Chapter Three

DESCENT of the PLUMED SERPENT

HUMAN HISTORY, ACCORDING TO THE MESOAMERICAN WORLDVIEW, STARTED with the First Sunrise. Before, there was darkness, a mysterious time of origins. The most impressive and complete expression of this concept is found in the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Quiché in Guatemala. The story begins in darkness and night (chi quecum chi acab). The divine plan of creation is to bring about germination and dawn (ta chauaxoc, ta zaquiroc), connecting and even identifying the natural cycle of fertility with the cycle of day and night. Humanity, which exists within these cycles, is referred to as “people of light” (zaquil amaquil), “children born from light” (zaquil al), or “children begot by light” (zaquil qahol). Several attempts to create a human being are unsuccessful until the twin brothers Sun and Moon gain their victory over the spirits of the Underworld.

In Classic Maya iconography the primordial darkness, which at the same time is the Underworld and the abode of the Ancestors, is represented in “watery” terms, with references to water lilies, shells, and similar items. As a coincidence, the interpretatio christiana (interpretation of a non-Christian worldview in Christian terms) of the early colonial authors often equated the primordial period or earlier creation with the time before the Deluge. With this in mind, we can decode statements like those that qualify Chichén Itzá as “the most ancient settlement and, according to the count of the Indians, the first that was populated after the Deluge” (de la Garza 1983: 426).

The TIME of DARKNESS

The Popol Vuh is an early colonial registration of precolonial sacred history. Similar texts existed in Ñuu Dzaui civilization. Burgoa describes one such work, which was confiscated by the monks in Yodzo Cahi (Yanhuitlan):

Several years after this people had been baptized and after some of them had learned how to write, a manuscript book was found, on good paper, which contained histories in their language, such as those in Genesis, beginning with the creation of the world, the lives of their leaders, comparable to those of the patriarchs, and the Great Flood, combined with illustrations, such as in our Bible. . . . And the identity of the author of this book was kept so much a secret that it was impossible to discover him or find him out, as the owner of the book claimed he had inherited it. The worst was that, although kept in the deposit box under two keys, it disappeared as if it were smoke. (Burgoa 1934b, I: 288–289)

At the end of the sixteenth century the vicar of the Dominican convent in the Ñuu Dzaui town of Saha Yucu (Cuilapan) in the Valley of Oaxaca possessed a similar book, which also consisted of a combination of an alphabetic text, probably in Dzaha Dzaui, and pictographic illustrations. The vicar in question may have been Fray Diego de Ontiveros, companion of the famous missionary Fray Gonzalo Lucero who spoke Dzaha Dzaui fairly well.¹ The book in question is lost, but the Dominican friar Gregorio García included a Spanish summary in his book on the origin of Native American peoples. The first sentences seem to be a direct translation from the original:

In the year and on the day

of darkness and obscurity

before there were days or years,

when the world was in great darkness

and everything was chaos and confusion,

the earth was covered with water:

there was only slime and mud

on the face of the earth.

                                                           (García 1981, book V: ch. 4)

The Spanish translation still contains the characteristic difrasismos of the original Dzaha Dzaui text. The expression quevui, cuiya, “day, year,” means “time.” Obscurity and darkness—sa naa sa yavui—is a metaphor for “mystery.” So the first phrase, “in the year and on the day of obscurity and darkness,” is to be understood as “in the mysterious time.” The primordial darkness is the time of sacred history, in which Gods and mythical creatures are the principal actors.²

This concept of a primordial era of darkness is present in many other areas of Mesoamerica. In Cholula an old man, “learned in the antiquities,” told the Spanish chronicler Diego Durán:

In the beginning, before light and sun were created,

the earth was in darkness and obscurity,

and without anything created.

All flat, without mountain nor abysm,

surrounded on all sides by water,

without trees nor creatures.

                                                                          (Durán 1967, II: 17)

The Nahuatl word yoayan, “in the time of night,” is used in the same sense in chronicles like the Annals of Cuauhtitlan and is at the core of the sacred story of the First Sunrise in Teotihuacan.

3.1. The first page of Codex Yuta Tnoho (52); the reading starts in the lower right-hand corner.

This basic concept of a time of darkness, Nuu Naa in Dzaha Dzaui, determines the structure of the Codex Yuta Tnoho. The book starts with a “prologue” in Heaven. First, ten anonymous priestly figures (painted black) are seated with specific attributes and gestures. Taking the anonymous figures as representations of specific actions, we read their position as the verb “seating” (yocoo), which in Dzaha Dzaui has the connotation of “establishing oneself” and “beginning.” Combining these considerations, we understand the images as a series of phrases referring to the seating (i.e., establishment or creation) of elements, institutions, and places. Their sequence is clearly composed as a literary text: the figures are paired as difrasismos, and their hand gestures show a rhyming pattern: a-b, c-d, a-d, e-d, a-c. We can render its basic meaning more or less as follows:

These are the elegant words (of the sahu, parangón),

the holy words, for which offerings of tobacco are made,

about how it all began in Heaven,

about when darkness was all around,

when it was determined how the days would be counted in scores of

        twenty,

when it was arranged how the divine power (Ñuhu) would rise and set,

when death was seated, when worship was seated,

when the courses for the streams were traced,

when the mountains were put in place,

i.e., when the water and the mountains, the communities, were

        established:

first the Black Town, Ñuu Tnoo (Tilantongo),

then the White Town, Tocuisi (Zaachila?),

the Place of Heaven (on Cavua Caa Andevui near Yuta Tnoho),

the Place of the Throne (Yucu Aniñe, Monte Albán?).

These were places of flint knives, of power over life and death,

places where the staffs of authority were planted,

the valleys of quetzal feathers and blood, i.e., of the noble lords,

holy enclosures of the rosette and the palm leaves for bloodletting,

with the House of Down Balls, the House of the Throne,

i.e., the houses of holiness and peace, the temples of ecstasy,

and the houses of the royal seat and glory, the palaces of authority.

There were seated the primordial celestial pair of Ndodzos (Ancient Rulers)

the venerated Ancestors: Lady 1 Deer and Lord 1 Deer,

First Mother and First Father, Founders and Protectors,

who united in themselves the Power of Death and the Breath of Life.

The opening phrase—a speaking priest to whom another priest makes an offering of piciete (Nicotiana rustica)—can be interpreted as a parallel to the beginning of the Popol Vuh: are u xe oher, “this is the beginning of the ancient account.” The images that follow have several symbolic associations. The dichotomy of darkness and days, which connotes the opposition between chaos and order, leads to that of the rising and descending Ñuhu, a term used for “sun” but also for “divinity” in general. The image therefore refers to the movement of the sun as the logical element to follow the creation of the days, but at the same time it connotes the cycle of the forces of life and Nature: the sprouting and withering of crops, birth and death. The latter opposition is made explicit in the following image: the seating of death, paired with the figure of a priest carrying the tobacco gourd, representing the cult. This combination, also seen in other Mesoamerican sources, reminds us that death and worship belong together. Human life is characterized by respect for superior forces, and the religious emotion itself is provoked by the awareness of our limitations.⁴ Religious practice leads logically to the concept of the human community, situated in its natural niche of “water and mountain,” a well-known difrasismo (contracted to altepetl in Nahuatl). The fact that both terms form a conceptual unity stresses once again the interconnectedness and coherence of the foregoing pairs.

After this initial phrase, a number of concrete communities are mentioned. Here the same principle of symbolic combinations is applied. The toponyms are ordered in pairs, starting with Ñuu Tnoo, the Black Town (Tilantongo), as the place with which the codex was connected. It is combined with a White Town, which must be interpreted as a place of equal status. Tocuisi, “(Place of the) White Lords,” that is, the city-state of Zaachila, capital of the Beni Zaa in the Valley of Oaxaca, is the best candidate in view of its importance in Ñuu Dzaui history. The next two toponyms contain symbolic references to power; the Place of Heaven is associated elsewhere with Yuta Tnoho (Apoala) as the primordial site of the origin of dynasties, while the Place of the Throne must have a similar status and is probably identical to the Mountain of the Seated Ruler, which represents the center of Monte Albán on the Map of Xoxocotlan.⁵ As we will see, both places played a crucial role in the early history of the Ñuu Tnoo ruling family.

The fifth and sixth toponyms pair a Place of Flint Knives with a Place of Staffs. A Town of Flints appears in the historical record; Ñuu Yuchi, identified as Mogote del Cacique (in San José Tres Lagunas, today an agencia of Ñuu Tnoo), for a short but important period, took the position of Ñuu Tnoo as the central mat and throne in Ñuu Dzaui. The pairing with a Place of Staffs, however, suggests another reading; the latter could also indicate a specific place, such as Yucu Tatnu (Topiltepec, “Mountain of Staffs”), but it does not function as an important toponym in the codices. We therefore prefer to read that sign for the moment as a general reference that qualifies the five mentioned toponyms as “places where the staffs have been located,” that is, “places of rulership and power.” This suggests that the reference to the flint knives is to be interpreted in a parallel way, as flint knife and staff often appear combined. On page 48, the Codex Yuta Tnoho shows how the staff with flint was brought down from the Place of Heaven to Ñuu Tnoo. The symbolic associations of the flint knife are determined by its use as a killing instrument.

The beginning of the codex, then, after the opening phrases, seems to mention four concrete places, which we can identify as the two primary political centers of Ñuu Tnoo and Zaachila with their respective sacred places of origin: the Mountain of Heaven near Apoala and the ancient acropolis of Monte Albán. The other signs we can understand as qualifiers that indicate the ritual and ideological importance of these sites.

