This wild song may be interpreted as follows:
The aspect of the goddess is described. She rests (as do Uitzilopochtli and other gods) under the shade of the cypress trees. The maize is about to be planted, and she bears in her hand the rattle-staff or rain-rattle, carried by all the earth- and rain-gods and their priests, with which she brings down the rain by dint of sympathetic magic and which implement was also symbolic of fruitfulness or sexual union.23 The worshipper takes the agave thorn in his hand wherewith to pierce his tongue and other members, so that the blood thus obtained may produce rain for the growth of the maize. The broom alluded to is a symbol of the