Note 24 — Chapter III · THE GREAT GODS

Prolonged deliberation upon the nature of Uitzilopochtli has led me to the conclusion that he was originally a personification of the maguey-plant (Agave americana). The grounds upon which I base this hypothesis are as follows: A certain variety of the maguey-plant, or metl, was known to the Aztecâ of Mexico-Tenochtitlan as Uitzitzilteutli, or “beak of the humming-bird,” probably because of the resemblance the long spiky thorns (uitztli) with which it is covered bear to the sharp beak of that bird (the uitzitzilin), which suspends its tiny, web-like nest from the leaves of the plant in question. The connection of Uitzilopochtli with the maguey-plant is also proved by at least two of his subsidiary titles. Thus in the Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas24 he is alluded to as Magueycoatl, “Serpent of the Maguey,” and he was also known as Mexitli, or “Hare of the Maguey,” a title from which one of the quarters of Tenochtitlan, and later the entire city, took its name of Mexico. At the panquetzaliztli festival held in his honour, the warriors who skirmished on his side in mimicry of his combat with the Centzonuitznaua were said to take the part of Uitznauatl,25 or “Thorn that speaks oracularly.” In certain of the place-names which are hieroglyphically figured in the codices, too, the element of his name is depicted as a maguey-plant. Sahagun further states that the proprietors of the maguey plantations and the publicans who sold octli or pulque cut their plants so that they might yield their juice during the sign ce tecpatl, the movable feast of Uitzilopochtli, in the belief that, were they tapped at this time, they would yield abundantly.26