280 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 



monies they had still to perforin, and told them that the trod had 

 pardoned them and that they might be glad again and sin anew ''\ 



This elaborate ceremonial, the details of which were established 

 beyond a donl)t in the course of the inquisitorial examination to 

 which all the j^articipants Avere subjected, was not suggested to the 

 Indians by Christian confession and absolution, but corresponds to 

 the confession which was made in Mexico to the priests of the earth 

 goddess, wdio was called, for this reason, Tlaelquani, '* filth-eater ■", 

 and Tlazolteotl, " god of ordure '\ Only in Mexico tlie necessity of 

 this confession was confined to sins in veneribus, that is, to offenses 

 against the sacredness of marriage, while with the Zapotecs, as 

 appears from the entire description, this ceremony must have had a 

 more general intention, applying to the expiation of all sins. The 

 words which the padre reported in conclusion, namely, that the 

 heathen jjriest told his penitents that they were now absolved from 

 their sins and could sin anew, are probably to be taken quite seriously; 

 for in Mexico also the idea prevailed that b}^ this confessior., which 

 was made to the priests of the earth goddess, and the ])enance fol- 

 lowing upon it the sinner was entirely freed from his sins, to such 

 an extent, indeed, that he could no longer be reached by any secular 

 punishment, which in this case w-as A^ry severe, stoning to death 

 being the punishment for adultery. It cost the monks trouble 

 enough to persuade the Indians that the confession whic-h they 

 demanded and received w^as followed by no such exemptions from 

 the law. 



There is another point of interest connected with the Zapotec cere- 

 monies described above, namely, the use made of the grass rope on 

 these occasions, for it serves to throw further light on certain passages 

 in the picture writings. Here, as in the cases discussed in connection 

 with the calendar, the Borgian codex and Codex Vaticanus B corre- 

 spond most closely to the description. 



Among the few fundamental characters which, as I have demon- 

 strated," recur in a typical maimer in the dift'erent picture manu- 

 scripts of the group forming the Borgian codex, a representation of 

 the tonal amatl occupies a prominent place. It is here represented as 

 divided into twenty sections of 13 days each, to each of which i^: 

 ascribed a certain deity who was the ruling power in it, and who was 

 sufficiently indicated to the understanding of the Indians by the 

 initial sign of the section. The order in which the deities follow one 

 another here seems to have been, in a measure, a canonical one; for 

 in other j^assages in these picture w^ritings we find these deities 

 ascribed to the twenty day signs in the same order, except that in the 



" Der Codex Borgia und die verwaudteu axtelsischen Bilderschriften, Zeitschrift fiir 

 Ethnologle, v. 19, 1887, p. (105) and following. 



