CodalSearch this book — or all of Codal…⌘K
nydus/The gods of MexicoPublic
Page 207 of 670
Table of Contents

CHAPTER III

and a fresh rain-supply.

(4) That the conception of the god Quetzalcoatl became humanized in the light of the agricultural and other manifestations of Toltec culture, thus bringing about the idea of his existence as a priest-king, and culminating in the establishment of a line of priestly rulers bearing his name, which endured as long as Mexican civilization.

(5) Out of these conceptions there naturally arose other related ideas, as those of:

(a) Quetzalcoatl as inventor of the tonalamatl, the instrument by which the festal days of the rain-cult were originally noted, but which on the adoption of the solar calendar as time-count degenerated into what may be regarded as an astrological table.

(b) The lunar basis upon which the tonalamatl was founded connected Quetzalcoatl with the moon.93

( c ) Regarded as inventor of the tonalamatl , he gained a reputation as the possessor of profound hieratic

207