662 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1920. 



a matter merely of reverence, of respect ; arms were raised in cadence 

 toward the sky to thank the gods; actions made allusion to their 

 qualities, or to the occupation over which they preside, fighting, 

 hunting, as we shall describe later on. Many of the dancers carried 

 in their hands a kind of rattle which the modern Mexicans call 

 sonajas and which the ancient Mexicans named ayacaxtli. These 

 are sometimes little elongated gourds, dried in the sun, having the 

 seeds left inside, which produced when shaken a noise resembling 

 the singing of locusts. Sometimes balls of baked clay or of wood 

 were used, pierced with numerous small holes, provided with a han- 

 dle for shaking them, and containing pebbles to take the place of the 

 seeds in the gourds. Generally the dancers marched in two or four 

 lines from the entrance of the temple to near the altar of the gods, 

 retreating without turning around, then advancing again. 



Let us note in passing that they never kneeled. This custom ap- 

 pears to be absolutely unknown to the ancient Mexicans. To pros- 

 trate themselves or to humble themselves they assumed a squatting 

 posture (de cuclillas, writes Torquemada). That was their rever- 

 ential position, both in worshiping the gods and in paying homage to 

 priests, to kings, and to great noblemen. 



One of these dances, called tocotin, was so beautiful, so fitting, and 

 so solemn, says Torquemada, that it was admitted into the Christian 

 temples. 



The dances in honor of the gods and in costumes recalling their 

 special character or their symbols, bring to mind the balls held in 

 honor of the ox Apis — ancestor of our Boeuf Gras — notably at Mem- 

 phis, by the disguised actors who represented scenes from the life of 

 Osiris. Father Salvatierra writes that he has counted among the 

 ancient Mexicans as many as 30 different dances ; some were sacred, 

 others war dances, and yet others simply profane, and that each 

 " had for its aim the imitating of occupations or customs of life." 

 He mentions in particular a ball which he witnessed in California, 

 in the course of which each dancer — and there were more than 300 of 

 them — leaped about having in his mouth an adder. 



As regards war dances, besides the festivals accompanied by balls 

 held on certain days of the year in honor of ffuitzttipochtli, there 

 should be mentioned the dance of victory, which varied according to 

 the greater or less degree of civilization of the peoples or tribes who 

 practiced it. As for the dances which we will call civil or profane, 

 Father Salvatierra adds that in leaping about " the dancers imitated 

 the operations and the efforts of hunting, of fishing, of war, of the 

 harvesting of roots and of fruits, and of other ordinary occupations. 

 One of these dances is called the Nimbus." It should be noted that 

 this name has nothing to do with the sense that we attach to the 

 vocable "nimbus," which could very well be applied to the kind of 



