Tlaloc
Aztec historians relate that when the Alcolhuas arrived on the plateau of Anahuac, during the reign of Xolotl, first king of the Chichimecs, they found on the summit of Mount…
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From The Aztecs: Their History, Manners, and Customs by Lucien Biart, translated by John Leslie Garner, 1900.
The Aztec Neptune, called Tlaloc (fig. 9) or Tlalocateuctli, was at the same time master of paradise. He was given the title of "Fecundator of the Earth," and "Protector of Temporal Goods." It was thought that he lived on the summit of high mountains, in the regions where clouds were formed, and it was there people went to pray to him.
Aztec historians relate that when the Alcolhuas arrived on the plateau of Anahuac, during the reign of Xolotl, first king of the Chichimecs, they found on the summit of Mount Tlaloc, an idol of this god cut in a light white stone; it represented a man seated on a square pedestal, looking towards the east, having at his feet a vase, which was filled with Indian-rubber and all sorts of seeds. Every year this offering was renewed, in thankfulness for the harvests reaped. This statue, which was considered as the most ancient in the country, had been set up by the Toltecs.
It remained at this place until the commencement of the sixteenth century, when Nezahualpilli, king of Alcolhuacan, wishing to secure the love of his subjects, replaced it with another carved out of very hard black stone. The new idol having been mutilated by lightning, and the priests having declared that this was a punishment from the god, the old image was restored, and it remained in place until destroyed by order of the first bishop of Mexico, Zumarraga, indignant at the number of children annually sacrificed to this stone figure, which he estimated in a letter at twenty thousand!
The most characteristic signs of the idols which represent Tlaloc, are the round eyes surrounded with circles like spectacles. A piece of work in relief, in the form of mustaches, is placed above their mouth, and is sometimes prolonged into an appendage in the shape of a nose. From their opened lips teeth project, usually four in number, long, curved, and sharp. Their hands raised to the height of the head seem in the act of hurling the thunder-bolt and letting loose the waters. The god at times brandishes a serpent, as an image of the lightning.
I have collected a great number of small figures of baked clay of this god in the grottos of the Sierra de Songolica, and on the crown bordered with pearls with which they are capped, is found the cross, whose presence on so many Mexican monuments so misled the old missionaries, and which is one of the emblems of Tlaloc, at times usurped by Quetzacoatl. The missionaries saw in this coincidence a proof that Christianity had already been preached to the Indians, and St. Thomas was looked upon as having discovered America before Columbus. In a learned and critical memoir on a cross found at Teotihuacan (fig. 10), Doctor Hamy has clearly shown how one of the emblems of Tlaloc, intended to represent rain, had gradually taken under the chisel of sculptors the form of the venerated sign of Christianity.
Modern historians claim it was not Tlaloc alone who lived in the mountains, but also a multitude of lesser gods, called Tlalocs. Nevertheless, the appellations Apozonalotl ("foamy wave"), Atlacamani ("tempestuous"), Ayau ("capricious wave"), etc., designate, I think, Tlaloc himself, qualified by names of the different states of the liquid which he ruled; these qualifications were likewise applied to his sister or his wife, the goddess Chalchiuitlicue.
In the ideographic manuscripts, the image of Tlaloc is painted green and azure, representing the various shades of water. It is armed with a golden wand twisted into a spiral, ending in a sharp point, in representation of a thunder-bolt. Tlaloc had a chapel on the top of the great temple of Mexico, as important as that of Huitzilipochtli, with which it was connected. Festivals in honor of this god were of frequent occurrence; on these occasions he was worshipped with strange ceremonies, and human sacrifices, especially of children. The cemetery recently discovered by M. Desire Charnay, at an elevation of fifteen hundred feet, on one of the slopes of Popocatepetl, and in which only bones of children were found is considered by Doctor Hamy as the burial-place of the young victims sacrificed to Tlaloc.
On the day of the feast of the Tlalocs, the priests of these ministers of the god of the waters betook themselves to the lagoon of Citlatepetl, situated a few miles from Mexico, to cut the reeds for decorating the altar. On the way they had a right to seize the clothing and merchandise which was carried by those whom they met, even when it consisted of tribute for the king. On that day also, priests, who during the year had been remiss in their duties, were plunged into the water and held there until they lost consciousness.
The waters, as we have seen, were not entirely under the control of Tlaloc, but also under that of Chalchihuitlicue, designated by a number of names descriptive of the various states of water. On Mount Tlascala, a peak about which are formed the storms that break upon the city of Puebla, a temple arose dedicated to this goddess, who was specially invoked on the day of the birth of infants.
Biart, Lucien. The Aztecs: Their History, Manners, and Customs. Translated by John Leslie Garner, A.C. McClurg & Co, 1900.
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