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In Aztec belief, the surface of the earth was a thin crust between the material (apparent) reality and the real world of spirit. Death was not taken at face value in Aztec religion, but was seen as the essence of life itself and the creation of a renewed beginning, a Beginning and an End at the same time - an unbroken cycle. According to the shaman, everything is part of the same life force. Birth was an emerging from this world of spirit and Death was a return back into it. In this unending cycle, the crops died and were reborn - that is, if the spirit world allowed it.
Mictlan is the lowest layer of the underworld, situated in the north. Every soul, except those of fallen warriors and women who died giving birth, have to descend to the underworld. Here, their souls will find eternal rest. However, they first have to make the dangerous journey to Mictlan. At the burial, the deceased are given magical powers and with the help of the god Xolotl, they are able to make this journey safely. The ruler of this underworld is Mictlantecuhtli (see Aztec Gods and Goddesses)
Mictlan, the Aztec Underworld, was ruled over by its Lord and Lady (Mictlantecuhtli and Mictlantecihuatl). It was a gloomy place, reached by the dead only after wandering for four years (four suns) beneath the earth accompanied by a "soul-companion", a dog cremated with the corpse.
There are records of finding burials in various postures, most common of which, was the fetal position - a return to the womb. Interestingly, it was not the life of an individual that determined his final resting place but his death. "How" one died was more important than the life itself.
Around the capital and its sister city, Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco, the typical burial postures of the Classic period (100 - 900 A.D.) were seated and crouched positions. In the Postclassic period (900-1519 A.D.), the remains were in caves, wrapped in bundles (in Coahuila), with offerings of bows, arrows, fishing nets, cloaks, fabrics, baskets, sandals, and the remains of a semi-mummified dog.
Cremation was also common, with the remains being stored in jars. A burial or cremation was dependant upon how the individual died. Dying of certain diseases resulted in a burial with a staff placed in the hand. It is speculated that one would be cremated unless heading to the earthly paradise of Tlalocan.
Not many true burials were found at Templo Mayor since it was the center of religious activity and sacrifice. At Tlatelolco, however, archaeological research provided much information. Burials were found in a seated, squatting position, "the arms pressed against the trunk, the thighs bent towards the chest, and the legs flexed over the thighs...they were therefore reduced to the smallest volume a human corpse can occupy” (Barlow 1944: 35). In 1966, an urn with a child's skeleton was found. In the mouth was a green stone - representing the soul, and a talisman for protection - for when the jaguar tries to steal the soul while traveling to the Underworld. If attacked, the stone is thrown to the animal, who thinks it is the deceased’s soul. In that way, the person can escape with an unharmed "teyolía" or soul.
from Mortuary Practices
Aztec myth tells how the feathered serpent god, Quetzalcoatl, traveled to Mictlan in the Fifth Sun to restore the human race to life from the bones of those who died in previous eras. For bones are like seeds: everything that dies goes into the earth, and from the earth new life is born in the sacred cycle of existence.
Quetzalcoatl approached the Lord of Mictlan, where he sat on his throne surrounded by spiders and owls. "I've come for the bones, the precious bones, the jade bones," said Quetzalcoatl. "Can I have them in order to populate the earth?"
Begrudgingly the Lord of Mictlan give his consent. "You may take away that which I guard so carefully on one condition -- that you parade four times around my throne blowing on this trumpet." He handed Quetzalcoatl a conch shell that had no finger holes. But worms bored the fingerholes, and bees flew inside to make a sound. Quetzalcoatl knew he had to move quickly to take the bones and leave.
The Lord of Mictlan finally gave orders that the bones be recovered, but Quetzalcoatl thought of a trick. "Tell the Lord I'll leave the bones behind," he said to his nahual, his spirit twin. Accordingly the nahual, looking just like Quetzalcoatl himself, assured the Lord of Mictlan that the bones would be left. Meanwhile Quetzalcoatl began to run. Unfortunately, the Lord of Mictlan ordered that a pit be dug in the fleeing god's path, and he fell into it. Those bones that weren't already shattered were pecked at by a bevy of quail and that is why humans come in all sizes.
