Chapter Six

LORD of the TOLTECS

ON THE DAY 13 FLOWER, THE SEVENTH DAY OF THE YEAR AFTER THE DEATH of his father, 6 Reed (1083), Lord 8 Deer ‘Jaguar Claw’ went hunting on the Mountain of the Temple of Heaven, where offerings of knotted grass and shells—spondylus and strombus—had been made in preparation for this act. With his arrows he shot a coyote.¹ Lord 8 Deer and his elder half-brother, Lord 12 Movement, both painted black with the hallucinogenic ointments of priests, sacrificed the coyote and a deer for a celestial spirit, Lord 13 Reed, who spoke to them from Heaven. Codex Iya Nacuaa confirms the visionary character of the event, showing that one of the three priests involved was a yahui (shaman) and that Lord 13 Reed manifested himself in a nahualistic way, coming down as a white eagle. His words foretold war (tnañu), implying that Lord 8 Deer would become a great warrior.

As a result of this hunt and sacrifice, a priest ceremonially cleansed Lord 8 Deer and his close relatives: his elder paternal half-brother, Lord 12 Movement ‘Blood Jaguar’; his younger brother, Lord 9 Flower ‘Sacred Arrow’; and his elder maternal half-brother, Lord 8 Flower ‘Flint.’ The ceremony unified these four men as allies. At the same time, the cleansing may have been a name giving ritual.² In that case, Lord 8 Deer would have received his given name ‘Jaguar Claw’ at this time, the sign of which appears prominently before him: a jeweled claw, giving us the reading Teyusi Ñaña or Teyusi Cuiñe. In noble speech a “fingernail” or “claw” was called teyusi, “small jewel.” Generally, the codices portray Lord 8 Deer with this given name from his birth onward, but that may be a projection of the later name giving ritual back into the past.

6.1. Lord 8 Deer hunting and visiting the Temple of Death (Codex Ñuu Tnoo–Ndisi Nuu, 9- IV).

The place where the vision was obtained and the cleansing and naming ritual was celebrated became known as Mountain of the Claws. According to Codex Tonindeye the locale was Cut Mountain, situated where a river from the opposite direction joins the river of the earlier-mentioned ball court of Dark Speckled Mountain. We cannot identify the toponyms, but we suppose that Lord 8 Deer was still in the vicinity of Town of the Pointed Objects and Dark Speckled Mountain.

The ball game, the vision quest, and the cleansing ritual were the preparations for a daring adventure. Lord 8 Deer ‘Jaguar Claw’ waited for his special day, 6 Serpent, and then went to see Lady 9 Grass in the Temple of Death, which represented the South. The name for this direction in Alvarado’s dictionary is Andaya, “Place of Death,” or Huahi Cahi, which is also the word for “cemetery.” Today, the latter term is pronounced Vehe Kihin. It no longer refers to the South but to a cave where a dangerous, malignant spirit dwells. The skull-and-bones imagery of the Huahi Cahi in the codices suggests that originally it was seen as a liminal place, an entrance to the Underworld, where one could meet the awe-inspiring powers of death.

We have identified this sanctuary as the funerary cave where the rulers of the Ñuu Dzaui village-states were centrally buried, a site venerated in the entire region and described in detail by Burgoa (1934b, I: 337–341). This cave was located on the Mountain of the Deer (Cerro de los Cervatillos) in the ancient kingdom of Ñuu Ndaya, today known as Ñuu Ndeya, Chalcatongo.

