is the sun which rises out of the mountain,32 or is born from it, fully armed with the xiuhcoatl, or fire-snake (the red dawn), with which he slays his sister Coyolxauhqui, the moon, whose lunar attributes are clearly defined in her face-painting, which comprises half-moons and a shell-motif, a lunar symbol. Her nose-plate is also the half-moon symbol. The Centzonuitznaua, or “Four Hundred Southerners,” are the stars of the Southern Hemisphere. These the new-born god puts to flight with ease.33 If further verification of what is obviously a most artificial and operose myth is required, it is only necessary to indicate that one of the subsidiary names of Uitzilopochtli, as recorded by Sahagun, was Ilhuicatl Xoxouhqui, “The Blue Heaven,” the expanse of the sky, showing that, like many another sun-god, he typified the blue vault of heaven.34 Acosta, too, states that the azure colour of his throne signified “that he sat in the heavens.”35 But the myth possesses an allegorical as well as an ætiological character. Thus Coatlicue, the earth, is fructified by the ball of humming-birds’ feathers, that is, by the humming-bird itself, which, in Mexico, is the means of fructifying the plants, its movements causing the transfer of the pollen from the stamens to the germ-cells.
How, then, may we reconcile the primitive fetish of the maguey-plant with the later solar deity? In my view the course of development of the concept of Uitzilopochtli is much the same as that of the Hellenic god Apollo, who, originally a spirit of the apple-tree,36 came in like manner to be regarded as the god of the sun. But, to adhere to the Mexican concept, the sun was regarded by the peoples of Anahuac as the great eater of hearts and drinker of blood. These must be obtained for him by war, or he would perish, and