"This has not worked out well," said Quetzalcoatl to his spirit twin. "What must be must be," replied the nahual. And so Quetzalcoatl scooped up the bones and, once safely beyond the dead land, ground them up in a bowl. Together with other gods, he sprinkled them with his own blood, restoring them to life. Thus humankind was born from the penance of the gods themselves.
And this gift had to be repaid in the blood of sacrifice. How else could it be, reasoned the ancients, since the death of vegetation always preceded its re-emergence, Death must be the cause of Life.
[Based on the Myth of the Suns and the Toltec-Chichimec Origins of the Mexica People., as translated by Willard Gingerich, in The Flayed God. by Roberta H. and Peter T. Markman, published by HarperSanFrancisco.]
Mictlantecuhtli, Lord of Mictlan
Mictlantecuhtli was a god of the dead and King of Mictlan (Chicunauhmictlan), the lowest and northernmost section of the underworld. He was one of the principal gods of the Aztecs and was the most prominent of several gods and goddesses of death and the underworld. The veneration of Mictlantecuhtli sometimes involved ritual cannibalism, with human flesh being consumed in and around the temple.
He was depicted as a blood-spattered skeleton or a person wearing a toothy skull. His headdress was shown decorated with owl feathers and paper banners, and he wore a necklace of human eyeballs. He was not the only Aztec god to be depicted in this fashion, as numerous other deities had skulls for heads or else wore clothings or decorations that incorporated bones and skulls. Although such imagery might seem morbid today, in the Aztec world skeletal imagery was a symbol of fertility, health and abundance, emphasizing the close links between death and life.
His wife was Mictecacihuatl, and together they were said to dwell in a windowless house in Mictlan. Mictlanteculhtli was associated with spiders, owls, bats, the eleventh hour, and the northern compass direction. He was one of only a few gods said to govern over all three types of souls identified by the Aztecs. They distinguished between the souls of people who died normal deaths (of old age, disease, etc), heroic deaths (e.g. in battle, sacrifice or during childbirth), or non-heroic deaths.
Mictlanteculhtli was the god of the day sign Itzcuintli (dog), one of the 20 such signs recognized in the Aztec calendar, and was regarded as supplying the souls of those who were born on that day. He was seen as the source of souls for those born on the sixth day of the 13-day week and was the fifth of the nine Night Gods of the Aztecs. He was also the secondary Week God for the tenth week of the twenty-week cycle of the calendar, joining the sun god Tonatiuh to symbolize the dichotomy of light and darkness.
According to Aztec legend, the twin gods Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl were sent by the other gods to steal the bones of the previous generation of gods from Mictlanteculhtli. The god of the underworld tried to block Quetzalcoatl's escape with the bone and, although he failed, he forced Quetzalcoatl to drop the bones, which were scattered and broken by the fall. The shattered bones were collected by Quetzalcoatl and carried back to the land of the living, where the gods transformed them into the various races of mortals.
The Origin of Tenochtitlan
According the Aubin Codex, the Aztecs originally came from a place called Aztlan. They lived under the ruling of a powerful elite called the "Azteca Chicomoztoca". Huitzilopochtli ordered them to abandon Aztlan to find a new home. He also ordered them to never call themselves Aztec, instead they should be called "Mexica". Huitzilopochtli guided them through a long journey. For a time Huitzilopochtli left them in charge of his sister Malinalxochitl, who according to legend founded Malinalco, but the Aztecs resented her ruling and called back Huitzilopochtli. He put his sister to sleep and ordered the Aztecs to leave the place. When she woke up and realized she was alone, she became angry and desired revenge. She gave birth to a son called Copil. When he grew up he confronted Huitzilpochtli, who had to kill him. Huitzilopchtli then took his heart and threw it in the middle of Lake Texcoco. Many years later, Huitzilopchtli ordered the Aztecs to search for the Copil heart and build their city over it. The sign would be an eagle perched on a cactus, eating a precious bird. The Aztecs finally found the eagle, who bowed to them, and they built a temple in the place, which became Tenochtitlan.
