206 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 
sequence of the suns is figured on the Calendar Stone, 
and in one of the codices, besides being explained in 
some of the early writings of Spanish priests and edu- 
cated natives. ‘The first sun was devoured by a jaguar 
and in the resulting darkness the inhabitants of the 
earth were devoured by jaguars. ‘The second sun 
was destroyed by a hurricane, the third by a rain of fire, 
and the fourth by a flood. One human pair escaped 
each cataclysm and lived to repopulate the world. 
The fifth or present sun will be destroyed by an earth- 
quake. 
Notions of the shape and character of the universe 
are pretty well defined in Aztecan lore. The wide- 
spread belief that the universe consists of three super- 
imposed worlds, the upper or sky world, the middle 
world of living men and the under world of the dead, is 
found in a developed form. The upper world is divided 
into thirteen levels. The uppermost four levels are 
called Teteocan, the abode of the gods, and are con- 
sidered to be invisible. The creator of all, Ometeuctli, 
Lord of Duality, dwells with his spouse in the highest 
heaven and under him in order are the Place of the 
Red God of Fire, the Place of the Yellow Sun God and 
the Place of the White Evening Star God. The inferior 
heavens, called Ihuicatl, are given over to the visible 
celestial activities. There is one heaven for the storms, 
another for the blue sky of the day, the dark sky of the 
night, the comets, the evening star, the sun, the stars, 
Pic, 
The under world is Mictlan, the Place of the Dead. 
More divisions are commonly given and in the lower- 
most of these lives Mictlanteuctli, the Lord of Death, 
and his mate. The idea of future blessing or punish- 
ment is not entirely absent from the minds of the 