In the next scene, Lady 1 Deer and Lord 1 Deer appear. This establishes a direct connection with Gregorio García’s text about the primordial time of darkness:

In that time . . . appeared visibly

a God (Ñuhu) whose name was 1 Deer

and whose given name was Puma Serpent,

and a very pretty and beautiful Goddess (Ñuhu),

whose name was 1 Deer

and whose given name was Jaguar Serpent. . . .

With their omnipotence and wisdom

they made and founded a huge rock,

on top of which they constructed some palaces,

very sumptuous and made with great skill,

which were their seat and dwelling on earth. . . .

This rock with the places of the Gods (Ñuhu)

was on a very high mountain, close to the village of Apoala,

which is in the province of the Mixteca Alta.

This rock . . . was called Place where the Heaven was.

                                                          (García 1981, book V: ch. 4)

On the eastern side of the small valley in which the village of Yuta Tnoho (Apoala) is located, we find the mountain these historical sources name as the residence of the primordial couple: the Kaua Kaandiui (Cavua Caa Andevui), “Rock that Rises into Heaven” or “Rock on which the Heaven Rests.” Combining this identification with the idea that Heaven is also a symbolic place where shamans go to visit and receive power from the Ancestors, we understand this reference as an indication of an important ancient worship that must have taken place on that mountaintop.

3.2. The Primordial Couple, Lady 1 Deer and Lord 1 Deer (Codex Yuta Tnoho, 52).

When we climb it today, we become more and more impressed. The Mountain of Heaven is indeed a shrine, crowned by a series of walls that integrate natural boulders into an ancient pyramid. On the top we still find offerings of shells and other remains of ongoing rituals. We are standing high in a wide-open space, with blue mountain ranges all around. Floating on the distant horizon is the shining white cone of the Pico de Orizaba. Far below lies the sacred valley of Yuta Tnoho as in a vision. We are close to the drifting clouds in a sphere of mystery. Above us a soaring eagle. Silence. Only the wind and the first drops of the summer rain . . .

The BIRTH of LORD 9 WIND

Codex Yuta Tnoho continues, showing that Lady 1 Deer and Lord 1 Deer, as primordial Parents and Creators, brought forth the Elements of Nature and the First Beings, among whom were Lord 4 Alligator ‘Coyote Serpent’ and Lord 11 Alligator ‘Jade Serpent,’ as well as Lord 4 Serpent (Qhyo) and Lord 7 Serpent (Sayo), the Patron Deities of Ñuu Tnoo.⁶ They also gave origin to the Spirits of trees and stones, to the Spirits of the days 7 Eagle and 7 Rain, the sacred days of the dynasties of Ñuu Tnoo and Zaachila, as well as to the volcanic powers, illnesses, and specific symbols of priestly ranks. The Spirits of trees, stones, the days 7 Eagle and 7 Rain, and the volcanic powers then marched toward the huge pochote tree in the Sacred Valley, that is, the Sacred Mother Tree in the Valley of Yuta Tnoho (Apoala).

The story is interrupted here to introduce a second primordial couple: Lord 8 Alligator and Lady 4 Dog, seated in the Town of Jade and Turquoise (49). They too were Old Ones, deified Ancestors, seated in Heaven. The Maize Flower Maiden (Yoco) and the Dog Spirits of Wealth (To-ina) were their offspring.

The Town of Jade and Turquoise is obviously an important place in this origin story. The context suggests that it was located inside the Ñuu Dzaui region and had a status similar to that of the Mountain of Heaven at Yuta Tnoho (Apoala). A jewel or jade occurs next to a large Tree of Origin depicted in Codex Añute, page 2. In that case it is the Sacred Tree of the Town of Flames, which has been identified as Ñuu Ndecu (Achiutla). Indeed, the latter town is mentioned in the chronicle of Fray Francisco de Burgoa (1934b, I: 277) as one of the places to which the Ñuu Dzaui dynasties attributed their origin. Burgoa further calls Ñuu Ndecu (Achiutla) the “main temple of this nation, the oracle to consult for all matters of war and peace,” and documents the name of its Sacred Bundle as “Heart of the People” (Burgoa 1934b, I: 332 ff). Three stones form part of the Ñuu Ndecu toponym in Codex Añute (2): Stone of Jade (or Jewel), Stone of the Puma, and Stone of Flames. The latter of these is probably connected with the toponym Town of Flames, while the first two may represent two of the four wards mentioned with their Nahuatl names in an early colonial document known as the Suma de Visitas: Xiutepeque, “Turquoise Mountain,” and Miztepeque, “Puma Mountain,” respectively. The other two wards were called Iquipaltepeque, “Throne Mountain,” and Iztepeque, which may mean either “Knife Mountain” (itz-tepec) or “Blood Mountain” (ez-tepec).

3.3. The Place of Thirteen Stones and the birth of Lord 9 Wind ‘Quetzalcoatl’ (Codex Yuta Tnoho, 49).

These combined data suggest that the Town of Jade and Turquoise in Codex Yuta Tnoho, page 49, is an alternative (possibly more archaic) place sign of Ñuu Ndecu.⁷

The old couple, Lord 8 Alligator and Lady 4 Dog, performed rituals for a series of thirteen stones, each named in a particular way. Among them are Stone of the Jewel (Xiutepeque?), Stone of Sacrifice (Iztepeque?), and Stone of the Puma (Miztepeque?). The listing of thirteen stones recalls the Nahuatl concept teicpalli, “stone seats (of rulership).”⁸ A prayer text from Guerrero comes to mind:

Yoco, on the mat, on the throne,

on the thirteen thrones of the Great Rain,

I came to put in rows of thirteen for you, Rain,

you who are living in the houses of the mountain,

in the sanctuaries of the mountain.

Thirteen are the offerings for you,

thirteen to drink, thirteen to eat.

                                                 (Schultze Jena 1933–1938, III: 84)

After all the stones have been mentioned by name, Lord 9 Wind ‘Quetzalcoatl’ was born from a huge flint. He was the principal Founding Figure of ancient Ñuu Dzaui sacred history, a direct parallel to the divine Quetzalcoatl, the Plumed Serpent, that is, the Whirlwind, the main culture hero in the Central Mexican, that is, Toltec, tradition:

Quetzalcoatl—the wind,

the guide and roadsweeper of the rain gods,

of the masters of the water, of those who brought rain.

And when the wind rose, when the dust rumbled,

and it crackled and there was a great din, and it became dark

and the wind blew in many directions and it thundered,

then it was said: Quetzalcoatl is wrathful.

                                               (Sahagún 1950–1978, book I: ch. 5)

He is still very important in local lore. In present-day Ñuu Ndeya (Chalcatongo) he is well-known as Koo Sau, the “Rain Snake,” which corresponds to Coo Dzavui in the orthography of Alvarado. Codex Yuta Tnoho shows his actions in the primordial time of foundation (in illo tempore); later, he was venerated as a Sacred Bundle in different important sanctuaries.⁹ According to Burgoa, the Sacred Bundle that was venerated as the Heart of the People in Ñuu Ndecu contained a jade statuette of a winged serpent, clearly an image of Quetzalcoatl. If our reading is correct, Codex Yuta Tnoho explains that Lord 9 Wind ‘Quetzalcoatl’ was born from a huge flint in that Town of Jade, Ñuu Ndecu.

3.4. Lord 9 Wind ‘Quetzalcoatl’ descends from the Place of Heaven (Codex Yuta Tnoho, 48).

The following series of paired manifestations of the Quetzalcoatl figure, each with different attributes, is to be read as an invocation phrased in difrasismos (Codex Yuta Ynoho, 48). Lord 9 Wind is characterized as the lord of the precious materials and adornments that symbolize civilization: cotton, jade, gold, specific earplugs. He is the one with religious power: the magic dancer who fascinates and baffles people, the one venerated with braziers, the one who twists his limbs in shamanic convulsions. He is the mighty conqueror who inspires the warriors. And above all he is the speaker of precious words, the painter of books, from whose heart the songs flow because he is the pious one, the one who carries in his heart the Ñuhu and the Sacred Bundle of sticks symbolizing the Ancestors.

Lord 9 Wind was instructed by the Old Ones in the Place of Heaven as a young nahual-priest in a visionary trance. Heaven is the general symbol of the celestial abode of the Gods, comparable to Do Asean, the East, the place where the Mazatec shamans go to receive their power and instruction from the Ancestors. At the same time, as we have seen, in Ñuu Dzaui cosmology the Place of Heaven was situated on a mountain near Yuta Tnoho: Kaua Kaandiui (Cavua Caa Andevui), the “Rock that Rises into Heaven” or the “Rock on which Heaven Rests.” Lord 9 Wind came down from that celestial sanctuary on a whirling cord, covered with down balls, a symbol of his shamanic flight.¹⁰

Two titles behind him further clarify his status: eagle and fire serpent, yaha yahui, the difrasismo for nigromántico señor, that is, a nahual or shaman priest. Apparently, Fray Gregorio García was transcribing a very similar scene when he, or rather the person he was interviewing, interpreted the shamanic title as an indication that there were two brothers named Lord 9 Wind. The widespread Mesoamerican story of the twin brothers in the primordial time of creation (the Hunahpú and Ixbalanqué of the Popol Vuh) may have promoted such an interpretation. García says that the First Couple, Lord 1 Deer and Lady 1 Deer, had two sons: “Wind of 9 Serpents” and “Wind of 9 Caves.” The latter names do not make sense and have to be reconstructed as 9 Wind ‘Serpent’ and 9 Wind ‘Cave.’ As for this last term, “cave” is yahui in Dzaha Dzaui, a homonym of “fire serpent” (not taking into account tonal differences). In the following lines it is explained that the first boy could change himself into an eagle and that the nahual of the second boy was the fire serpent or ball of lightning:

Living, thus, these Gods [Ñuhu], Father and Mother of all the Gods

        [Ñuhu],

in their palaces and court, they got two male children,

very handsome, discrete, wise and skillful in all arts.