The are different versions of this encounter, but the version by father Duran would become the most popular. In his version, the eagle is eating a snake instead of a bird. This image is seen on the flag of Mexico.
There were five suns, the people under one sun died in a flood, the people under another sun died in volcano eruptions, the last sun was believed to be the one that we live under now.
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CREATIONS
and
MICTLAN
An Aztec Creation Myth:
The sacrifices of the gods themselves were not enough to keep the universe going: other beings had to be created for this purpose. The gods deputized Quetzalcoatl to create humanity. With Xolotl, he went to the Land of Death and asked its lord, Mictlantecuhtli, for the bones of the ancestors. Mictlantecuhtli told
him that he would first have to play his shell trumpet, which was impossible because the shell had no holes. But Quetzalcoatl was thoroughly familiar with the paths of the inhabitants of the underworld. His friends the worms bored holes in the shell, and insects filled it with sound. Mictlantecuhtli agreed to let him have what he had come for, but after Quetzalcoatl left, Mictlantecuhtli sent his minions to dig a hole in the god's path. Quetzalcoatl fell in, and though he was able to get out before he was buried by the demons, the bones had been damaged, accounting for the shortcomings of the race he would create. The mother of the gods ground the bones into a paste. Quetzalcoatl, followed by a number of other gods, slit his penis and let the blood flow into the paste, creating the first humans.
The Aztecs believed that it took four attempts at creating the earth and mankind before the gods finally got everything right with the fifth attempt. The first creation took place when Black Tezcatlipoca (tes kah tlee POH kah), one of the four sons of the Lord and Lady of Duality, Ometecuhtli (oh may tay COO tlee) and Omecihuatl (oh may SEE wahtl) respectively, changed himself into the sun. The earth at that time was inhabited by giants who ate acorns, berries and roots. Tezoatlipoca’s rival, Quetzalcoatl(ket sahl KO ahtl), couldn’t stand the fact that Tezcatlipoca was ruling the universe, so he knocked him out of the sky. In his rage at being knocked out of the sky, Tezcatlipoca turned into a jaguar and destroyed the earth.
Attempt number two began when Quetzalcoatl took over the heavens. He created people on earth who ate pine nuts. Tezoatlipoca overthrew Quetzalcoatl and destroyed the earth with a great wind. The few people who were left on earth were changed into monkeys.
The third creation began when Tlaloc (TLAHL lock), the god of rain, became the sun. Quetzalcoatl sent rain which flooded the earth, killing almost all mankind. Those who did survive were turned into birds.
When Chalchiuhtlicue (chahl chee oo TLEE kway), the water goddess, took over the sun’s responsibilities, the fourth creation had begun. This time, however, the earth was destroyed by flood and those men who survived became fish.
The final creation (the fifth sun) occurred when the gods met and decided one among them had to sacrifice himself to become the new sun. One poor, humble god did this and became the sun. However, the sun hung in the sky and didn’t move. In order for the sun to move, it was necessary for all of the gods to sacrifice themselves. Once the sun was moving across the sky, it was Quetzalcoatl who took on the responsibility of creating mankind. He did this by going to the underworld to bring back to earth the bones of past generations. While fleeing the god of the underworld with his bag of bones, he slipped and fell, breaking the bones. He sprinkled the pieces of one with his blood and turned them into men. Because the pieces of bone were all different sizes, the men and women he created were all different sizes, too. While there are different variations of this account, in all versions, each creation brings man and food closer to the ideal of mankind. This is a wonderful story to present to children, and a longer version of this myth that I have rewritten is included later in this unit.
Aztec Afterlife
The Aztecs believed in a heaven and an underworld. There were thirteen levels of heaven and nine of the underworld. There were also four horizontal points which corresponded to the directions of the compass and were associated with the four creator gods. All beings were assigned to one of these four points, depending on the day one was born. The earth was believed to be a large disc surrounded by water at the point where the horizontal and vertical met. The Lord and Lady of Duality, mentioned earlier also were the rulers of this central point.
