File:The myths of Mexico and Peru (1913) (14597444019).jpg

Identifier: mythsofmexicoper01spen (find matches)
Title: The myths of Mexico and Peru
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Spence, Lewis, 1874-1955
Subjects: Indians of Mexico Indian mythology Indians of Mexico Indians of South America Indian mythology Indians of South America
Publisher: New York, T. Y. Crowell company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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ought them intocontact with water. Her costume was peculiar andinteresting. Round her neck she wore a wonderfulcollar of precious stones, from which hung a goldpendant. She was crowned with a coronet of bluepaper, decorated with green feathers. Her eyebrowswere of turquoise, set in as mosaic, and her garment wasa nebulous blue-green in hue, recalling the tint of sea-water in the tropics. The resemblance was heightenedby a border of sea-flowers or water-plants, one of whichshe also carried in her left hand, whilst in her right shebore a vase surmounted by a cross, emblematic of thefour points of the compass whence comes the rain. Mixcoatl Mixcoatl was the Aztec god of the chase, and wasprobably a deity of the Otomi aborigines of Mexico.The name means Cloud Serpent, and this originatedthe idea that Mixcoatl was a representation of thetropical whirlwind. This is scarcely correct, however,as the hunter-god is identified with the tempest andthunder-cloud, and the lightning is supposed tono
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Cloud Serpent, the Hunter-God Gilbert James CAMAXTLI represent his arrows. Like many other gods of thechase, he is figured as having the characteristics of adeer or rabbit. He is usually depicted as carryinga sheaf of arrows, to typify thunderbolts. It may bethat Mixcoatl was an air and thunder deity of theOtomi, older in origin than either Quetzalcoatl orTezcatlipoca, and that his inclusion in the Nahuapantheon becoming necessary in order to quietenNahua susceptibilities, he received the status of godof the chase. But, on the other hand, the Mexicans,unlike the Peruvians, who adopted many foreign godsfor political purposes, had little regard for the feelingsof other races, and only accepted an alien deity into thenative circle for some good reason, most probablybecause they noted the omission of the figure in theirown divine system. Or, again, dread of a certainforeign god might force them to adopt him as theirown in the hope of placating him. Their worship ofQuetzalcoatl is perhaps

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