264 Singing Valleys 



before the Crane People came down from the north. Her 

 worship persisted for several centuries. Then, gradually, it 

 became fused with that of the Aztec goddess Tlazoteotl, the 

 mother of the maize god. 



Like Xquiq in the Quiche legend, Tlazoteotl was a god- 

 dess of the Underworld. She, too, was a moon divinity who 

 was associated with childbirth and with witchcraft. Her hus- 

 band was the god of war. Once a year her priest, dressed to 

 represent Tlazoteotl, his face painted red and yellow like the 

 maize and his mouth black to represent rain, went to the 

 temple of the god of war and lay down before the statue there. 

 Thus was enacted the mating of Tlazoteotl and the war god. 

 Presently another priest, dressed to represent their son Cin- 

 teotl, came and stood beside the pair. So, every year, the 

 maize was born. 



As queen of the witches, Tlazoteotl rode on a broom. She 

 is so pictured in several old manuscripts. It is interesting that 

 American tribes who had no horses, and no animal to ride, 

 should have imagined the Witch Queen as mounted. And 

 mounted upon the very steed European witches were sup- 

 posed to ride when they went to their sabbaths. 



The German savant Eduard Seler, who is the authority on 

 Aztec picture-writing, says that Chicomenecoatl represented 

 the forces in the growing maize. Tlazoteotl was the ripened 

 ear. The latter's son, Cinteotl, was the maize itself. His name 

 is but a variant of the Mexican name for the plant "teocintl," 

 "Food of the Gods." 



Like Persephone and all other grain deities, Cinteotl the son 

 of the Witch Queen was associated with the Underworld. He 

 was male; but the power which produced and sustained him, 

 and which had to be invoked on his behalf, was feminine. 



Each Indian tribe in the Americas had its own and several 

 legends concerning the miraculous creation of the maize. 

 Roger Williams tells that the Narragansett Indians believed 

 that a crow flew to them out of the southwest with a grain of 



