278 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 



nor the Mayas sacrificed human beings in such nuiltitudes as the 

 Mexicans;" still, human sacrifices were offered, but less frecpiently, 

 and, as it seems, only on stated occasions. We learn from the 

 Zapotec dictionary of Father Juan de Cordova that there were 

 two or three special occasions when human sacrifices were per- 

 formed. Prisoners of war Avere sacrificed, and in this case the flesh 

 of the victims was even eaten,^ as in Mexico; human beings were also 

 sacrificed to the deity of the harvests, that is, probably the earth 

 goddess; '' finally, children were sacrificed to the rain god.'' In this 

 last point there appears again a marked agreement with the ideas 

 and the worship of the Mexicans, for in Mexico, too, children were 

 sacrificed in the first five or six months of the year to the god of rain, 

 tempest, and mountains, Tlaloc, as Sahagun relates in detail. The 

 expression which was here used by the Mexicans as a technical term, 

 nino-ixtlaua, or nextlaualiztli, '' paying one's debts ", corresponds 

 exactly to the word used by the Zapotecs for this sacrifice of chil- 

 dren, and, in fact, only in connection Avith it, ti-quixe-a cocijo, " I 

 pay my debt to the rain god ". 



A specially noticeable and peculiar ceremony practiced among the 

 Zapotecs is indicated by some words of the dictionary as well as by 

 a detailed description from Father Burgoa. The dictionary of Juan 

 de Cordova contains, under the heading yerva ("grass, herb"), the 

 following notice: "Tola, a grasslike plant (una yerva de los erva- 

 zales) out of which in ancient times they made a straw rope (una 

 soguilla o tomiza), which they brought to confession and laid down 

 on the ground before the pi j ana and confessed what sins they wished 

 to confess. Hence it comes that tola is still used with the meaning of 

 ' sin ', and that they also say lao-tola, ' place of sin or of confession ', 

 although the word also means ' a dark place ' ". 



The expression pi j ana, that is, pixana, which Juan de Cordova 

 uses here, seems to refer to a ceremony observed specially among the 

 Zapotecos Serranos. For this word pixana, " dedicated to the god ", 

 was not used by them merely for the priest pupils, but generally for 

 the priests of the idols. Father Burgoa describes very fully this 

 ceremony of the Zapotecos Serranos, which was still practiced in 



"No eran tan carniceros como los Mexieanos ("They were not so fond of carnage as 

 the Mexicans'"), says Father Burgoa, work cited, chap. 58. Gay concludes that Father 

 Burgoa means in this passage that they performed no human sacrifices at all. 



"Juan de Cordova distinguishes: peni yy, peni quij, peni y& " hombre que sacriflcavan 

 tornado en guerra, 6 captivo ijresentado ii un Sefior para sacrificarle (a man taken in 

 war that they sacrificed, or a captive presented to the lord to sacrifice) ", and xoyaa, 

 xoyaaquij, "si era guisado o coeido o asado para comerlo (if it was baked, stewed, or 

 broiled for eating) ". 



" Toti-nije-a, ti-cooa, quij nije, " sacriflcar por las mieses hombre (to sacrifice for har- 

 vest a man)". 



<* Totia peni-quij-cocijo, tiqufxe a cocijo, " sacrificar hombre por la pulvia, o nino (to 

 sacrifice a man for rain, or a child)". 



