Note 12 — Chapter II · COSMOGONY

The precise manner in which the earth was peopled by the gods is also a subject concerning which great variety of opinion is shown by the older writers on Mexican beliefs, and, as in the case of the cosmogonic myth proper, this is probably to be accounted for by local variation. Mendieta12 is our authority for a conception which appears to have gained wide currency in many parts of Mexico. There is good evidence that he in turn received it from Andres de Olmos, a friar of great literary integrity and linguistic capability, whose writings we may regard with credence and confidence. The myth opens in the heavenly abode of the gods Citlalatonac and Citlalicue, who were also known as Ometecutli and Omecihuatl or Tonacatecutli and Tonacaciuatl, and whom the Mexicans regarded as the eventual sources of all human life. The goddess gave birth to a flint knife, probably such an implement as was employed for the purpose of human sacrifice. The circumstance appeared of bad omen to her sons, who, scandalized by it, cast the flint earthwards. It fell in the vicinity of Chicomoztoc, the Place of Seven Caves, and immediately there sprang from it an army of sixteen hundred gods, who, discontented with their condition, dispatched Tlotli, the Hawk, as an ambassador to the heavenly sphere to ask as a boon that the power of creating men might be conferred upon them, as it was not fitting that beings of divine origin should suffer the miseries of earthly toil. Their mother, who also seems to have been perplexed by the manner of their birth, replied in no very gracious terms. But in order to relieve their wretchedness, she directed them to seek the good offices of Mictlantecutli, Lord of the Realm of the Dead, from whom, she suggested, they might obtain some of the relics of past generations, which, if subjected to the magical influence of sacrifice, might provide the beginnings of a new earth-race. After consultation, the earth-gods chose Xolotl13 as their messenger to the place of the dead, and after an interview with its terrible ruler, he succeeded in obtaining a bone of superhuman dimensions. Fearful of treachery at the hands of Mictlantecutli, Xolotl turned to flee, but was pursued and, falling in his flight, broke in pieces the precious relic he carried. These he hastily gathered up and succeeded in quitting the subterranean world without mishap. Returning to his brothers, he placed the bone in a vessel, and each of the earth-gods, drawing blood from his own body, dropped it into the receptacle. For three days nothing occurred to justify their hopes; but on the fourth the gory mass stirred, and from its depths there emerged a human boy. Satisfied with the experiment, the gods repeated it, and at the end of another four days a girl arose from the vessel. Xolotl was appointed guardian to the children so miraculously created,14 and nourished them upon the milk-like juice of the maguey plant. They throve apace, and in course of time became man and woman, the progenitors of the entire human race, who differ in bulk and stature as the pieces of the rescued bone varied in size and shape. Thus were born Iztac Mixcoatl the first man and Ilanceuitl or Ilamatecutli, his wife.