The name of the first was Wind of Nine Serpents [9 Wind ‘Serpent’],

taken from the day on which he was born.

The name of the second was Wind of Nine Caves [9 Wind ‘Yahui’],

which was also the name of the day of his birth.

These two boys grew up with great talents.

The elder for recreation transformed himself in[to] an eagle, flying high in

        the sky.

The second also transformed himself, in[to] a small animal, like a serpent

        with wings,

with which he flew through the air with such agility and subtlety,

that he passed through rocks and walls and made himself invisible,

so that those down on earth heard the loud noise that both made.

They took these forms to symbolize the power they had

to transform themselves and return to the form they had before.

                                                       (García 1981, book V: ch. 4)

The garbled names, then, qualify Lord 9 Wind as eagle (yaha) and fire serpent (yahui), that is, as a person of magic powers. Codex Yuta Tnoho shows how he brought down from Heaven a series of objects that later played a crucial role in royal rituals. Among these were the Sacred Arrow and a staff with a quincunx motif consisting of a disk with five dots on it. By following such objects in the record, we learn how political power was established and passed on in early history.

To this day, staffs are symbols of authority in Mesoamerican villages. Because of the quincunx on top, the German scholar Eduard Seler referred to these particular staffs as “Venus Staff.” Indeed, the same iconographic motif is found in the facial paint of the Venus deity. Ubaldo López García (2001), however, has pointed out that this motif survives today as an important symbol in Yuta Tnoho (Apoala), where it is known as Tukukua, “comb.” The term corresponds to Tnucucua, short for yutnu cucua, in the orthography of Alvarado, who translates it as “fence” (rexa). We think its basic meaning is “wooden frame.” In Yuta Tnoho today, it designates a special object, made of reeds and consisting of a square with two diagonal lines, that is put above the doors of new municipal authorities on the day of their inauguration. In this context, it probably represents the quadripartite structure of the village and the cosmos, connected in the center. Thus we interpret the quincunx as a symbol of ordered society, divided into four directional segments that meet in the center (axis mundi) and sustain each other in reciprocal interaction. With it, one evokes the cosmic order and primordial power. One is reminded of the God’s Eye (Ojo de Dios) staff of the Huicholes.

In the codices, this specific staff is associated with the ruling dynasty of Ñuu Tnoo and clearly represents the authority of that noble house. The combination with a flint knife reinforces its symbolic ability to control life and death. The fact that Lord 9 Wind brought it down from Heaven affirms the celestial and visionary origin of dynastic power. The Plumed Serpent carried these sacred objects to the water and mountain, that is, the yucu nduta (altepetl in Nahuatl) or “community,” of Ñuu Tnoo. He is shown in charge of the Temple of the Sun and the Temple of the Flayed God (Xipe)—references to the cults connected with the Ñuu Dzaui versions of the Mexica feasts Panquetzaliztli and Tlacaxipehualiztli, respectively.¹¹

The SACRED MOTHER TREE and the FIRST DAWN

After consulting with the Ancestral Spirits, Lord 9 Wind Quetzalcoatl took it upon himself to bring life and order to the greater Ñuu Dzaui region, carrying the water of Heaven, that is, the seasons, to the different places and in the process assigning sacred foundation dates to each.

The Great Lord “Plumed Serpent” took charge of the heavenly waters

and so caused the rain to fall, the seasons to come,

for all the mountains, all the rocks, all the rivers, all the plains,

all the towns and nations that form Ñuu Dzaui;

thus he established the holy years and days, the feasts,

for the towns, founded in the beginning, in the past,

for those on the banks of rivers full of gold,

where from the depth of the earth all living creatures sprouted,

for both oceans, with waves covered with foam,

for the sacred water (Pacific Ocean) where the horrific hurricane dwells,

the monster that demolishes the houses, destroys the fields and kills the

       people,

for the mountains of Ñuu Dzaui, which form a circle around, in harmony,

peaceful and soft as fur, as down-ball feathers,

in the center of which the Spirit lives, stretching towards the four

       directions,

for all lands, mountains, plains, bound together and unified,

for all that rises and has Heaven as its roof beam

for all that grows and has Earth as its fundament and origin,

where the sacred mountain of abundance is located,

where pulque is made.¹²

Lord 9 Wind’s link to the creation of the religious and political landscape, as well as to the first rituals, is also reflected in Gregorio García’s text:

Living, thus, in the house of their parents,

these brothers, enjoying great tranquility,

agreed to make offerings and sacrifice to the Gods [Ñuhu], their parents.

Therefore they took some ceramic incense burners with charcoal

on which they threw some powdered tobacco as incense.

And this was the first offering made in the world.

Having offered this sacrifice,

these two brothers made a garden for their recreation,

in which they put many sorts of trees, that bore flowers and roses,

and others that bore fruits, many herbs of fragrance and other species.

In this garden and orchard they used to recreate and amuse themselves.

Next to it they made a very beautiful field,

in which were all the things they needed

for the offerings and sacrifices,

that they had to make to the Gods [Ñuhu], their parents.

                                                       (García 1981, book V: ch. 4)

3.5. After having consulted with the Ancestors and the Nahuales, Lord 9 Wind ‘Quetzalcoatl’ carries the waters of Heaven to the Mountains of the Rain God, that is, Ñuu Dzaui. Notice (to the left) the symbol of the column rising from the open jaws of the alligator (Earth) into Heaven (Codex Yuta Tnoho, 47).

Then, again after consultations, this time with the Primordial Beings and Spirits of Nature, Lord 9 Wind caused the First Lords to be born out of the Tree in a Plain of Burned Tobacco, that is, a Sacred Plain. In the next pages it becomes clear that all this took place in the vicinity of “River with a Hand Holding Feathers,” which in several documents appears as the most important place of origin for the Ñuu Tnoo dynasty (Codex Yuta Tnoho, 37–35). Both the sign itself and the context point to the town of Yuta Tnoho (Santiago Apoala), mentioned by Friar Antonio de los Reyes as the place where the first Ñuu Dzaui Lords were born from a tree:

The general opinion among these Mixtecs was, that the origin and beginnings of their Gods and Lords had been in Apoala, a village here in the Mixteca, which in their language is called Yuta tnoho, “River from which the Lords came forward,” because they say that they were plucked from some trees that grew out of that river, which had specific names. They also call that village Yuta tnuhu, “River of the Lineages,” which is the most appropriate name and the most fitting. . . . As for the Lords and their birth, it could be that in ancient times some lords came from this village and that from there they dispersed over the other towns of La Mixteca, because of their eminence and success in war and that because of their heroic deeds they won specific names, as is now told about those who founded the principal towns in this Mixtec region. (Reyes 1976: I)

This opening statement of the Dominican friar in his grammar of Dzaha Dzaui gives several possible etymologies of Yuta Tnoho. The first word, yuta, means “river.” The second, tnoho, refers to the act of “plucking,” actually suggestive of the force with which the stream pulls out and carries away the plants and weeds that grow alongside it. A “plucking hand” therefore is painted in the sign of the river. To make the reading more pregnant, feathers are put in the hand. This device is in accordance with the verb “plucking,” but the fact that the feathers are those of a quetzal bird is indicative of the status of nobles or lords (toho), and their bundling may symbolize the lineage (tnuhu).

Obviously, the ancient account of how the Founding Ancestors of the Ñuu Dzaui dynasties had been born from a huge tree in Yuta Tnoho was extremely important to those dynasties. Fray Francisco de Burgoa gives a similar version in his chronicle: “The origin of La Mixteca was attributed to two high and proud trees with large branches, from which the wind plucked the leaves, standing on the bank of the river in the far-off solitude of Apoala between mountains . . . with the veins of this river grew the trees that brought forward the first caciques, man and woman, and henceforward they multiplied and populated an extended kingdom” (Burgoa 1934b, I: 274).

The Sacred Plain where the Tree stood, then, must be the small valley along the banks of the Yuta Tnoho, the river of Apoala. Those born from the Mother Tree were the divine Ancestors of the Ñuu Dzaui dynasties. Lord 9 Wind made fire, that is, created light, and gave them their names. Similarly, the Mexica believed Quetzalcoatl to be the Deity who carves the unborn babies as flakes of precious stone and, following the orders of the Powers of the Starry Sky, brings them out of the dark (yoayan) into the light of life (Sahagún 1950–1978, book VI: ch. 7, 34).

3.6. The Sacred Tree of Ñuu Ndecu (Codex Añute, 2).

By using the metaphor of the First Ancestors being born from a tree, Codex Yuta Tnoho (37) states that the Ñuu Dzaui ruling families identified their place of origin as Earth itself. The tree in question seems to have been a pochote, a thorny ceiba; one representation shows it with thorns and an eye (nuu) as a phonetic complement to make sure we read “ceiba” (nuu).¹³ In this version the tree is situated in the sacred valley of Yuta Tnoho. Another, similar tree is depicted in the opening scenes of Codex Añute, where it is situated in Ñuu Ndecu (Achiutla). Both towns, we saw, were places of special religious significance, associated with origins.

