RELKi:] VENUS PERIOD TN PTCTITRE WRTTTNOS 3(>1 



The red stripes on a white ground are only a variant of white, a con- 

 ventional mode of representing a Avhite color of the body; for, as we 

 shall see, the god is also painted entirely white, and vice versa we 

 find deities for whose bodies a white color is expressly prescribed in 

 the text, like the Ciuateteo, represented with red longitudinal stripes 

 on a white ground. The technical name is motizaiiauana, "' longi- 

 tudinal stripes made with white infusorial earth ". This white color 

 of the body is evidently meant to represent faint light, the light of the 

 dawn, or a radiance like that of the moon. The Mexicans employed 

 ])rilliant red and yellow to express bright light, the glare of the sun 

 or the glow of the fire. The sun god and the fire god were painted in 

 these colors but diiferently : in one manuscript the sun god is red and 

 the fire god yellow, in another the sun god is yellow and the fire god 

 red. 



The black dominolik^ painting bordered by small white circles 

 ; about the eyes Tlaiiizcalpan tecutli shares with Mixcoatl-Camaxtli, 

 the hunting god and god of the Tlaxcaltecs; with Painal, the mes- 

 senger of death, the image and representative of Uitzilopochtli ; with 

 Atlaua, the god of the Chinampanecs; and Avith those gods who, like 

 the latter, have death symbols and were mentioned by Sahagun mider 

 the name of Chachalmecs. In the technical description of the deco- 

 ration of these gods this painting is designated as mixquauhcal 

 ichiuhticac, ixuacal ichiuale, or mixtetlilcomolo (" he has a cage 

 jDainted on his face ", '' a furrow is made with black paint around 

 the eyelids "), also as ixcitlal ichiuale, mizcitlal ichichiuh, or mixcit- 

 lalhuiticac moteneua tlayoalli (" on his face he has the star painting 

 called darkness ") . From this it follows that this painting is intended 

 to reproduce the customary representation of night, which Avas 

 painted as a dark field studded AAath eyes (stars). The deity is 

 characterized thereby as a nocturnal one, appearing in the night sky. 



The crown of black feathers with light tips, which is adorned with 

 balls of white doAvn (iztac totoliuitl), and from which in this picture 

 a tuft of green quetzal feathers projects, is also a characteristic mark 

 of this god: characteristic likewise is the headband, which has two 

 ])ointed ovate white objects Avitli red centers affixed to it in tlie same 

 places in which the headband of the sun god has blue or green disks 

 (of turquoise or a precious green stone). 



It is worthy of note how in this picture the artist has expressed 

 the fact that the god is known in two different forms. The face, 

 decorated with headband and feather croAvn, looks forth from the 

 gaping jaws of a skull, which has the same headband and feather 

 croAA'n. I think we may accept it as beyond question that the human 

 face is intended to represent the star as it appears in the eastern sky 

 above the rising sun, Avhile the skull mask, on the other hand, repre- 



