it well that the people should have some means of writing by which they might direct themselves, and two of their number, Oxomoco and Cipactonal, who dwelt in a cave in Cuernavaca, especially considered the matter. Cipactonal thought that her descendant Quetzalcoatl should be consulted, and she called him into counsel. He, too, thought the idea of a calendar good, and the two addressed themselves to the task of making the tonalamatl. To Cipactonal was given the privilege of choosing and writing the first sign. She painted the cipactli animal, and called the sign ce cipactli (“one cipactli”). Oxmoco then wrote ome acatl (“two cane”), and Quetzalcoatl “three house,” and so on, until the thirteen signs were completed.83
Another form of the Quetzalcoatl myth given by Mendieta is in substance as follows:
Tezcatlipocâ let himself down from the upper regions by means of a spider’s web, and coming to Tollan engaged in a game of tlachtli (the native ball game) with Quetzalcoatl, in the midst of which he transformed himself into a tiger. Those who watched the game were panic-stricken, and cast themselves pell-mell into a ravine, and were drowned in a river which flowed therein. Tezcatlipocâ then harassed Quetzalcoatl from city to city, until he drove him to Cholula, and latterly to Tlapallan, where he died, and where his followers burnt his body, thus inaugurating the custom of burning the dead.84
The interpreter of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis says regarding Quetzalcoatl:
“Quetcalcoatl they say was he who created the world; and they bestowed upon him the appellation of Lord of the Wind, because they said that Tonacatecotli when it appeared good to him breathed and begat Quecalcoatle. They erected round temples to him without any corners. They said that it was he (who was also lord of these thirteen signs which are here represented) who