The tree birth took place in the time of creation, described as the primordial darkness. Later rulers claimed to be directly descended from those Founders of the dynasty. According to Codex Yuta Tnoho, it was the consultation between Lord 9 Wind and the primordial beings (Ñuhu) that caused the tree, represented as a maiden, to open and give birth. The pochote thus became the Sacred Mother of the dynasties. Two priestly figures are shown smoothing and incising the surface of the tree, decorating it with symbols of rulership and power (disks and arrows). They were the Spirits of the days 7 Eagle and 7 Rain, the former associated with the dynasty of Ñuu Tnoo and the latter with that of Zaachila.¹⁴

It was not until the First Lords had performed (and thereby instituted) a series of rituals dealing with maize, pulque, and hallucinogenic mushrooms that the Sun rose for the first time as a symbol of the beginning of human history. This great event is associated with a source of saltwater—possibly a reference to the sea above which the Sun was known to rise—and with an Altar of Songs or Voices (chiyo yehe ndudzu), that is, a “Famous Pyramid.” The latter sign may, at least conceptually, recall the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan.

3.7a. After the binding (alliance) of the primordial places of the region, Lord 9 Wind ‘Quetzalcoatl’ meets with the Spirits of Nature (Codex Yuta Tnoho, 38).

Next to the Altar, however, we find the toponym Stone Circle. This sign elsewhere occurs as part of a set of places situated in the Mixteca Baja. Reading stone as yuu and the circle as a “ring,” dzahi, we think this is the toponymic sign of Ñuu Dzai (Huajuapan). This was and still is a very important settlement, dominantly located in a large valley. Its main archaeological site, Cerro de las Minas, is an impressive acropolis dating back to Late Classic (Ñuiñe) times. The association of the First Sunrise with that area clearly refers to a collective memory of important early cultural development there, which is confirmed by archaeology; the Late Classic (Ñuiñe) carved stones from the Mixteca Baja are an important antecedent of the codices.

3.7b. The Mother Tree in the Sacred Valley (Codex Yuta Tnoho, 37).

The pictorial representation of the event (Codex Yuta Tnoho, 23) explicitly refers to a phrase of the sahu or parangón, which we can reconstruct in Dzaha Dzaui:

Nicana Iya Ndicandii dzeque yucu.

Nicana Iya Ndicandii dzeque yodzo.

Nicana Iya Ndicandii dzeque ichi.

The Sun rose above the mountains.

The Sun rose above the valleys.

The Sun rose above the roads.

The accompanying sacred date is the one often given for primordial events: year 13 Rabbit day 2 Deer. It is the day after 1 Death, the calendar name of the Sun God. The day 2 Deer may further allude to the Great Mother and Great Father, Lady 1 Deer and Lord 1 Deer, mentioned in the beginning of the codex. An additional day is associated with the First Sunrise: 1 Flower, indicative of the close symbolic relationship between flowers and sunshine (the precious prince Lord 7 Flower being an alternative manifestation of the Sun God). The primordial dawn is the moment of the foundation of settlements and dynasties; it marks the destiny of a people to enter history.¹⁵

3.8. Meeting in Ñuu Dzai (Huajuapan) and the First Sunrise (Yuta Tnoho, 23).

Then, already in the time of light, the First Lords and Ladies founded the mats and thrones, the dynasties, by celebrating the new fire ceremony, in commemoration and magical repetition of the primordial sunrise. Fray Antonio de los Reyes adds an important detail: the First Lords and Ladies divided themselves and took possession of Ñuu Dzaui in a quadripartite fashion.¹⁶

Codex Yuta Tnoho lists these four directions of the Ñuu Dzaui world, together with the center, each identified through specific toponyms:

• The North is Yucu Naa, “Dark Mountain,” and is represented by a Split Mountain with Checkerboard motif. The sign likely refers to a specific mountain or ravine in the area of Tepexic (Tepeji de la Seda).¹⁷ The Founding Priest is Lord 2 Dog. The description of the foundation rituals in this area is given special prominence, as this was where the main towns of the Ñuiñe (Classic Mixtec) culture had flourished. Thus, after having been performed for the landscape of Yucu Naa, the new fire ritual took place in the land of Yuhua Cuchi (Guaxolotitlan) in the Mixteca Baja, under the direction of Lord 4 Movement, and in the lands of the First Sunrise, under the direction of Lord 7 Flower.

• Yaa Yuta, Ash River, represents the West. Clearly, the Río Nejapa is meant, the western boundary of the Ñuu Dzaui region. It is the area of the Grandmother of the River (Sitna Yuta), Lady 1 Eagle, Patroness of childbirth. Fourteen steam-bath buildings are named as part of her invocation.

• In the South stands the Death Temple Huahi Cahi, a cave close to Ñuu Ndaya (Chalcatongo) where the Ñuu Dzaui rulers were buried. Lady 9 Grass ‘Cihuacoatl’ holds power here.

• The East is called Andevui, “Heaven,” in Dzaha Dzaui. It is represented by the Place of Heaven, the Kaua Kaandiui close to Yuta Tnoho (Apoala). The ceremony was directed by Lord 4 Alligator and Lord 11 Alligator.

• The Center is painted as the Heart of the Earth (Ini Ñuhu). It is the realm of Lady 5 Flint and Lady 7 Flint, both called Maize Flower. In Dzaha Dzaui this name (yoco) is synonymous with a term for “spirit.” The Heart of the Earth is associated with both death (burial) and fertility (germinating seeds). The religious center of the Ñuu Dzaui region was Ñuu Ndecu (Achiutla), where the Heart of the People was venerated.

These directional markers probably stem from the Classic time, as they include the Mixteca Alta and the Mixteca Baja but not the coast, which may not have been settled by speakers of Dzaha Dzaui until the Early Postclassic. On the other hand, these signs delimit an area in which the Ñuu Dzaui people lived together with the Ngigua (Chocho-Popoloca), the Cuicatecs, and other peoples. These peoples used the same set of directional markers, as demonstrated by the Codex Yada (Tututepetongo), the Lienzo of Tlapiltepec, and the Roll of the New Fire (commonly referred to as the Selden Roll).

In the emblematic sites of the center and the four directions, the First Lords drilled the new fire and thereby initiated history. We interpret the ritual of drilling (kindling) a new fire as a symbolic reference to the first light of the primordial sunrise. At the same time it is a ceremony of inauguration of new rulership. In the Mexica world the ruler himself was compared to a torch. During his enthronement the priests declared:

3.9. Lord 2 Dog cleansing the landscape of the North (Codex Yuta Tnoho, 21).

3.10. Lady 1 Eagle receiving homage in the West (Codex Yuta Tnoho, 16).

The same symbolism of a passage of darkness to light is the root of many other conceptualizations in Mesoamerica. The Mexica situated the souls of the unborn in Yoayan, “the Place / Time of Night,” and the origin of tribes in the subterraneous Chicomoztoc, “Cave 7.” The same cavern is referred to as a metaphor for the womb.¹⁸

The new fire ritual is combined with the foundation of a ceremonial center. The ritual starts with a sacred date, in connection with the sign for “foundation and dedication of the town.”¹⁹ Offerings are mentioned. In “year 1” (cuiya ee) the lands are measured with cords, and a special carved rectangular stone (yuu saha, “foot stone”) arrives to serve as the cornerstone and fundament of the main temple. It is followed by other stones for the construction of altars (chiyo) and pyramid staircases (ndiyo). This activity is combined with a ritual cleansing, today known in Spanish as “limpia”: a priest raises a handful of branches (in this case carefully selected to represent the different kinds of leaves) and passes them over the land, purifying it and giving names to the mountains, rivers, and places. The temples, in turn, take their names from the distinctive places in the landscape. In other words, the constructed world (huahi, “house,” or yuq, “temple”) mimics the natural landscape (yucu, “mountain”). At the same time, a binary opposition between the urban world (ñuu) and Nature or Earth (ñuhu) is created. A central area (plaza) is laid out, on the sides of which four temples are constructed. They likely represent the four cosmic directions, with their specific symbolic and mantic associations.

3.11a, b. Lady 9 Grass and the landscape of the South (Codex Yuta Tnoho, 14, 15).

3.12. Founding ceremony in the East (Codex Yuta Tnoho, 13 left).

Such an arrangement is also present in the religious pictorial manuscripts of the Teoamoxtli Group (e.g., Codex Yoalli Ehecatl / Borgia, 49–52):

1. The cycle starts with the Heaven Temple in the East, the home of the Sun God.

2. In the North is the Temple of the Moon, dedicated to the Deity Itztlacoliuhqui (“Curved Obsidian Blade”).

3. The Temple of the West is characterized by a precious yetecomatl, the gourd with piciete (Nicotiana rustica) as the symbol of cult, and is dedicated to the Maize God.

4. The South is the Temple of Death.

3.13. The two Ladies of the Center (Codex Yuta Tnoho, 12 left).

Codex Yuta Tnoho gives the Ñuu Dzaui canon of the four sanctuaries:

1. Temple of the Eye has to be read as huahi nuu, “the first or most important house.” The eye also likely connotes the obligatory vigil of the priests. The eye (nuu) is also used to identify the ceiba or pochote tree (yutnu nuu), the sacred origin of the rulers.²⁰

2. Temple of the Fallen Bird, perhaps to be understood as Huahi Cadza, “Potent Temple,” in which cadza would have been written as caa dzaa, “the bird lies down.”²¹

3. Temple of the Bowl with Blood, that is, of bloodletting.²²

4. Temple of Cacao and Blood. Even today, turkey blood and ground cacao are the ingredients of Mazatec offerings to the Spirits of the Earth, to confirm the covenant with Nature.²³ In a phonetic way the cacao (dzehua) and the color red (quaha) of the liquid can also be read as the verbs yodzehua, yoquaha, “to create, to invent,” which appear in the expression Iya ñuhu tnani huisi, ñuhu ninduyu nidzehua niquahaya, “Lord God (who is) intelligent and capable, God (who) thought, created and constructed,” apparently an ancient title used to render the Spanish reference to the Creator: “autor Dios creador de todas las cosas.”

