Note 2 — Chapter X · GODS OF DEATH, EARTH, AND THE UNDERWORLD

The commentators of the Interpretative Codices briefly explain Tepeyollotl as “echo” and “earth.” As Seler states,2 it is most probable that he is a cave-god, an alien barbaric deity, perhaps identical with the god whom the Maya tribes of Chiapas called Votan or “heart.” Seler also believes him to be Tezcatlipocâ in his form as an apparition.3 It is strange that it is only in the works of the interpreters that he is mentioned at all, and we can discover no precise locality where his worship was celebrated. The interpreters also designate him “Lord of the Animals,” and add that the name of jaguar is given to the earth, because the jaguar is the wildest of beasts. It may be as Seler declares, that “in order to understand and explain this figure we have to start from the jaguar (ocelotl).” The Indians of the Vera Paz district in Guatemala, when they met this beast, instead of attacking him or running away, knelt down and began to confess their sins,4 and it is probable that some such species of worship was paid Tepeyollotl, who by his mouth-painting, and as ruler of the third day-sign and third week, in the Codex Borgia, is certainly depicted as a jaguar. But it seems possible, too, that this beast, perhaps because it dwelt in caves, and because of its terrible nightly roaring, may have symbolized for the Mexicans the earth itself in its dangerous aspect of earthquake.5 The Nagualists, a politico-religious secret society of post-Conquest origin, paid especial reverence to the jaguar, whom they regarded as a beast-patron or totemic guardian. It is clear that their conception of him arose out of that of Tepeyollotl.