The Aztecs believed that where you went after death depended upon what you did on earth and how you died. The eastern paradise, the “house of the sun” was the home of the souls of warrior who were killed in combat. This also included the souls of enemy warriors who had a special “god of the enemy dead.” Sacrificed victims went there also. It was believed that souls stayed in the eastern paradise for four years, and then they returned to earth as hummingbirds or other exotic birds.
The western paradise, the house of corn, was believed to be for women who died in childbirth. They also returned to earth as phantoms of bad omens. The paradise of Tlaloc, the southern paradise was for people who died of lightening, leprosy or other sickness. This was a place of plentiful food.
The paradise of the north was for the rest of the dead. It was called Mictlan (MEEK tlahn) and getting there involved going through nine trials and took four years to accomplish.
The Aztec accounts of the trials a soul must go through to get to Mictlan are as follows:
1) cross a deep river—dogs were buried with their dead owners to guide them on this journey.
2) pass between two mountains which were joined together
3) climb an obsidian mountain
4) pass through icy wind that cut like a knife
5) pass through a place where flags waved
6) be pierced by arrows
7) pass among wild beasts which ate human hearts
8) pass over a narrow path of stone
9) reach this level where the soul found rest
In order to make this trip, people were buried in a squatting position with items to help them on the way. These included water, the dog (tawny in color) mentioned at the first level of hell, a jade bead to act as the dead’s heart at the seventh hell and other personal objects to give to Mictlantecuhtli (meek tlahn tay COO flee), god of the dead, or Mictecacihuatl (meek tay kah SEE wahtl), mistress of the underworld, when they got to the ninth region.
There were thirteen heavens. Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, the creator gods, lived in the double twelfth and thirteenth heavens. It was believed that the souls of babies went there was well as the souls of men waiting to be reincarnated upon the destruction of the human race.
Agriculture was the primary focus of the Aztec religion and the forces of water and earth were directly related to agricultural fertility. The Aztecs saw human life metaphorically—like maize or a flower. Man was born to die, but carried the seed of reproduction. Therefore, ceremonies dealt with life—not afterlife—to ensure health, fertility and to avoid natural disasters.
As mentioned earlier, the Aztec religion was one of constant effort to propitiate the gods in order that they might look favorably upon mankind. The Aztecs, through their religious practices, endeavored to keep a balance in nature. One religious practice to accomplish this was human sacrifice.
The sacrificing of humans was looked upon as a pay back to the gods. Just as corn might be sacrificed to Tlaloc, the rain god, in thanks for that season’s harvest and to ensure future crops, so humans would be sacrificed to the gods to ensure the continuation of the human race. Sacrifice was considered a necessity for the welfare of man. Those sacrificed were considered messengers to the gods, not victims.
MYTHOLOGY
& MTYHS
Just like the balladeers of medieval Europe passed their stories along through song, so too, the Aztecs passed along the accounts of their gods and goddesses orally. The stories were often sung and accompanied by drums, with mask-wearing dancers, pantomime or stage props. The story tellers strung the stories together into epics. These practices continued until the conquest when the stories were written down by missionary friars and Aztec nobility who had learned Spanish. The purpose of writing down the stories was not so much to preserve them as to refute them with Christianity. The friars thought that the more they learned about the Aztec religion, the better they would be able to work against it. There were, however, those who were interested in the religion simply because they had a quest for knowledge of the world.
Following are three myths based upon research on the Aztec religion and the culture of the Aztecs.
The Mark of the Rabbit
On a clear evening long ago, the sun was setting as Obsidian Snake sat quietly outside his home. He had eaten his maize cakes during the hottest part of the day and soon he would sleep. Inside his house, he could hear the sounds of his brother, Smoking Shield, moving about before he returned to the Telpochcalli (tail poch CAL ee), the House of Youth, for the night. Each evening Smoking Shield returned home to eat his meal only to return, after bathing, to the House of Youth where he learned to be a model citizen and warrior of the Aztec state. Obsidian Snake missed his brother, especially late at night, when he awoke from sleep on his reed mat and did not hear the sound of his brother’s breathing on the mat beside him. Right now Obsidian Snake was too young to go the House of Youth. He was taught by his father during the day—how to fish, gather sticks for the fire, and how to handle their canoe. At the House of Youth, Smoking Shield was learning how to be a good citizen, obedient and respectful, and to be a model warrior, too. Obsidian Snake knew that soon he too would sleep at the House of Youth, coming home only for his meals and to bathe.
