110 



IMAGE OF TEOYAOMIQUI. 



spirits of women who died in child-birth, went at once to the 

 " house of the sun " to enjoy a life of eternal pleasure. At dawn 

 they hailed the rising orb with song and dances, and attended him 

 to the meridian and his setting with music and festivity. The 

 Aztecs believed that, after some years spent amid these pleasures, 

 the beatified spirits of the departed were changed into clouds or 

 birds of beautiful plumage, though they had power to ascend again 

 whenever they pleased to the heaven they had left. There was 

 another place called Tlalocan the dwelling place of Tlaloc, the 

 deity of water, which was also an Aztec elysium. It was the 

 spirit-home of those who were drowned or struck by lightning, — 

 of children sacrificed in honor of Tlaloc, — and of those who died 

 of dropsy, tumors, or similar diseases. Last of all, was Mictlan, a 

 gloomy hell of perfect darkness, in which, incessant night, unil- 

 luminated by the twinkling of a single ray, was the only punish- 

 ment, and the probable type of annihilation. 



The figure which is delineated in the plate representing Teoyao- 

 miqui, is cut from a single block of basalt, and is nine feet high 

 and five and a half broad. It is a horrid assemblage of hideous 

 emblems. Claws, fangs, tusks, skulls and serpents, writhe and 

 hang in garlands around the shapeless mass. Four open hands 

 rest, apparently without any purpose, upon the bared breasts of a 

 female. In profile, it is not unlike a squatting toad, whose glisten- 

 ing eyes and broad mouth expand above the cincture of skulls 

 and serpents. Seen in this direction it appears to have more shape 

 and meaning than in front. On the top of the statue there is a 

 hollow, which was probably used as the receptacle of offerings or 

 incense during sacrifice. The bottom of this mass is also sculp- 

 tured in relief, and as it will be observed in the plate, that there 

 are projections of the body near the waist, it is supposed that this 

 frightful idol was suspended by them aloft on pillars, so that its 

 worshippers might pass beneath the massive stone. 



In 1790, this idol was found buried in the great square of 

 Mexico, whence it was removed to the court of the university; but 

 as the priests feared that it might again tempt the Indians to their 

 ancient worship, it was interred until the year 1821, since which 

 time it has been exhibited to the public. 



