Note 37 — Chapter III · THE GREAT GODS

The solar connection of the octli liquor yielded by his plant is also most clear. Says Duran37: “The octli was a favourite offering to the gods, and especially to the god of fire. Sometimes it was placed before a fire in vases; sometimes it was scattered upon the flames with a brush (aspergillum?); at other times it was poured out around the fire-place.” Fire is, of course, a surrogate of the sun, and Seler has already identified Uitzilopochtli as a fire-god in virtue of his status as a sun-deity,38 showing that the drilling of the solar fire before the beginning of the new cycle of fifty-two years was deferred until the panquetzalitztli, the great feast of Uitzilopochtli. Jacinto de la Serna, too, says that the octli ritual invoked the “shining Rose; light-giving Rose, to receive and rejoice my heart before the god.” The “rose,” of course, referring to the fire or sun. It would seem, however, that before he became confounded or identified with the sun, Uitzilopochtli may have possessed a lunar significance, and this may have obtained in the period while yet the calendar was reckoned upon a lunar basis and its solar connection still remained undefined. The name Mexitli, which has already been remarked upon, and which means “Hare of the Maguey” appears to place Uitzilopochtli upon a level with the other gods of octli, if not to class him as one of these. It bears a suspicious resemblance, too, to the name of the Moon-god, Metztli. The hare or rabbit in Mexico was invariably associated both with the moon and the octli-gods, whose chief characteristic, perhaps, is the lunar nose-plate. But among many of the native tribes of North America the hare or rabbit is the representative of the sun or the dawn, under the names of Michabo, Manibozho, Wabos, and so forth, being described in myth as a warrior, hero-god and culture-bringer. Perhaps the Nahua, while still in a more northern region where the agave was unknown to them, worshipped the rabbit of the sun or moon, and on establishing themselves in a region where the maguey was one of the salient features in the landscape, fused his myth with that of a newly-acquired fetish, discarding later the more ancient belief, or retaining but a confused memory of it. But this train of reasoning lacks evidence to support it. Nor need the consideration of Uitzilopochtli’s serpent-form detain us long. I think I see in the myth which recounts how the Aztecâ, on settling in Tenochtitlan, beheld an eagle perched on a cactus with a serpent in its talons, some relation to Uitzilopochtli, but what it precisely portends is still obscure to me. In any case the symbol of the eagle enters into his insignia, as does that of the serpent. We will recall that he was known as Magueycoatl,39 “Serpent of the Maguey.” Again the solar character of the serpent in America, as elsewhere, readily accounts for his later connection with it, and for the prevalence of serpentine forms in his insignia and temple. But I confess that these two points of contact with the serpent do not altogether satisfy me as regards the god’s connection with it, nor does the fact of the serpentine character of his mother commend itself to me as altogether explanatory of this, and I think we must look to Uitzilopochtli’s nature as a wizard or sorcerer to enlighten us upon this point. Jacinto de la Serna40 states that in his time some of the Mexican conjurers used a wand around which was fastened a living serpent, in much the same way as the priests of the Pueblo Indians do at the present day; and as the great invisible medicine man of the tribe, Uitzilopochtli may have been thought of as doing the same. “Who is a manito?” asks the Meda chant of the Algonquins. “He,” is the reply, “who walketh with a serpent, he is a manito.” For the connection of the Indian magicians with the serpent the reader is referred to the pages of Brinton.41