At his back, the adobe bricks of his house were still warm even though the sun had ended its journey across the sky. It was the growing time when days were warm and dry and the maize was on its way to harvest. All the family prayed to Tlaloc, the old god of rain and the god of the farmer’s plenty, in order to be sure rain came as needed along with plenty of warmth and sunshine.
Inside, too, he could hear the sounds of his mother, Turquoise Maize Flower, as she moved around the hearth. The fire glowed quietly through the open doorway. Obsidian Snake smiled as he thought of her. In his mind he could hear the sound of her grinding the maize for their two meals. He could hear the slap slap sound as she patted maize dough into tortillas. All day his mother had worked at grinding maize between volcanic stones, preparing flour for the maize cakes and the maize porridge she sweetened for him with honey. Today, their afternoon meal had included crayfish his father and he had caught in the lake nearby their house.
His mother also spent many hours spinning cotton thread and weaving at her loom. Throughout the area, his mothers cotton cloth was known to be fine and soft. It brought a good price in cacoa beans on market day.
Obsidian Snake thought of the way his mother had smiled when he had presented her with the crayfish he had caught. He knew his mother missed him now that he was too old to stay by her side as she worked by the hearth inside or wove her fine cotton outside in the small courtyard of their house. That was why each night she found her way to him for a few moments. Tonight he heard the sound of her bare feet as she crossed the beaten earth floor and entered the darkness outside the house.
“Look, Obsidian Snake,” said Turquoise Maize Flower. “The moon is making its way across the sky. We can see the marks of the rabbit which it wears. With the next full moon, it will be time to harvest our maize.
“Why does the moon wear the mark of a rabbit, Mother?” Obsidian Snake asked.
Just as he could see the white of his mothers cueitl (kway eetl) that was wrapped around her waist and hips and fell to her ankles, in the soft darkness of the moon’s light, Obsidian Snake could see her smile as she sat down beside him, ready to answer his question.
“Four times, Obsidian Snake, the gods had tried to create our earth and our people and four times they had found their efforts wanting. Each time the world was destroyed—by great jaguar, by flood, by wind and by rain. With each destruction, too, went the sun. Finally, the gods met in Teotihuacan (tay oh tee WAH cun) and decided that one among them would be sacrificed and changed into the sun.
There were two volunteers; one god was rich and handsome, the other god was ugly and covered with sores. When the time for sacrifice came, the rich, handsome god ran to the edge of the sacrificial fire but stopped at the edge, unable to take the final step into the fire. Four times he tried and four times his courage failed him.
Next it was the turn of the poor, ugly god. Even though he was thought to be a poor second choice, with no hesitation he jumped into the middle of the fire. The handsome god, embarrassed and ashamed by his cowardice, finally jumped into the fire. He, too, was devoured. Just then the jaguar, mighty animal, jumped into the ashes of the fire. When he came out, his coat was spotted with soot and so it remains to this day.
Time passed and even though the gods had been sacrificed, there was still no sun. Suddenly, the sun appeared in the sky. Right then too, came the moon, shining as brightly as the sun. By now, the gods had lost their patience. Angered by the boldness of the moon, they slapped the moon right in the face with a rabbit. Those are the marks of that rabbit that we are looking at right now.”
“And what happened next, my mother?” asked Obsidian Snake. Did the gods succeed in making our world and our people?”
“My son, it took a lot more of the gods to be sacrificed. When they did, they created the stars. It was Quetzalcoatl though, the Plumed Serpent, who visited the gods of the underworld to get the bones of past generations to create mankind. But that, Obsidian Snake, is another story for another night. The moon, with its rabbit marks, has traveled far across the sky. Tomorrow’s sun will be here to wake us soon enough. Let us go to our mats now and sleep.”
