PRIESTHOOD
The Ixcocauhqui Tzommolco teohua appear to have been the especial priests of Xiuhtecutli.10
NATURE AND STATUS
Although Xiuhtecutli undoubtedly appeared to the Mexicans as the personification of fire, it was more as that element in its primeval and original form, its chaotic and elemental shape. He is, indeed, the pre-solar fire which existed before the creation of the sun or moon, and just as the gods of water ruled over moisture wherever it was to be found, so was Xiuhtecutli imagined as holding sway over fire, whether it came from the heavens above or the earth beneath. Thus we find him spoken of by Sahagun as dwelling in the navel of the earth, where the volcanic fires have their origin, and as having his place above in what appears to be a species of cloud-castle, for the Mexican word for “embattlement” is derived from that for “cloud.”11 He is also called “He who entereth the blue stone pyramid,” which is, of course, the sky.
He corresponds to the hour before sunrise, which makes it clear that his prehistoric precedence to the sun was insisted upon in the list of the day-hours. The texts dwell upon his antiquity, for he is, indeed, the Old God, the god who existed before the foundations of the world, father and mother of the gods, and in this I think I see a reference to the shaping nature of fire, its moulding or creating influence, as observed in many mythologies. But in most pantheons fire-gods undertake the work of the smith, and this seems to have given rise to the idea of their creative capacity. That particular craft, however, was unknown in Mexico, and I am therefore at a loss to understand this particular phase of Xiuhtecutli, unless it be that as fire was regarded by the Mexicans as a symbol of renewal or rebirth (from the fact that fresh fuel was capable of adding renewed life to a dying fire), and that the idea of creation had no place in