THOMAS] THE EAIN GODDESS. 103 



or upper body garment, clear blue petticoats, with fringes, from which hung 

 marine shells, a^nd white sandals. In her left hand she held a shield and a 

 leaf of the broad, round, white water-lily, called atlacuezona."^ 



Clavigero makes the following statement in regard to this goddess: 

 " Chalchiucneje, otherwise ChalcJiihuitlicue, was the goddess of water and 

 companion of Tlaloc. She was known by some other very expressive 

 names, which either signify the effects which water produces, or the different 

 appearances and color which it assumes in motion. The Tlascalans called 

 her Matlacueje, that is, clothed in a green robe; and they gave the same 

 name to the highest mountain of Tlascala, on whose summit are formed those 

 stormy clouds which generally burst over the city of Angelopoli. To that 

 sunmiit the Tlascalans ascended to perform their sacrifices and offer up their 

 prayers. This is the very same goddess of water to which Torquemada 

 gives the name Xochiquet?al, and the Cav. Boturini that of Ilacuihochiquet- 



zaiur^ 



The interpreter of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis says: ^' ChalchiutU, 

 who presided over these thirteen days, saved herself in the deluge. She is the 

 woman who remained after the deluge. Her name signifies, 'The woman 

 who wears a dress adorned with precious stones. ' They here fasted four 

 days to Death. They painted her holding in one hand a spinning-wheel 

 and in the other a certain wooden instrument with which they weave; and 

 in order to show that of the sons which women bring forth, some are slaves 

 and others die in war, and others in poverty, they paint her with a stream, 

 as if carrying them away, so that, whether rich or poor, all were finally 

 doomed to perish."^ 



We may therefore, I think, safely assume that the figure in our plate 

 is intended to represent the Central American or Yucatec goddess Xnuc, 

 who appears to be an equivalent for the Mexican female deity described, 

 and that here, at least, she is but a symbol of the mountain range where the 

 storms were formed, and from whence they rushed down into the valleys 

 and plains below. Whether the large figure in the lower division of Plate 

 XXVII is intended to represent the same deity is somewhat imcertain, but 



' Bancroft's Native Races, Vol. iii, p. 368. 

 ^History of Mexico, Vol. i, p. 252, Culleu's Trans. 

 'Kingsborough's Mex. Autiq., vi, p. 120. 