Quetzalcoatl and the Creation of Man
On this night, Obsidian Snake waited impatiently for the sound of his mother finishing her day’s work. All day long, as he had gathered wood for fire and helped his father work their fields of maize, he had thought of Turquoise Maize Flower’s words from the night before. Soon the moon would rise up in the sky and he smiled as he thought of the moon’s surprise and embarrassment when the gods whacked it with a rabbit because it shone as brightly as the sun. Now it knew its proper place and shone dimly in the night sky, still wearing the mark of the rabbit.
“What happened next,” wondered Obsidian Snake? “I know how the sun and moon came to be. How did mankind get here?”
As if reading his mind, his mother quietly appeared beside him. He knew she was tired as she had woven much cloth to be sold at the market place in Tenochtitlan and would welcome the chance to sit quietly with him for awhile.
“How did we get here?” asked Obsidian Snake as his mother took her place beside him in the cool, dry night.
“We are the children of Quetzalcoatl, the Plumed Serpent,” his mother began. “He is our creator; he discovered maize so that we might feed ourselves. He taught us how to find jade and other precious stones and taught us how to polish them. From him the art of weaving our many colored cotton cloth was learned and passed down from mother to daughter for many generations. The Plumed Serpent taught our people how to use the feathers of the quetzal, the hummingbird and other birds with colorful plumage to make beautiful designs. He also taught our people how to measure time. He gave us our calendar with its special days set aside for certain prayers and festivals.
But that is the end of my story, Obsidian Snake. It begins after the creation of the fifth sun when Quetzalcoatl went to the lord of the dead, Mictlantecuhtli, to ask for bones from dead men with which to create new men. When Mictlantecuhtli gave a bag of bones to Quetzalcoatl, he immediately began to run with them because he had been told that the lord of the dead was not to be trusted. As Quetzalcoatl was running, he slipped and fell, breaking all the bones in the bag and spilling them about. He was still able to gather them up and escape from Mictlan, the underworld. Once safe, Quetzalcoatl mixed his blood with the bones and created a new breed of men. Since the bones that had fallen broke into different sizes, that meant that the people he created were all different sizes. That is why, Obsidian Snake, when you look around you, you can see that no two people are exactly the same. It’s because of our creator, the Plumed Serpent, and the bones that got broken.
Now, having created man and being a kindly god, Quetzalcoatl realized he needed to find a way to feed his new creation. One day he spotted a big black ant with a kernel of corn. This, he knew, would be the perfect food to feed mankind. To find out where the ant got the corn, Quetzalcoatl turned himself into an ant and followed the black ant to a mountain. In a crack in this mountain Quetzalcoatl saw not only corn but beans, peppers, sage, and other kinds of food fit for mankind. Quetzalcoatl, still in the body of an ant, squeezed through the crack, took a kernel of corn and dragged it back to man so that man could plant it for food. Quetzalcoatl realized that there was much more food beside corn in the mountain which could be used to feed mankind. He asked the other gods what to do with the mountain. They said to split the mountain open to give the food to mankind, and so one of them did. This, however, angered Tlaloc, the rain god who, with his children, stole the beans, corn, peppers, and sage from within the mountain before it could be given to man.
So it is today that Tlaloc and his children still have the food that was in the mountain. Each year they give part of the food back to man, some years more than others.
And that is why, my son, Obsidian Snake, we sacrifice to both our creator and protector Quetzalcoatl, and to the rain god Tlaloc, so that they will continue to look upon our people with kindness and keep our world in balance. Without them our crops and our people will perish.”
With those word, Turquoise Maize Flower stopped and smiled down at Obsidian Snake. He leaned against his mother and could feel his eyes beginning to grow heavy in the quiet cool of the night. Even in his sleepiness, he knew these were the accounts that had been told to her by her mother and father and these were the accounts that one day he would share with his children on dry, clear evenings when the moon with its rabbit markings looked down on them.
