The sun created by the gods went half way across the heavens and then returned upon its tracks or, according to another version, it rose only a short distance above the horizon and stopped there, and its rays were very feeble, consequently the earth was dimly lighted. Both it and the moon were accus tomed to wander about the heavens; so Tezcat lipoca undertook to create a new sun, and there followed an era of sun-creation resulting in the making of four separate luminaries.
The There are different' accounts of the creation of these suns and even the order in which they were created -is disputed; but that their periods of existence represent four separate ages of the world is agreed by all When the first sun, Atonatiuh ("water sun"), was destroyed a great deluge descended upon the earth; when Ehecatonatiuh ("wind sun"), met with a like fate, an all-devasating wind was created; and when Tletonatiuh ("fire sun") ceased to exist, everything upon earth was destroyed by an all-consuming fire. Then followed Tlatonatiuh ("earth-sun"), who cre ated all things as they now exist. Thus, ac cording to Nahua tradition, the human race was swept from the earth three separate times, and people were in constant fear that a fourth destruction was to come, for they believed the four elements, earth, air, fire and water, were in constant conflict, and that for this reason they had already caused previous destructions of the world. After each of these destruc tions the earth had been rcpeopled by those who escaped. After the first inhabitants of the earth had disappeared, Coxcox and his wife, Teocipactli, escaped in a boat and landed on Mount Colhuacan. They were the progenitors of many children who were all dumb; but one day a bird, from the top of a tree, taught them to speak. They all spoke different languages, however. Hence the diversity of tongues.
Origin of According to one myth, after the destruction of the earth by fire, by Tezcatlipoca, Camaxtli-Huitzilopochtli sat upon a rock and, striking it with his wand, caused the first race — the Chichimeca-Otomi — to come forth and people the earth.
According to an Aztec myth, the first men emerged from a place called Chicomortoc (Seven-Caves); and this mythological starting point figures in all accounts of their wander ings. It was probably the place from which the seven tribes set out on their migrations southward, and at the end of which they ar rived at the valley of Mexico.
Mexican The Mexican had over 300 deities, some of whom had been borrowed from neighboring tribes and all of whom may properly be classed as nature gods. In addi tion to these they acknowledged a supreme being, whom they represented as the Lifegiver. Ipalnemoani, "He who gives us life," and Tloquenahuaque, the "All-embracing" This supreme being was never represented by pic ture or image and no sacrifices of any kind were offered to him. He was known as "Teotl," the god, and seems to have been iden tified with the Sun, and at times with Tez catlipoca. The hieroglyphic by which he is represented is the same as that of the Sun Tlacatecolotl, "Reasoning Owl," the enemy of the human race, seems to have been, in a sense. the force of evil opposed to Teotl.
The Aztecs and Nahuas in general believed in a life hereafter and that the souls of the dead went to one of three regions, the home of the Sun; Tlalocan, the residence of Tlaloc, the god of waters; and the dreary underworld called Mictlan, ruled over by Mictlantecutli and his consort, Mictlancihuatl. Soldiers killed in battle, prisoners sacrificed by the enemy and women who died in child-birth went to the home of the Sun, the men to wait upon him and to accompany him upon his daily journey to the zenith, where he was met by the women wbo formed his escort for the rest of the Those killed by drowning, lightning or any of the diseases sent upon earth by Tlaloc or his consort, such as tumors and dropsy, and chil dren sacrificed upon the altars of this god were transported, after death, to TIalocan, a delight ful region of mountains, shady trees and run ning streams. All those not qualified to go to the home of the Sun or the pleasure regions of Tlaloc were sent to Mictlan, situated, accord ing to some authorities, in the cold and dreary north; according to others, in the gloomy °navel of the earth ,D where they were forced to lead an aimless existence.
By the Nahuas every phase of nature. was personified and had its representative guardian spirit to whom offerings and sacrifices of some kind were made daily or periodically. Among
these were household duties, of which every home had several, according to its class, flan and position in society.. The sacrifices to the national and tribal gods were. attended to by a numerous and opulent priesthood, who ruled in an autocratic manner and exacted heavy contributions for the maintenance of religious institutions and schools, the latter being also under their complete control. These sacrifices, generally slaves or captives taken in war, were offered up upon the stone altars of the temples, the victims being thrown upon their backs and held down by attendants while the officiating priest ripped open the breast end tore out the heart of each and offered it, first to the Sun, and then to the particular divinity to whom the sacrifice had been made. The presentation of fruits, flowers, grain, animals and birds to the family gods was generally made by the head of the family or of the com munity house, when a number of families lived in one large building, as was often the case in Mexico; while sacrifices were made by indi viduals to those divinities who were believed to work in the interest of individuals. Tez catlipoca, a purely tribal divinity of the Texco cans, the most civilized and cultured of the Nahua people, had continued to gather to him self the powers of most of the divinities, until, at the time of the Conquest, he was looked upon as a great divine ruler and creator and had become identified with the Toltec sti preme divinity, the °Teotl? But he never ceased to be the tribal deity of the Texcocans. Huitzilopocht i, the tribal deity of the Aztecs, had become the great war-god of . all the Nahuas because the military successes ofthe Aztecs had imposed him upon the other nations forming the confederacy. The large bodies of Toltecs who remained in Mexico after the fall of the Toltec empire formed communities, the principal of which was at Cholula, where the presiding deity was Quetzalcoatl, also the fore most divinity of. the Zapotecas and, underthe name of Yucano, that of the Mixtecas. The Toltecs who went southward carried the wor, ship of this deity into Yucatan and parts of Chiapas, Tabasco and Campeche, where he dis puted sovereignty with the older deities of the native races. In the long ages of mythology, hundreds of races surged to and fro across Mexico and the great isthmus of ri Central America, leaving behind them remnants of their languages, tribal customs and mythologies. Thus we have a mingling of tongues, creeds and customs which has sorely puzzled the anti-, quarian, the linguist and the student of mythol• ogy. The of , the codexes and the undecipherable character of the re maining records in stone of the Mayas, Kiches and other highly. civilized races of southern and eastern,Mexico and Guatemala add greatly to the difficulties of understanding mythologies of the various rages of Mexico.
Roughly speaking, the, Nahua, Maya and Kiche, deities may be classed as gods of the air, to whom belong the culture deities, the lightning, the thunder and the storm gods; the sun, the moon and the planet Venus (the Even ing Star) and the Supreme Creator; gods of rain, mist, moisture and the ? running waters of the earth; .graiti and other plant deities; spe cial patrons of trades, occupations, games, sports, learning of all kinds, including astron omy, astrology, witchcraft, luck in gaming, medicine and the healing .art. The functions of many of these. seem to he inextricably min gled and confused. This is due partly to our inexact knowledge of the past institutions, his tory and mythology of the various races who mingled and blended on this great bridge of the continents throughout unknown centuries before history, began. But remains enough have been left to show the complicated nature of the. religious system• of the Nahuas and other cognate races. and to prove that they had advanced to a stage wherein ethical consider ations' played a very considerable• part. The prayers addressed to their gods, the speeches to the. soitereigit and other officials. about to take office; the 'advice of a father to his son and a mother to her daughter; the poetical effusions.of the royal' poet of Texcoco, Neza hualcoyotl, and many other like documents have come down to are filled with evidence cif the high 'ethical' plane of Nahua religious thought at the time of the Conquest; for every occupation of 'society, all reasoning, every movement of life had their separate being within the shadow of the Nahua religion.