Note 116 — Chapter VI · THE FINDING OF STRANGE COASTS.
Reading edition
Footnote 116: In Aztec mythology Cihuacoatl was wife of the supreme night deity, Tezcatlipoca. Squier, Serpent Symbol in America, pp. 159-166, 174-183. On the connection between serpent worship and human sacrifices, see Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship, pp. 3-5, 38-41. Much evidence as to American serpent worship is collected in J. G. Müller's Geschichte der amerikanischen Urreligionen, Basel, 1855. The hieroglyphic emblem of the Aztec tribal sachem was a female head surmounted by a snake.[Back to Main Text]