Many symbolic references surround the personages and dates of that foundation era. The version in which Lord 9 Wind was born from a flint knife recalls the Mexica sacred story in which Quetzalcoatl is the “son” of the Goddess Cihuacoatl. His mother, it is told, went around as a market woman, carrying the sacrificial knife as her baby, reminding the community of its obligation to make offerings. In the representation of a long and complex ritual in Codex Yoalli Ehecatl (Borgia) we find the Quetzalcoatl priest associated with the dark ceremonial center of Cihuacoatl in her death aspect.

3.14a. Temple of the East with its “divinatory landscape” (Codex Yoalli Ehecatl, 49).

Lord 9 Wind is also presented as the son of the First Couple (in the Roll of the New Fire), which in turn parallels the Mexica Creator Couple associated with Chicomoztoc: Cipactonal (“Day Alligator”) and Oxomoco (“Force of the Pregnant Woman”).²⁴ The Cipactonal figure is the typical carrier of the piciete gourd. Many priests have this attribute. One in particular, Lord 2 Dog, is portrayed as the companion of Lord 9 Wind. The two men assist each other in the ear piercing and name giving ritual. They were probably archetypical priests, the prototypes of Quetzalcoatl priests and Cipactonal priests. Both personages had directional associations: Lord 9 Wind is connected with the East and the Heaven Temple, while Lord 2 Dog is the Priest of the North.²⁵

3.14b. Temple of the North with its “divinatory landscape” (Codex Yoalli Ehecatl, 50).

3.14c. Temple of the West with its “divinatory landscape” (Codex Yoalli Ehecatl, 51).

MARRIAGE in YUTA TNOHO

Events in sacred time are by definition impossible to date. Reconstructing a chronological sequence of this early part of Ñuu Dzaui history is therefore a hazardous enterprise, fraught with difficulties and possible mistakes. Sacred dates that mark the foundation of kingdoms and dynasties (in place-date combinations) and symbolic dates chosen as proper for a scene (because they point to the influence of certain deities) are mixed with the dates of actual historical events. Moreover, contradictions and inconsistencies exist in the record, partly because the paintings correspond to a later period and register different oral traditions about “the ancient time,” not unlike European medieval epics about the Knights of the Round Table or the court of Charlemagne. Furthermore, the process of reading and copying the ancient manuscripts produced and accumulated its own errors.

3.14d. Temple of the South with its “divinatory landscape” (Codex Yoalli Ehecatl, 52).

Following the genealogical sequence and the synchronic relationships of some individuals, we offer here a series of hypothetical correlations. Often we have doubts, however. Personages meeting in one scene were not necessarily contemporaneous; some may have been deceased Ancestors, shown present at the event because of their emblematic value, while others may have ended up in the scene because of the combination of different oral traditions. When we try to bring the data together to form one coherent picture, a particular image emerges that, however vague and insecure, seems to represent the general outline of how people in the Postclassic looked at the beginning of their history.

During the time of darkness, before the First Sunrise, Lord 9 Wind ‘Quetzalcoatl’ was approached by Lord 1 Flower and his wife, Lady 13 Flower. Both belonged to the offspring of the Tree in the sacred valley of Yuta Tnoho. They were an old couple, but from their marriage a daughter had been born: Lady 9 Alligator ‘Rain Woman, Plumed Serpent.’ Lord 9 Wind acted as a marriage ambassador for her. He went to the Place of Heaven and spoke to Lord 5 Wind ‘Rain,’ who was also among the offspring of the Tree and resided in the celestial sanctuary. Listening to Lord 9 Wind’s request, Lord 5 Wind came down from Heaven, and, shortly thereafter, his marriage to Lady 9 Alligator was celebrated in Yuta Tnoho.²⁶

3.15. The marriage of Lord 5 Wind and Lady 9 Alligator in Yuta Tnoho (Codex Yuta Tnoho, 35).

A more detailed historical account is given in Codex Ñuu Tnoo–Ndisi Nuu (verso, 40–39). It starts with a sacred date, which is no longer legible, and then confirms that Lord 1 Flower ‘Quetzal’ and Lady 13 Flower ‘Quetzal’ were born in the Place of the Two Rivers, Yuta Tnoho.²⁷ Their daughter was Lady 9 Alligator ‘Rain, Plumed Serpent.’

The father and mother, Lord 1 Flower and Lady 13 Flower, listened to the words of the old Lord 4 Alligator and another person, whose name is no longer legible but was probably Lord 11 Alligator. The two men acted as ambassadors.²⁸ Interestingly, here the ambassadors come to speak with the father of the bride, as is the Ñuu Dzaui custom, while in Codex Yuta Tnoho it was the father of the bride who took the initiative to send somebody to look for a son-in-law.

The parents of the prospective groom, who sent the ambassadors, were the rulers of a town, painted as Carrying Frame and Sweat-bath. The Nahuatl terms for these elements are cacaxtli and temazcalli, respectively. In Dzaha Dzaui the carrying frame is called sito, which can be used to express the word sitoho, toho, or simply to-, “noble lord”; it may refer to the title of the persons associated with this place. The sweat-bath, ñehe, is the diagnostic element in the sign of Ñuu Niñe, “Town of Heat” (Tonalá) in the Mixteca Baja.²⁹

Thus, according to Codex Yuta Tnoho, the prospective groom, Lord 5 Wind, was born from the Sacred Tree, but Codex Ñuu Tnoo–Ndisi Nuu explains his ancestry in a special note (40/39-I). First, a sacred foundation date is given for the Place of the Carrying Frame and Sweat-bath (Ñuu Niñe) and its dynasty. Only the day sign Flower is still visible, with a number of dots that may have been seven in total. It was then that in Ñuu Niñe both Lord 8 (?) Alligator ‘Coyote-Bird’ and Lady 7 Flower ‘Quetzal’ were born from the Earth. They married and became the founders of the dynasty.³⁰ On the day 9 Wind of the year 6 Flint, Lord 9 Wind ‘Flint Serpent’ was born, who later married Lady 4 Wind ‘Beauty of Flowers.’ Their son was Lord 4 Movement ‘Eagle,’ who married Lady 6 Eagle ‘Parrot-Maize Flower.’ This couple, in turn, gave birth to Lord 5 Wind ‘Rain who came down from Heaven’ in the year 5 Reed. This date may well be historical, as it fits the chronological sequence; it would then correspond to A.D. 835. This is fascinating information because, if correct, it goes back to the Classic time, the period in which the Ñuiñe style dominated the Mixteca Baja.

3.16. Lord 1 Flower, Lady 13 Flower, and Lord 5 Wind among the offspring of the Sacred Mother Tree (Codex Yuta Tnoho, 36).

Coming originally from a noble family in Ñuu Niñe and later seated in the Place of Heaven, Lord 5 Wind seems to have become a priest and to have left his hometown in the Mixteca Baja to do service in the ceremonial center on Cavua Caa Andevui. Obviously, the implication of a priest coming from a rather distant town like Ñuu Niñe is that even in those days, the ninth century, Yuta Tnoho (Apoala) was a religious center of regional importance.

After finishing his priestly service, Lord 5 Wind married a local lady whose parents were from Yuta Tnoho, “born from the earth” or “born from the Tree.” His wife, Lady 9 Alligator, had been born in the year 8 Flint (864). The marriage took place in the year 9 Rabbit (878), when she was fourteen years old (Codex Yuta Tnoho, 35). Keeping in mind that Lord 5 Wind would have passed some time in priestly service in the Place of Heaven, these dates harmonize with his birth in the year 5 Reed (835); he would have been forty-three years old when he married.³¹

An offering was made at the river; paper, beads, a rosette of leaves, and a jewel were deposited there.³² Both Lady 9 Alligator and Lord 5 Wind are wearing the mask of the Rain God. This can be interpreted as a name element, but it also connects them to the Patron Deity of Ñuu Dzaui. As this is a detail they have in common with most people of those days, as represented in Codex Ñuu Tnoo–Ndisi Nuu, it suggests an emphasis on the fact that they belonged to the Ñuu Dzaui people and were devotees of the Rain God.

Moreover, Lady 9 Alligator and Lord 5 Wind are called “people who were like rabbits and deer.” The Mexica used this difrasismo for wandering people (Sahagún 1950–1978, book VI: ch. 43), that is, nomads, living in the mountains. Here it may also refer to the Ancestors being considered “divine procreators of the plants, stones, animals, and Ñuhu.” A more extensive series of titles in Codex Yuta Tnoho (34) qualifies this Founding Couple as:

those who gave throne and cradle (i.e., the origin of the dynasty),

who are lying on the roads and in the irrigation canals,

under the rocks and the trees

(i.e., present both in cultural constructions and in nature).

These qualifications were immediately recognized by a Ñuu Dzaui curandera (medicine woman) as a description of the earth spirits (Ñuhu), who are present in specific spots and can cause soul loss to a human being who suffers a sudden traumatic experience (Spanish: susto) in such a spot. Thus we can interpret the statement as saying that this was the ancestral couple who gave birth to the elements of Nature and to the nobles, who, after death, became Ñuhu, Spirits of Nature.

Lord 5 Wind and Lady 9 Alligator had two children: Lord 5 Reed ‘Valiant Warrior’ and Lady 8 Deer ‘Decorated Quechquemitl’ (or ‘Beauty of Mosaic’). Lord 5 Reed’s given name is painted as “arrows in the back.” The back is normally yata, but in the metaphorical language of the nobles it is yusa, which actually means “shield.” The combination yusa (shield, back) and nduvua (“arrow”) is the difrasismo for a valiant warrior.

