262 Singing Valleys 



Jade, which was mined in the southern part of Mexico, was 

 considered sacred to Cinteotl or to the Earth and fertility 

 goddesses by reason of its green color. As for the rain-making 

 abilities of the frog, most of the Indian tribes have believed 

 in them. And most country-bred American children have 

 looked for a rainy day to follow the killing of a toad. 



It is easy to see how much of the elaborate worship of the 

 Plumed Serpent and of Coatlicue the Earth Mother was 

 a rain cult, natural enough to tribes whose chief food was 

 maize. The offering of human sacrifices and the shedding of 

 human blood on the altars was intended, through the laws of 

 sympathetic magic, to draw down rain on the earth. The 

 blood served a second purpose, however. It was supposed to 

 nourish the earth and give it strength to produce. Mother 

 Earth was a dragon which would bring forth vegetation only 

 if fed. And the Great Mother was always hungry. 



So at the festival held when the maize plant had attained 

 its full growth, when the tassels were forming, women danced 

 before the statue of the goddess shaking their unbound hair 

 in imitation of the waving silk of the maize ears. This, it was 

 believed, would show the corn the way it should grow. One 

 of the dancers in the ballet and trained in the temple dancing- 

 school, was selected for the sacrifice. Her face was painted red 

 and yellow, the colors of the corn. At the climax of the cere- 

 mony she was seized by the priest who ripped open her nude 

 body, as one tears apart the sheath surrounding an ear of 

 corn. The still beating heart was offered to the goddess. This, 

 it was supposed, would revive her strength and enable her to 

 bring the maize to its full fruition. 



One aspect of the goddess, called Chicomenecoatl, "She 

 of the Seven Maize Ears/' presided over the sowing of the 

 maize. On her feast which fell on April twenty-seventh by our 

 calendar, young girls carried ears of corn to the temples to be 

 blessed. There the priests sprinkled the ears with rubber oil 

 to give fertility to the seed. 



