Note 31 — Chapter III · THE GREAT GODS

That the maguey-plant entered into Uitzilopochtli’s insignia seems probable from the circumstance that at his festival in the month toxcatl his dough image was surmounted by a flint knife half covered with blood.31 In the codices the sacrificial stone knife is frequently depicted as growing in plant-like bundles out of the ground, this artistic and conventional form bearing a close resemblance to the maguey plant, with the spines of which the Mexican priests pierced their tongues and ears to procure a blood-offering.