Lady 8 Deer went to see her paternal grandparents, which suggests that she would become a future ruler of Ñuu Niñe. Her father, Lord 5 Wind, was then approached by an ambassador, Lord 1 Alligator ‘Rain Sun,’ who arrived with a precious marriage gift (tobacco and cacao, jade and gold) to ask for the hand of Lord 5 Reed. After the arrangements were made, Lord 5 Reed was carried by another ambassador, the priest Lord 1 Wind ‘Quetzalcoatl,’ from Yuta Tnoho to the home of his bride, Lady 3 Serpent ‘Flower of the Rising Ñuhu’ (Ita nicana ñuhu, “Flower of the Dawn or the Orient”). She was the daughter of Lord 7 Movement ‘Rain, Visible Maize Flower,’ who held the titles ‘Jaguar, Jade Toad, Turquoise Frog,’ and Lady 7 Grass ‘Rain, Maize Tooth (i.e., Corn Kernel).’ The names and titles of both clearly refer to the symbolic sphere of the Rain God and agriculture. The couple had sprouted from the Mountain of the Feather Ornament, a precious place (of jade and gold), a place of nahuales (coyote-serpent and blood serpent).³³ Its sacred dynastic date was year 5 Rabbit day 7 Jaguar.

The normal procedure in Postclassic and present-day Ñuu Dzaui culture is for the ambassador to ask for the bride’s hand in marriage and for the bride to be carried to the groom’s house. As here it is the groom who is carried to the place of his bride, we suppose that Lord 1 Alligator is the ambassador who represents the interests of the woman’s family. His role is similar to that of Lord 9 Wind one generation earlier (Yuta Tnoho, 35). Obviously, the deviation from the normal custom is the reason this detail is mentioned in the codices. Its occurrence in this early period may reflect the survival of an older custom (the norm of the Classic period?) or simply the girl’s parents’ need to find a suitable groom.

Lady 3 Serpent and Lord 5 Reed had a daughter, Lady 13 Eagle ‘Bird with Precious Tail,’ who married Lord 5 Alligator ‘Rain.’ He had been born in the year 8 Reed (903) and came from the precious Mountain of Pearls with Face, which may represent Nuu Siya (Tezoatlan) in the Mixteca Baja.³⁴ Antonio de los Reyes gives the Dzaha Dzaui name of that town as Nuu Siya, which can be analyzed as “Face (nuu) of (si) the Lord (iya).” The toponym may have been represented by a mountain with the face (nuu) of a lord (iya), phonetically reinforced by a heap of pearls (sii). Moreover, the mouth with beard and teeth suggests it is an old face, and in Dzaha Dzaui “grandfather” is sii, homonymous with “pearl” (not taking into account the tones).

Given the connection of Lady 13 Eagle’s grandfather with Ñuu Niñe (Tonalá), it would not be unusual for her to marry a lord from its important neighbor, Nuu Siya (Tezoatlan).

The marriage date is given as the day 12 Deer of the year 8 House. The equivalence of this year would be A.D. 877 or 929, neither of which fits into the sequence of year dates here. A good solution would be to correct the year to 9 House (917).

A big stalk of maize with flowers and cobs characterizes the union (mat) of Lady 13 Eagle and Lord 5 Alligator. The multiple references to maize establish a contrast between this couple and Lady 9 Alligator and Lord 5 Wind of Yuta Tnoho, who had been qualified as “rabbit and deer.” The story seems to indicate that the early rulers were nomadic hunters and that the intermarriage with the noble house of Lord 7 Movement and Lady 7 Grass introduced the cultivation of maize. Thereby the place of origin of this latter couple becomes identified with the primordial “Mountain of Sustenance,” called Tonacatepetl in Nahuatl. Archaeology shows that milpa agriculture was much more ancient in Ñuu Dzaui, but the codices seem to project the different ways of food procurement—hunting and agriculture—on the first generations of rulers. At the same time, the image of maize flowers and cobs symbolizes fertility and prosperity.³⁵

Lady 13 Eagle and Lord 5 Alligator had a daughter, Lady 6 Eagle ‘Jewel Flower.’³⁶ When the time came for her to marry, her father, Lord 5 Alligator ‘Rain,’ was visited by Lord 2 Rain ‘Jaguar-Sun.’ He did not come empty-handed but offered a large number of birds he had shot with his blowgun when they were perched on a tree on the Hill of Vapors, in the territory of the Rain God, that is, in Ñuu Dzaui.³⁷

Clearly, the short scene implies a reference to a story well-known to the audience. The context suggests that it was a specific task the young man had to bring to a good end to merit the bride’s hand—a well-documented narrative theme.³⁸ Bird hunting seems to have been an important activity, with both a “sport” element to it, like a ball game, and an economic profit: the feathers were a precious commodity, to be used in mosaics and elegant clothing. It was associated with a specific place, full of danger: the huge and windy mountain range near Tutla, in the frontier zone between the Mixteca Alta and the Mixteca Baja. Such a context suggests good possibilities to elaborate on the painted scene in oral performance: the frightening landscape, the determination of the daring and ambitious young man, and similar factors.

As the consequence of all this, Lady 6 Eagle married Lord 2 Rain, who had been born from an arrow thrown by Lord 1 Movement ‘Venus’ into the Mountain of the Brazier and the Jaguar. The arrow of a star can be understood as a metaphor for ray of light—both are nduvua in Dzaha Dzaui. The statement, then, is to be understood as saying that Lord 2 Rain was a “child of light”: he belonged to the people created at the beginning of history.³⁹ The sacred foundation date of this place included the day 1 Alligator. The area where the year sign should be has been damaged. We reconstruct year 1 Reed day 1 Alligator, a frequently occurring metaphoric date for “beginnings.”

In the year 4 Rabbit (938), Lady 6 Eagle and Lord 2 Rain had their first child: Lord 7 Movement ‘Earth Face’ (or ‘Cave Mouth’). In following years, 6 Flint (940) and 9 Reed (943), respectively, a son, Lord 1 (?) Dog, and a daughter, Lady 5 Reed ‘Jewel Pulque-Vessel,’ were born.

In the year 5 House (965)—or, less likely, 6 House (953)—on the day 1 Alligator, the eldest son, Lord 7 Movement, married Lady 12 Serpent ‘Blood Knife.’ They became the rulers of the Town of the Xipe Bundle, allied with the Mountain of Blood and White Flowers.⁴⁰ Their descendants would rule the Town of the Xipe Bundle—the most famous among them Lord 4 Wind. His is the noble house that traces its origin back to Lady 9 Alligator and Lord 5 Wind.

Actually, this is the clearest case of direct descent claimed from Lady 9 Alligator and Lord 5 Wind, who are so important in the early history treated in these manuscripts. Furthermore, this primordial couple associated with the town of Yuta Tnoho became a reference point for other noble houses to connect with in a more indirect way; the Founding Fathers of those other lineages went to Yuta Tnoho to make offerings to Lady 9 Alligator and Lord 5 Wind and to ask them for permission or blessings.⁴¹

SUMMARY OF THE LINEAGE

Lord 1 Flower + Lady 13 Flower (Tree of Yuta Tnoho)

Lady 9 Alligator (b. 864) + Lord 5 Wind (b. 835, Ñuu Niñe), married 878

Lord 5 Reed + Lady 3 Serpent (daughter of Lord 7 Movement and Lady 7 Grass)

Lady 13 Eagle + Lord 5 Alligator (b. 903, Nuu Siya)

Lady 6 Eagle + Lord 2 Rain (“child of light”)

Lord 7 Movement (b. 938) + Lady 12 Serpent, rulers of Xipe Bundle

The SACRED LANDSCAPE of YUTA TNOHO

Codex Tonindeye (36) shows Lord 5 Wind and Lady 9 Alligator, along with her parents, seated on the two rivers in the Valley of Yuta Tnoho surrounded by stony cliffs. Comparing this impressive landscape painting with the geographical situation of Yuta Tnoho, we observe that the painting was conceived from the perspective of the Mountain of Heaven. The landscape is shaped in the form of a Plumed Serpent, indicating that his divine power dominated the area and was manifest there.⁴² The head of the serpent represents the Yavui Coo Maa, “Deep Cave of the Serpent,” located at the entrance of the Valley of Yuta Tnoho. A spring flowing from the cave nourishes the main river in the valley, the Yuta Tnoho, locally pronounced Yutsa Tohon, which gave its name to the village. The tail of the serpent is formed by the waterfall that plunges into the lower Yodo Maa at the precipice that is the natural end of the valley.

Today, the area where the cave is located is called “the head” of the valley, while the part where the precipice and the waterfall are found is considered “the foot.” The small valley is filled with terraces, the surfaces of which show many sherds, pieces of obsidian, and other archaeological fragments, indicating that the area was inhabited intensively for a long time. In the center a small stream, Danama, now dry during most of the year, comes down through a gorge next to the main cliff, the Kaua Laki, and joins the Yuta Tnoho. Kaua Laki calls our attention because of a large cave entrance in the rock face, out of reach but filled with archaeological remains that indicate its importance in precolonial times; furthermore, the protective image of a standing warrior (danzante) was carved in the rock under it, probably during Classic times. The open jaws of a serpent, decorated with abundant feathers, form his headdress and characterize him as dedicated to the Plumed Serpent, sharing nahual power with the great Culture Hero.

Tradition has it that in ancient times a huge tree once stood along the banks of the river. Its branches covered the entire valley. Its place was somewhat farther down the river, before one arrives at the precipice, and is still known as Tinuu. Today, that term is locally known as the name of the tejocote tree. We suggest it comes from tnu-nuu, which means ceiba or pochote according to both Alvarado and present-day usage in the coastal area.

