These and other dread beings, according to the same MS., rendered the hellward journey terrible in the extreme, and an attempt was made to mitigate the terrors of the passage between the two worlds by means of passports of much the same character as the spells in the Egyptian “Book of the Dead,” which franked the soul past the numerous demons and dangers which awaited it. The first paper served to pass him by two mountains which threatened to clash together and crush him. The second saved him from the maw of a huge snake. Others helped him to face the lurking terrors of eight deserts and eight hills, and to avoid the grim crocodile Xochitonal. A wind of sharp flint knives then attacked him. Lastly he came to the river Chiconahuopan (Nine Waters), which he crossed on the back of a red-coloured dog which accompanied him and which was killed for that purpose by having an arrow thrust down its throat. It is not clear whether this dog acted as a guide to Mictlampa, or whether it preceded the soul, but it would seem that its master found it awaiting him when he came to the banks of the river, in the passage of which it assisted him. It kept its vigil on the opposite bank, however, and had to swim the river ere it could reach him. The deceased then came before Mictlantecutli, to whom he made suitable gifts—cotton, perfumes, and a mantle. He was told to which sphere he must go. It is obvious that Mictlampa was not so much a place of punishment as a place of the dead, a Hades, where the souls of the good and evil were alike consigned. Its locality is partially fixed, for it is “the place where the sun slept,” and, like the Egyptian Amenti, it was therefore antipodean, or occupied the centre of the earth. After a four years’ sojourn in this dark monarchy the soul was supposed to come to a place where, according to the interpreter of the Codex Vaticanus, it enjoyed a measure of rest. CHAPTER III THE GREAT GODS METHOD OF TREATMENT In the section descriptive of the gods, each divinity is dealt with separately. The need for system and orderly arrangement in the study of Mexican Mythology is clamant. In the hope that future students of the subject may be spared the Herculean task of separating the mythology of the Mexican people from their history, I have thought it best to arrange my material in as systematic a fashion as its complex character permits. The plan employed is a simple one. I have prefaced the description of each god with a table containing the following information concerning him: Area of Worship, Name, Minor Names, Relationship, Calendar-place, Compass-direction, Symbol, Festivals. In some cases where, for example, a god has no festival or no minor names, the item relating to such information is, of course, absent.