Tezcatlipoca and the King of Tula
As Obsidian Snake lay on his reed mat, he awoke to the sound of Turquoise Maize Flower and Speaking Eagle, his mother and father, moving about preparing for the day. Through his squinting eyes he could see that it was still very dark outside. He could smell the wood smoke of the fire his mother had rekindled and heard scraping sounds as she ground maize for tortillas. Outside, his father moved around in the darkness searching for a few more sticks for the fire. Why, he wondered, are mother and father awake so early? Suddenly his eyes opened wide as he remembered that today was market day. Before the sun came back around to light up the day, he and his mother and father would be on their way to the market to sell the many fine cloths Turquoise Maize Flower had woven.
Obsidian Snake loved the market where people crowded together to bargain with the women who sat behind their piles of peppers, onions, maize, beans, fruits, animal furs, cocoa and pottery. There would be others there ready to trade wood for building and frogs to eat that had come from the lake. Obsidian Snake especially liked to look at the obsidian mirrors whose polished black surfaces would shine in the sunlight. When he looked at them he could see the reflections of a small brown face framed in straight black hair whose eyes squinted when smiling and whose cheeks were round and full. Perhaps at the market he would see Eagle Snake, son of his mother’s sister, and together they could travel through the rows and rows of goods for sale. If his mother sold her cloths, perhaps he would be able to buy tamales or spicy maize porridge.
Soon night was fading away and Obsidian Snake was on his way to the market, his mothers cloths tied securely to his back. Speaking Eagle and Turquoise Maize Flower both carried cloths, too. As they walked, Speaking Eagle began to talk, his quiet voice carrying in the early morning silence.
“Our trip today reminds me of a story that took place in another market place a long time ago. This is a story about Tezcatlipoca, the Mirror that Smokes, the god of the night sky. He is a sorcerer and the god of evil. What happened, Obsidian Snake, was that Tezoatlicpoca, turned himself into a wild, crazy man who walked naked around the city of Tula’s marketplace selling chili peppers.
At this same time, the king of Tula had a beautiful daughter who was sought after by many men. The king, however, would not let her marry any of them. One day, however, the daughter saw the chili pepper man in the market and immediately fell in love with him. Day after day, she yearned so much for a glimpse of the wild man that she became sick. The king, who loved his daughter very much and could not stand to see her so sick, had all of his men search for the chili pepper man. Finally they found him, wild and dirty, in the market place right where the king’s daughter had first seen him. They took him back to the king where he was washed, given new clothes and made to look very presentable. When the princess saw the chili pepper man again, she was immediately cured of her illness. The king was so happy to see his daughter well again that he gave his daughter to the man to be married.”
With this, Speaking Eagle stopped walking and talking and paused on the road to adjust his bundle of cloths. “That is not the end of the story, Obsidian Snake,” he said as he once again began walking towards the market. “It turned out that the people of Tula had started laughing at the king for allowing his daughter to be married to a crazy man.. The king, of course, was embarrassed and did not like being laughed at. He began plotting a way to get rid of his new son-in-law.
Here is the plan he devised. He had his men take the chili pepper man to fight in a war against Tula’s enemies. They put the man in charge of some dwarfs, thinking that when the fighting started and the king’s men left, he would be killed. However, when the fighting did started, the pepper man encouraged the dwarfs with inspiring words and before long, the pepper man and the dwarfs had killed all of the enemy.
When word of the chili pepper man’s victory got back to the king of Tula, the king knew he had to greet his son-in-law as a hero when he returned from the battle. This time, when the pepper man entered the market place, people danced and sang songs of praise instead of laughing at him. At the palace of the king, the people crowned him with a headdress made of quetzal feathers and gave him a turquoise shield. The king announced that the people of Tula had been satisfied and that the one-time wild chili pepper man was indeed his son-in-law.”
Speaking Eagle stopped and pointed down the road. “Tezcatlipoca continued to work his sorcery against the people of Tula and even some of the other gods,” he began again. “But I will have to save those stories for another time. Look, Obsidian Snake, the market place is just ahead.”
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photos courtesy of MesoWeb