3.17a. Four priests make offerings to the Cave of the Serpent in the Sacred Valley of Yuta Tnoho; on the place signs: Lord 5 Wind and Lady 9 Alligator with her parents (Codex Tonindeye, 36).

In Codex Tonindeye (36) this Tree of Origin is depicted on top of the cascade. A tongue with jade is added to the falling waters, qualifying the sound as precious. At the bottom a jade-colored square is added, probably referring to the beautiful pond at the foot of the waterfall.

Yavui Coo Maa is still a ritual place, dominated by the figure of a large stalagmite in the cave, locally known as the “Bishop.” At the end of the nineteenth century Mariano López Ruiz explored the cave (then called “Yucuman”) and wrote down a local legend that explained the stalagmite as a petrified manifestation of the great culture hero, a white and bearded man, full of wisdom, who a long time ago had come from far away, lived in the village, and taught the people arts, sciences, and culture.⁴³ His text documents the colonial transformation of the Plumed Serpent; the ancient Creator of Social Life is remodeled according to the ideal of a priest in European-Christian terms and described as a superior, idealized form of a Spanish monk.⁴⁴

Present-day local legends tell about a fugitive king passing through the town and leaving his wife under the protection of the local Lord. When he came back for her, however, the Lord of Yuta Tnoho did not want to hand her over. The king returned with a treasure as ransom and with an army of giant warriors who uprooted the land, looking for the queen, and thus excavated the area beyond the precipice, now known as Yodo Maa. When they arrived at the location where the precipice is now, the sun came up and they all turned to stone and became Ñuhu, venerated Earth Spirits—the king, the treasure, and the warriors, as huge gray blocks lying dispersed in the valley near the precipice. The queen, who had been confined to the Yavui Coo Maa, also turned to stone in the center of a small subterranean pond. Water flows from her body, nourishing the Yuta Tnoho and reportedly other streams as well.⁴⁵

In Codex Tonindeye (36) the Yavui Coo Maa is the place where the primordial priests Lord 4 Serpent and Lord 7 Serpent (Qhyo Sayo, the Patrons of Ñuu Tnoo), in the company of Lord 1 Rain and Lord 7 Rain, celebrated rituals.⁴⁶ From here they started a pilgrimage. The road on which they left the valley started at the cave and, therefore, must be the passage through the Peña Cerrada, where the river, before entering the valley, streams between two high cliffs, forming a natural gateway. This was likely the ancient entrance to the sacred valley of Yuta Tnoho. Now the route is still used by those who walk from the town to Atoco (Nochixtlan).

The four priests, leaving Yuta Tnoho, passed through a valley, where a “cradle,” that is, a sanctuary, of the Rain God (dzoco Dzavui) was located. They then arrived at a number of places in the Mixteca Alta, where they encountered Lord 9 Wind ‘Quetzalcoatl’ and other primordial Lords (Lord 7 Alligator and Lord 7 Monkey). The area is painted as a big valley between two mountains. One is a precious mountain, crowned by clouds and reaching into Heaven, associated with a Place of the Quetzal Bird. On the other side is the Mountain of a Pointed Object, the site of a palace on a pyramid. In the middle of the valley we see a ceremonial precinct dominated by a stone temple, with the signs Spiderweb and Rock of the Fly. These places occur in a similar sequence in Codex Yuta Tnoho, page 42, which suggests that they are relatively close to Ñuu Tnoo (Tilantongo), mentioned immediately after Rock of the Fly. Given the surroundings, the Spiderweb Place is probably Andua in the Valley of Yodzo Cahi (Yanhuitlan).⁴⁷ The Rock of the Fly has to be Yucu Tiyuqh (Sayultepec), “Hill of Flies,” a close neighbor of Andua. The Mountain of the Quetzal in Codex Tonindeye corresponds to the Town of the Sacrified Quetzal in Codex Yuta Tnoho; “quetzal” is ndodzo, while taa ndodzo is the term for “valiant warrior,” associated with human sacrifice (Acuña 1984, I: 284–285). Ndodzo is also the preposition “on top of,” “in front of.” We therefore read the place sign as Ñuu Ndodzo, “Quetzal Town” or “Prominent Fortress, Observation Post,” known today as Huitzo, on the frontier between the Ñuu Dzaui people and the Beni Zaa (Zapotecs).

3.17b. The four priests begin a journey (Codex Tonindeye, 37).

The Mountain of the Pointed Object corresponds to Mountain of the Horn in Codex Yuta Tnoho, mentioned between Huitzo and Andua. In view of this latter name and the geographical context, the most logical candidate is Yucu Ndeque, “Mountain of the Horn,” known in Nahuatl as Huauhtla or Huauclilla (probably from Cuacuauhtla), strategically located on the Camino Real that connected the Valley of Oaxaca with Central Mexico.⁴⁸

After visiting these places, Lord 1 Rain and Lord 7 Rain continued their pilgrimage and arrived at the Place of the Mountain of Fire and Two Mountains with Openings.

3.17c. The four priests participate in the foundation ritual of Spiderweb Place, that is, Andua in the Valley of Yanhuitlan (Codex Tonindeye, 38).

3.17d. The four priests arrive at the landscape dominated by the Mountain of Fire (Codex Tonindeye, 39).

A round cartouche containing a curved black-and-white band appears in the central Mountain of Fire. This motif occurs later (p. 41) stretched out under a frieze as part of the place sign where the dynastic palace is located. The orifice in combination with flames in the central mountain suggests that we are dealing with a volcano (cf. Codex Tonindeye, 80), but the characteristic covering with snow is absent here, so we cannot be sure. The red orifices may also refer to places of origin. If indeed it is meant to refer to a town at the foot of three volcanoes, the painting might represent the Valley of Cholula, dominated by the active Popocatepetl in company of the Iztaccihuatl and the Malinche.⁴⁹ Raising the Tnucucua staff in their hands, the primordial Ñuu Dzaui Lords went there to bring order and power and to found the local dynasty.

The ROLL of the NEW FIRE (SELDEN ROLL)

An alternative version of the creation story does not start with the river or tree of Yuta Tnoho but combines a reference to the Place of Heaven with a mention of the Rock of the Seven Caves, surrounded by primordial darkness (Codex Tonindeye, 14). The Nahuas called this place of origin Chicomoztoc (chicome = “seven,” oztotl = “cave,” and -c is the locative suffix); they used the term also as a metaphor for the womb. This symbolic image of Heaven and Chicomoztoc dominates the opening scene of a manuscript from the Coixtlahuaca Valley known as the Selden Roll. This is a particularly interesting document, as it seems to combine both Central Mexican (Toltec) and Ñuu Dzaui elements in its narrative. Its central theme is the ritual for the foundation of a dynasty. Because of this, we propose to rename it “Roll of the New Fire.”⁵⁰

In Heaven we find the familiar scene of Lord 9 Wind ‘Quetzalcoatl’ receiving instructions from Lord 1 Deer and Lady 1 Deer.⁵¹ Heaven itself is not represented as a concrete place but is connected with signs of Sun and Moon, which emphasize its cosmic character and indicate that we are in illo tempore, the time of foundations, when it became light. The associated sacred date, year 1 Reed day 1 Alligator, also situates the scene in the beginning of time. Heaven is situated above the surface of the Earth (the opened jaws of the Great Alligator) on which four men are seated: Lords 1 Flint, 7 Flint, 5 Flint, and 12 Flint. These calendar names are paired, representing the days 118 and 138, 18 and 38 of the 260-day cycle; they seem to refer to ritually important days. Footsteps coming from and returning to Heaven may symbolize the shamanic contact.

Below this scene follows the depiction of the Chicomoztoc Cave. A descending fire serpent (yahui) qualifies it as a place of visions. The sacred dates of Earth and Chicomoztoc are year 7 Reed day 7 Reed and year 7 Flint day 7 Flint, respectively.

Four priests are shown coming forward from this cave. Black painting around the eyes identifies them as sahmi nuu, speakers of the Nahuatl language, that is, Toltecs.⁵² Woven crowns of palm leaves characterize them as belonging to a specific people. They go to fetch the Sacred Bundle of Quetzalcoatl in the Temple of Earthquakes, conquer three emblematic places—Mountain of the Jaguar, Mountain of the Eagle, and Mountain of the Guacamaya—and then cross the Stream of Dark and Light Waters, which is under the patronage of the Great Mother Goddess of the West. They ask the old priest Lord 2 Dog permission to continue their voyage through a subterranean passage, which is the entrance to the Coixtlahuaca Valley. It can be identified as the cave tunnel of the Puente Colosal situated on the Ndaxagua River, the northern entrance to the Coixtlahuaca Valley; this extremely interesting natural passage contains paintings in the Classic Ñuiñe style (Rincón Mautner 1999: ch. 4).

Finally, the four priests emerge from the ground, entering the region marked by the four directional points: Temple of the Sun (East), Cave of Death (South), Temple of the River (West), and Mountain of the Knot (North). The latter sign differs from the canon and probably represents Tlapiltepec in the Coixtlahuaca Valley. This anomaly suggests that the manuscript came from a place to the south of Tlapiltepec, possibly Tulancingo.

