286 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. 28 



creative deity of names of different origin, preser^•e(l by the Vocalju- 

 lary, has also another interesting and important side. I have trans- 

 Lited above tlie Co(iui-Xee, Coqui-CiHa, of the Zapotecs by the Mex- 

 ican name Thinizcalpan Tecutli. If we should seek to translate 

 Pije-Tao, Pije-Xoo, into Mexican, then a strictl}'^ synonymous, though 

 by no means literal, rendering would be the name Quetzalcoatl. 

 Here we find a connecting link, which throws light upon the logic 

 of the relation between objects and ideas that have hitherto existed 

 rather incongruously side by side. The Mexican legend tells of 

 the wind god Quetzalcoatl that after his death or after his dis- 

 appearance in the sea of the east he changed himself into Tlauiz- 

 calpan Tecutli, the lord of the dawn, that is, the morning star, the 

 planet Venus. The Zapotec names explain this change to us; for it is 

 the creative deity who is at once the soul, the spirit, the living prin- 

 ciple of all things and the lord of the dawn, of the coming day, who is 

 conceived of as merged in the star of the dawn, the luminous planet, 

 which was called Pelle-Nij by the Zapotecs and Citlalpol, " the 

 great star ", by the Mexicans. It appears, moreover, from the fres- 

 coes which are reproduced in this work, as we shall see below, that 

 Quetzalcoatl occupied in fact the central place in the Zapotec 

 Olympus, at least as he was understood and presumably expounded 

 by the priests. 



Tlauizcalpan Tecutli, the lord of the dawn and of the evening twi- 

 light, who is also designated by the interpreter as the first light 

 which illuminated the earth in the ])eriod before the flood, that is, 

 before the creation of the sun, is represented in the calendar opposite 

 the fire god in the ninth section, which begins with the day " 1 snake". 

 As the representations of this god are important also for future dis- 

 cussion, I have given them together in figures G2 and 03, taken from 

 Codices Borgia, page 4(), Vaticanus B, page 40, and Telleriano- 

 Kemensis II, page 14, and the Tonalamatl of the Aubin collection. 



Coqui-Xee, Coqui-Cilla, the " lord of dawn ", and Pije-Tao, Pije- 

 Xoo, the " mighty, strong wind ", however, designate, as it were, 

 merely the principle, the essence of the creative deity or of deity in 

 general, Avithout reference to the act of creating the world and 

 human beings. In respect to this event itself the mythologies of the 

 Central Americans, as well as those of most of the peoples of the 

 earth, have placed at the beginning of things a male and female 

 deity. These were called by the Mexicans Tonacatecutli and Tona- 

 caciuatl, " lord " and " mistress of our flesh " or " of subsistence ", or 

 Ometecutli Omeciuatl, "■ lords of duality ". In the calendars they 

 occupy the first place and are represented as the deities dominating 

 the beginning, the first division, whose initial sign is " 1 crocodile ". 

 They are figured always clothed in light, varied, and rich colors. 

 The male deity is more or less definitely identified Avith the sky, the 



