Early Corn Planters 19 



were admixed with other tribes from the north. These brought 

 their divinities with them. The simple trinity which had suf- 

 ficed the corn-planters was invaded, and gave place to a com- 

 plex system of theology. According to the Aztecs, the great 

 inheritors of Mayan culture, the Earth Mother Coatlicue was 

 not the mother but the grandmother of the maize-god. It was 

 her son, the bloodthirsty god of war and his wife the witch- 

 goddess and queen of the underworld, called sometimes Heart 

 of the Earth, who became the parents of Cinteotl, which was 

 the Aztec name for Ghanan. Even the sex of the maize-god 

 was gradually lost sight of, so that Cinteotl was frequently 

 spoken of and represented as a goddess. Here again the 

 matriarchy, which tends to develop in every civilization that 

 is founded on agriculture, was at work. 



But through all the migrations of the Maya, through the 

 invasions of Nahua tribes out of the north, through the empire 

 of the Toltecs and the amazing civilization which the con- 

 querors of the Toltecs, the Aztecs, set up in Mexico, Coatlicue 

 and the Plumed Serpent (Kukulkan or Quetzalcoatl ) con- 

 tinued to hold first place in heaven, the place the corn had 

 given them. 



Not only did the corn give the Maya their gods, it turned 

 them from hunters into farmers and villagers. In the strictest 

 sense they cannot be termed an agricultural people. Field agri- 

 culture, in which large tracts of land are worked, requires a 

 plow and the aid of domestic animals. In Peru, llamas were 

 occasionally harnessed, and men, too, pulled crude plows 

 through the terraced fields. But throughout the world of the 

 Maya there were no draft animals, and no field tools except 

 wooden rakes and planting sticks, and crude axes with which 

 to clear the brush. 



Yet the maize flourished in the river valleys, up the hills 

 and on the tablelands. Like the mercy of God, it belonged to 

 no tribe or class. It yielded its bounty in proportion as the 

 seeker after that bounty labored for the blessing. More indus- 

 try and intelligence are necessary for the cultivation of every 



