Note 73 — Chapter III · THE GREAT GODS

In several of the wall-paintings at Mitla, and especially in those on the north side of Palace I, Quetzalcoatl is depicted as wearing the insignia usually connected with him in Mexico. In one of these he wears the Huaxtec cap with jaguar-skin markings, having the sacrificial implements stuck in it, and the wind-mouth mask, with beard. The snail-shell ornament adorns his shield. In another the facial insignia is less easily seen, but the large nape-fan with which he is frequently adorned is well depicted. Immediately behind this is a figure, which, though partially destroyed, is still interesting because of its high degree of conventionality. We have here the cap and panache of Quetzalcoatl, together with the strip running from brow to eye and from eye to jaw, which is part of the face-painting of the Moon-god. Moreover, in the corner we have the symbol of the moon, a pot-shaped bone, so that here, I think, we have a symbol of Quetzalcoatl as the Moon-god. In the preceding figure, too, we have also the lunar emblem, in this place in shape like the nose-plug of the octli-gods, but containing the stellar eye, and flanked by balls of feather-down. It would thus seem that the symbol has some reference to Quetzalcoatl in his variant of the planet Venus. Moreover the eye appears as gouged out. This eye-gouging is seen in the Maya Books of Chilan Balam, in the case of the god Itzamná. These two latter paintings, Seler thinks, are symbolic of the Uiyatao, or the high-priests of Mitla, who were regarded as incarnations of Quetzalcoatl.73