He warns Tezcatlipocâ that he has the power to avert his evil omens, probably by means of merriment and carousing. The rabbit was the Mexican symbol of intoxication by octli. This strophe regarding it comes, as it were, from the worshipper, who states that his god Macuilxochitl or Xochipilli has created or re-created the rabbit, or spirit of the octli beverage. Sahagun calls Xochipilli a god of fire, and we know that he was associated with the sacrificial fire-drill, which was also the symbol of sexual union and licence. Seler thinks that this song shows “the relation which exists between the pulque (octli) gatherings, the deity of feasts and the fire-drill.”42
FESTIVALS
Xochilhuitl.—Of the feast of flowers over which this