Note 19 — Chapter V · DEITIES OF THE EARTH AND GROWTH PROPER

That Cinteotl had a separate and distinct priesthood is manifest from allusions to it in accounts of his festivals. Among the Totonacs two high-priests were especially dedicated to him. These were widowers over sixty years of age, who wore jackets made from the skins of jackals, were not permitted to eat fish, and whose duty consisted in the preparation of manuscripts and the deliverance of oracular messages. The Totonacs thought human sacrifices unnecessary to him, and offered up birds and small animals at his shrine, regarding him as their protector from the more sanguinary deities, says Clavigero.19