DISCOVERY 



las 



little creature, which suspends its tiny %veb-Iike nets 

 from the leaves of the plant in question. I find in 

 an old manuscript by a native writer that another of 

 the names by which the god was known was " Snake 

 of the Maguey," and still another and better known 

 title of his was Mexith, or " Hare of the Maguej'," 

 from which one of the districts, and later the whole city, 

 of Mexico took its appellation. Elsewhere he is called 

 " Thorn that speaks oracularly," and the maguey 

 plant is one of the elements of the hieroglyphs which 

 represent his name. On the day of his movable festi- 

 val, too, says Friar Sahagun, the proprietors of the 

 maguey plantations and the publicans who sold the 

 oclli, or intoxicating juice extracted from the agave, 

 cut their plants in the behef that they would jield 

 more abundantly if tapped at such an auspicious 

 time, and the first of the ocili was after^vards offered 

 to the god. 



The etj'molog}' of the name Uitzilopochtli also 

 assists the theory that he was developed from some 

 idea connected with the maguey. The first part, 

 UUzil, is thought to be derived from ttitzilinin, 

 " humming-bird." Opochtli, while it certainly means 

 both " left " and " south," as many authorities state, 

 also signifies " wzard," " as," says Torquemada, 

 " some folks believe." For the word " left," in 

 Mexican, as in Latin, also impUes " sinister," " in- 

 auspicious," " malign," therefore " magical " or 

 " wizard-hke." Sahagun calls Uitzilopochtli " a nec- 

 romancer and friend of disguises " (that is a shape- 

 shifter) ; and we have already seen that the idea of 

 oracular speech was connected with him probably 

 because of the intoxicating nature of the juice of the 

 plant he personified, which, in its effects, also appealed 

 to the native mind as serpentine or venomous. I 

 therefore beheve the name UitzilopochtU to mean 

 " Humming-bird Wizard." The humming-bird, which 

 builds its nest in the maguey and is seen to issue 

 therefrom, would come to be regarded as the U\'ing 

 spirit which inliabited that plant. But it is possible 

 that a certain amount of confusion arose between 

 the words uitzilmin, " a humming-bird," and tiitztli, 

 " a thorn," and this may have assisted the behef that 

 the god took bird-shape. Indeed, the name may 

 originally have meant " the Thorny Wizard," and have 

 had reference to the plant alone, later (by a process 

 of punning or " disease of language " well known to 

 students of mythology) taking the form referred to 

 above. 



The beginnings of the god TezcatUpoca, whose name 

 means " Smoking Mirror," and who has been labelled 

 a " wind god," axe quite as rudimentarj\ I beheve 

 him to have been a personification of obsidian, a kind 

 of flint especially sacred to the Ancient Mexicans, 

 as it pro\'ided the sacrificicd knives used by the priests. 



[CofUtnucd on p, 184 



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