With them the four priests carry the objects of power: the Bundle of 9 Wind, a Xipe staff, shield and arrow, conch, paper, and incense burner. Several loose signs briefly indicate narrative elements. The image of the Cactus Men probably refers to the victory over the native population and the ritual of rulership. The scene in which a warrior spears a huge serpent recalls the story told in the Relación Geográfica of Ñuu Yuvui (Petlalcingo) in which the Founding Hero succeeded in killing a dangerous primordial serpent that enclosed the entire area.⁵³

After this, the four priests direct themselves to the Center, which is occupied by a huge Quetzal Mountain surrounded by Plumed Serpents. The mountain has a Toltec face (with blackened eyes) and recalls the Quetzal Mountain of Cholula, which we interpret as a Dzaha Dzaui name for the Tlachihualtepetl, the famous ceremonial center dating from Classic times.⁵⁴ The surrounding serpents give the mountain the status of a Coatepec, a liminal place in contact with the divine powers. They are decorated with knives and speech scrolls, probably referring to sacrifice and fame.⁵⁵ Heraldic warriors—jaguars with shields and arrows—flank the mountain. A spring at its foot flows in two directions.⁵⁶

3.18. Primordial places; in the upper right-hand corner the Place of Heaven with the Rock of Seven Caves (Codex Tonindeye, 14).

At this local variant of the main Toltec sanctuary, the four priests perform the new fire ritual in front of the Sacred Bundle of 9 Wind. One of them, Lord 13 Lizard, is shown traveling over a road of darkness and flints, originating in the Chicomoztoc Cave. He has apparently made a shamanic flight in service of the Sacred Bundle, to communicate with the Place of Origin.

The PLUMED SERPENT and the SACRED BUNDLE

The earliest recorded dynastic histories begin with the activities of Lord 9 Wind, the Whirlwind or Plumed Serpent. He acts as a mediator between Heaven and Earth, between Darkness and Light. His Sacred Bundle becomes emblematic of cult and culture. His serpentine, breathlike nature induces the visionary experience of contact with the Other World, overcoming distances across time and space. The representation of the vision serpent is extremely important in royal rituals depicted in Classic Maya art and goes back as far as the Olmec; a famous relief at La Venta (monument 19) shows a priest—or ruler in a priestly function—being encircled by a serpent, probably representing the state of trance.

The importance of the Plumed Serpent in the beginning of the Ñuu Dzaui historical books corresponds with the wide distribution and popularity of this icon in the Early Postclassic. A famous example is the relief of the Plumed Serpent on the Temple of Quetzalcoatl in Xochicalco. This is the composition we recognize in the landscape of Yuta Tnoho in Codex Tonindeye (36). This use of the Plumed Serpent imagery revitalizes a Classic symbol of power.

On the reliefs that decorate the main temple in the royal residence at Teotihuacan, known as the Citadel, the Plumed Serpent clearly marks the liminal zone: the facades and the staircase. He is shown in his element, between the conchs and bivalve shells of the primordial ocean, lifting above the waters of darkness the pearl crown of the Teotihuacan princes.⁵⁷ A closer look identifies the two types of shells as the tecciztli (strombus gigas) and tapachtli (spondylus). Both had important ritual connotations. The conch is used as a musical instrument, blown to call the people together for public ceremonies and other activities. The spondylus appears in offerings and apparently was considered to have special powers. Although the form of the representation is quite different, we can compare the contents of these reliefs with the scene in which Lord 9 Wind carries the waters of Heaven to the different places of the Ñuu Dzaui region in Codex Yuta Tnoho (47). In this scene we again note the presence of tecciztli and tapachtli in the representation of the ocean. Just as rabbit and deer are emblematic of the natural life in the mountains, these two shells seem to function as a difrasismo for the forces of the two oceans.

Among the main sanctuaries of the ceremonial center of Tollan were the Temple of the Strombus (teccizcalli) and the Temple of the Spondylus (tapach-calli), paired with the Temple of Beams decorated with Turquoise Mosaics (xiuhvapalcalli) and the Temple of Quetzal Feathers (quetzalcalli). These are the names given by the Anales de Cuauhtitlan (Lehmann 1938: § 66). A similar description in Sahagún (1950–1978, book X: ch. 29) adds the Temple of Jade (chalchiuhcalli) and the Temple of Gold (teocuitlacalli). Whereas the other difrasismos (jade and gold, turquoise and quetzal feathers) refer to the precious elements of the land, strombus and spondylus seem to represent the treasures of the sea.⁵⁸

In the religious Codex Yoalli Ehecatl / Borgia (29 ff) a series of temple rituals is depicted, starting during the night (yoayan) in the Dark Temple (Tlillan) of Cihuacoatl. In the four corners we find serpentine beings that carry the wind mask characteristic of Lord 9 Wind, their bodies set with “star eyes,” that is, consisting of darkness. This is the image we read as the well-documented Nahuatl difrasismo yoalli ehecatl, “night and wind,” which is applied to the mysterious being of the Gods. The “night and wind” serpents seem to represent priests in trance, attending the rituals; they gather around a spirited vessel in which the “night and wind” material is prepared—in that case, probably the hallucinogenic black ointment (teotlacualli) the priests put on their bodies to be able to speak with the Gods.⁵⁹

At a later stage (Codex Yoalli Ehecatl, 35), we encounter the mind-altering effects of the Sacred Bundle. The protagonist of the scene is a priest, whose title “Smoke Eye” already suggests trance visions and whose black body paint indicates that he was under the influence of a hallucinogenic ointment. This man had prepared himself ritually during the night by perforating his penis and offering his blood to the four directions, to Lord Night, Yoaltecuhtli, the Deity of darkness, dreams, and nahualistic powers. Apparently, this happened in a plaza in front of the Temple of Darkness and Visions, dedicated to the same deity. Having arrived in this temple on the wings of an eagle, that is, by magic flight, the priest received the Sacred Bundle from Yoaltecuhtli and followed a tortuous sacred road through the ceremonial center, guided by another priest, a combination of Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca. Meanwhile a third priest, devoted to Xolotl, had prepared himself by playing ball with the same Deity of Darkness. Still during the night he joined the others in opening the Sacred Bundle somewhere on an open spot in the ceremonial center, presumably in a plaza between a Temple of Darkness and a Temple of Heaven and Light. A strong current of mysterious divine forces, depicted as a huge “night and wind” serpent, breaks forth from the Bundle with the unsettling sounds of sharp whistles, dark drums, and the moving wings of butterflies and other flying creatures; whirling, it sweeps away the Xolotl priest in an ecstatic flight.

The rituals in this impressive chapter of Codex Yoalli Ehecatl pivot on the transformations of darkness into light and of death imagery into sprouting trees and maize. The trance of the priests is the mediating dynamic factor between those two conditions. These scenes also provide a ritual-conceptual background to the story in Codex Yuta Tnoho according to which Lord 9 Wind, the Plumed Serpent, had the Tree Maiden give birth to the First Lords and Ladies of Ñuu Dzaui. Here again he is the supreme mediator, the Bringer of Life.

3.19. Procession with the Sacred Bundle (Codex Yoalli Ehecatl, 35).

A fascinating antecedent of this relationship between the Plumed Serpent and the Sacred Tree of dynastic origins can be found in Teotihuacan. Fresco fragments from a high-status residence at the Techinantitla area of Teotihuacan represent a long Plumed Serpent that encircles the room (and those present in it), overarching a series of trees, each characterized by a special sign. There are nine different trees, combined into larger units of thirteen (Berrin et al. 1988: 137–161). We favor the hypothesis that these named trees are symbols of different lineages, all united in the overwhelming power of their divine Founder and Sustenance. The scene can be compared to the benches in Toltec and later Mexica palaces that contain reliefs of marching warriors or nobles, likewise in combination with extended Plumed Serpents above them.

3.20a. The Primordial Couple (Lord 1 Deer and Lady 1 Deer) with Lord 9 Wind ‘Quetzalcoatl’ in Heaven (opening scene of the Roll of the New Fire).

Teotihuacan art is an eloquent tribute to the importance of the Plumed Serpent. His occurrence on the facade of the Citadel demonstrates his association with rulership and his function as the guardian of the threshold to the Other World. This is his liminal character, depicted explicitly on the exterior surface of a sanctuary. At the same time we find him on the interior walls of a palace, surrounding the beholders as an inclusive force. Those standing in the room found themselves reminded of how their ancestry had been imbued with life by the Plumed Serpent, and, participating in the appropriate commemorative incantations, they would experience the fascinating spell he cast through time and space. The same would have been true for those who participated as performers and audiences in the recitation and reenactment of works such as the Codex Yuta Tnoho, their minds merging, seized by this great and mysterious symbol of divine inspiration.

3.20b. The different layers of Heaven with Sun and Moon (opening scene of the Roll of the New Fire).

The layout of Teotihuacan’s ceremonial center along a main avenue corresponds with the central theme in many of its preserved mural paintings: ritual processions. We can imagine the nobles and priests abundantly adorned with iridescent quetzal feathers, perhaps gathering first in the interior plaza of the Citadel palace, where they would receive instructions from the ruler. From there they would follow the Street of the Dead, marching solemnly to the sound of drums and flutes. Passing over the transverse platforms in the large avenue, they effectively took the form of a huge Plumed Serpent undulating, advancing along the central axis that connected the main temples, to finally arrive at the plaza in front of the Pyramid of the Moon. There the procession could turn and go back to the Citadel. In this way, the ritual integrated the many sanctuaries and sacred spots along the route, symbolically connected to as many devotional groups, noble houses, and other segments of society. In addition, the ritual established the directions marked by the Pyramid of the Sun, built on top of the cave of origin, and by the Pyramid of the Moon, standing for the dominating Tenan Mountain, possibly representing the primordial Mountain of Sustenance, as the eternal focus points. And we understand how the population of the capital, together with pilgrims from all over the realm, in effect could experience representing and even becoming the Plumed Serpent, their collective symbol, in a sacred, cosmic context.