He springs from his mother’s body fully armed, as does Athena from the head of Zeus. A similar train of thought appears to be present in both ideas. [111] Manuel de Ministros, p. 35. [112] Commentary on Codex Vaticanus B, p. 91. [113] Maguey is an Antillean word imported into Mexico by the Spaniards, but the use of a post-Columbian word does not exclude the possibility of a synonymous pre-Columbian form. [114] Manuel de Ministros, p. 37. [115] Myths of the New World, pp. 129 ff. [116] Hist. Nat. Ind., c. ix, bk. v (English translation from Purchas his Pilgrimes). [117] Obviously an error for tlachialoni. [118] More probably like a jaguar, one of the forms of the god. [119] See précis in chapter on Cosmogony. [120] The Morelosia huañita of the family Styraciñes. [121] Inga circinalis. [122] Paper hand. [123] Face of the temple. [124] Young brother. [125] Hist. Gen., bk. i. c. iii. [126] Hist. Nat. y Moral, c. ix.