276 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 



These were not elected to their office, as was the case with the Mexi- 

 cans, but they transmitted it, as Father Bnrgoa relates, to their sons 

 or nearest relatives. From the description, however, which Father 

 Burgoa gives of the way in w^hich this transmission was made, it 

 clearly appears that these high priests were considered as the living 

 images of the priest god of the Toltecs, as the incarnation of Quetzal- 

 coatl. While the priests were, as a general thing, bound to be chaste, 

 and chastity Avas, as we shall see, assured by depriving boys destined 

 for the priesthood of their virility, at certain festivals, at which the 

 high 23riest was obliged to become intoxicated, maidens were brought 

 to him, and if one of them became pregnant and gave birth to a boy 

 he Was destined to be the successor of the high priest. This agrees 

 with the storj'^ related of Quetzalcoatl, the priest god of the Toltecs,** 

 how he was enticed by wicked sorcerers, Tezcatlipoca and the god of 

 the Amantecas, Coyotl inaual, to drink pulque; forgot his chastity 

 in the intoxication, and indulged in intercourse with Quetzalpetlatl ; 

 and for this sin was forced to leave not only the city, but also the 

 country, and go eastward to the seacoast, where he caused a funeral 

 pyre to be erected for himself, and out of the fire his heart ascended 

 to the heavens as the planet Venus. 



The ordinary priests of the Zapotecs Avere called copa pitao (copa 

 bitoo) , " guardians of the gods ", or ueza-eche, " sacrificers ''. Perhaps 

 these two names indicate two special classes of priests, corresponding 

 to the Mexican designations tlamacazqui and tlenamacac. The office 

 of these subordinate priests is given in the description of Father 

 Burgoa quoted above. They had, on the one hand, to keep the 

 sanctuary, the idols, and everything Avhich pertained to their wor- 

 ship in an orderly condition and in readiness and to assist the 

 high priest in his duties. On the other hand, they were the ones 

 who performed the actual sacrifices, especially the human sacrifices, 

 after which they brought the heart and the blood to the high priest 

 that he might oifer it to the gods for food. In this respect the method 

 appears to have been a different one with the Zapotecs from that used 

 by the Mexicans, for what is reported of the Mexicans in regard to 

 this seems to indicate merely that it was the chief, the high priest, 

 who performed the actual sacrifice, though he was indeed relieved 

 b}^ others when the bloody work began to weary him, but yet was 

 the first to put his hand to this butchery. If, however, the Zapotecs 

 deviated in this from the Mexican, there appears to have been a 

 remarkable agreement with the Maya custom ; for Landa ^ reports 

 of the Mayas of Yucatan that two different offices were designated 



" Anales de Quaiihtitlan Publlcaclon de los Anales del Miiseo Nacional de Mexico, 1885, 

 pp. 19-21. 



* Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, edited by de la Rada y Delgado, p. 85. 



