THE VZTKCS 



209 



whatever else was beautiful, powerful, and inexplicable. 

 Tezcatlipoca, by reason of his magic and his omnis- 

 cience, was placed at the head of the pantheon of active 

 gods. Huitzilopochtli was, however, the favorite god of 



the Aztecs through his relation to war. Tlaloc, the 

 god of rain, was naturally of great importance to 

 agriculturists living in a rather arid region. Tonatiuh, 

 the Sun God, was a more or less abstract deity who 

 acted in part through other gods. But the list is too 

 long to be repeated here. 



The special gods of five 

 principal Mexican cities were 

 as follows: — 



Tenochtitlan 



Tezcoco 

 Tlaxcala 

 Choi ula 

 Cuauhnahuac 



Hiiitzilopochtli- 



Tezcatlipoca 



Camaxtli 



Quetzalcoatl 



Xochiquetzalli 



Of gods with a foreign 

 origin perhaps the most im- 

 portant were Quetzalcoatl 

 and Xipe. The former was 

 introduced long before the 

 Aztecs raised their banner of 

 war and may have been an 

 adaptation of the Long-nosed 

 God of the Mayas. The wor- 

 ship of Xipe is said to have 

 originated in a town in south- 

 ern Mexico. It had certainly taken a strong hold on 

 the Aztecs of Mexico City and was likewise known as 

 far south as Salvador. 



Conceptionsof the Universe. Cosmogonic myths, 

 the world over, are unscientific attempts to explain the 



Fig. 78. Chalchuihtlicue, 

 Aztecan Goddess of Water. 



