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BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 28 



progenitrix "", or Teteo innan, '^ mother of the gods ", and of the 

 eleventh (according to the usual reckoning) of the eighteen annual 

 festivals of the Mexicans, Ochpaniztli, the ^ broom feast " or " house- 

 cleaning festival ", celebrated in honor of this goddess. For the 

 broom, which s^nnbolizes one of the tirst domestic, that is, feminine, 

 occupations, was a special symbol of this goddess, who was therefore 

 also the goddess of purity, of purification and eradication of sin." 

 The teteuitl paper with which the broom is bound together is in our 



Fig. .30. Ueaddres.ses and fiags from Mexican codices. 



picture b painted with figures which again denote an attribute of 

 the same goddess. The Mexicans in their paintings represented the 

 raw, unspun cotton by acute-angled figures or groups of parallel lines 

 on a white ground. Cotton, as a material for woman's work, was for 

 that reason one of the chief attributes of the above-mentioned deity. 

 Her headband (see «, figure 30) called i-ichcaxochiuh, "her headband 

 of cotton ■', was made of that material.'' A strip of unspun cotton 

 hung from her ear peg and loose cotton was bound to the end of the 

 spindle which she wore betAveen the hair and the headband (c and d, 

 figure 30). 



" Seler, Das Tonalamatl der Aubinsclien Sammlung, volume cited, p. 6.51. 



'' Veriiffentllchunsen aus dem Konigliclien Museum fiir Vollcerliunde, v. 1, p. 148. 



