arises. Uitznaua may correctly be translated “southerners,” whereas Mimixcoa can scarcely be rendered otherwise than as the plural of “cloud-serpent.” The insignia of these latter deities, however, are certainly stellar. They wear the stellar face-mask and are in every way to be connected with the stars. It is clear, too, that Mixcoatl in one of his manifestations must be connected with the morning star. But I take this connection, as in the case of Quetzalcoatl, to have arisen at a period comparatively late. Again, we frequently find in Mexican myth that the stars are regarded as serpentine in character, and indeed, as in the case of the Tzitzimimê, partake of insect characteristics.
“Mixcoatl” is the expression in use at the present time among the natives of Mexico for the tropical whirlwind6—obviously a much later conception of his nature, and one more intimately connected with that of Tezcatlipocâ, as I have attempted to show in the passages relating to that god, and to Quetzalcoatl. There is, indeed, a strong resemblance between Mixcoatl and Tezcatlipocâ, both of whom are connected with obsidian, and carry the hunter’s bag of obsidian darts.