6.2. Lady 6 Monkey and Lord 8 Deer visiting the Temple of Death (Codex Tonindeye, 44).

Lady 9 Grass (Qcuañe) is the Patron of the Temple of Death. Her given name includes a maize flower (yoco) drinking blood (neñe). This sign may refer to a name mentioned in a legal document of 1596 from Ñuu Ndaya: “the great lord called tani yoco, which means ‘devil,’ who abides in the cave.” In this term yoco can mean “spirit,” but it is also homonymous with “maize flower.” The word tani is difficult to interpret; it may come from a combination of taa, “father,” and nii/nee, “whole” or ne(ñe), “blood.”³ The title taa, “father,” is adequate for the “great lord” mentioned in the text, apparently a male deity. In the case of Lady 9 Grass we would expect naa, “mother,” or sitna, “grandmother.” Another onomastic sign consists of a black quechquemitl decorated with white S-shaped motifs. In Nahuatl this form is known as xonecuilli and is used to indicate a type of tortilla specially made for ritual. The word also designates a particular constellation in the night sky.⁴ The black-and-white combination is a reference to death. Her name is to be understood both as “Lady of the Xonecuilli Constellation” and as “Power of Death,” which makes her a kind of Omiteotl (Nahuatl: “Deity of the Bones”). She is comparable to the Cihuacoatl of the Mexica, who is the Spirit of the Piciete and the Lady of the Milky Way. She is invoked in Guerrero as yi’ya si’i yichi, yi’ya si’i ñuu (in Alvarado’s orthography, Iyadzehe ichi, Iyadzehe ñuu), “Lady of the Road, Lady of the Night,” that is, “Lady of the Road of the Night Sky” or “Lady Milky Way,” known to be the “Mother of Tobacco and Pulque.”⁵

6.3a, b. Lady 6 Monkey, Lord 8 Deer, and several priests visiting the Temple of Death: (1) above, Codex Iya Nacuaa I, 3; (2) below, Codex Iya Nacuaa I, 4.

Today, the malignant spirit dwelling in the Vehe Kihin is considered male. He is called Ja Uhu “Pain” (in present-day Ñuu Ndeya), or Xa Cuina, “He who assaults and robs” (in the Atoco area), and is identified with El Gachupín, “the Spaniard,” that is, “the devil.” People say that certain persons go to such a cave to ask for money, power, or success—which they obtain in exchange for their soul. The modern image is clearly influenced by Spanish notions of making a pact with the devil. The sinister character himself, however, seems to be based on the colonial encomendero or hacendado, owner of great power and richness, to which indigenous people gain access only by giving up their dignity (soul).

These data enable us to understand the scene in the codices. Although precolonial culture did not have the concept of a “devil,” the cave was a dangerous place, associated with death. Lady 9 Grass must have had the same power to give wealth and success to whoever dared to make a pact with her. Without doubt, such a meeting was considered then, as it is now, a daring encounter, undertaken only in times of great crisis to overcome problems or to realize ambitions otherwise too high. The price for the help of these powers would have been then, as it is now, equally high.

Several caves are considered to be Vehe Kihin, widely distributed in Ñuu Dzaui Ñuhu, the Mixteca Alta. A famous example is situated in what is now the territory of Yosondua (formerly part of the Ñuu Ndaya realm); it is a mysterious and beautiful subterranean labyrinth of stalactites and stalagmites. In the territory of Itundujia (also within the former extension of Ñuu Ndaya) the striking peak of Yuku Kasa (Yucu Cadza, probably “Potent Mountain”), approximately 2,500 meters high, which dominates the zone of transition between the Mixteca Alta and the coast, has special significance in this respect. Today it is also known as Ñuu Anima, “Place of Souls.” Those who have died are said to gather on its top in a special marketplace of the deceased, a “gateway to Heaven.” Traveling from the town of Itundujia to Yuku Kasa, we pass through an awe-inspiring “liminal landscape” of capricious rock formations, next to small crater-shaped ponds, between misty pine forests and panoramic views on blue gorges descending steeply to the tropical lowlands of the coast. This is the southern end of the Mixteca Alta. As evening clouds, coming in from the ocean, drift over the gray peaks and surround us, we feel touched by the cold mystery of the Beyond.

The INTERVENTION of LADY 9 GRASS

Lord 8 Deer had a special relationship with the ruler of Ñuu Ndaya, Lord 8 Alligator, because his younger sister, Lady 9 Monkey, was married to him. She had been born in the year 13 Flint (1064) and thus was now nineteen years old. Perhaps the marriage had taken place earlier, when she was between thirteen and fifteen, as was not uncommon for Ñuu Dzaui noble Ladies—in that case, the marriage would have basically coincided with the period in which Lord 8 Deer was engaged in ritual activities in the realm of Lady 4 Rabbit and Lord 10 Flower (1079). It is easy to understand, then, why Lord 8 Deer and his companions could move around with such ease in the territory of Ñuu Ndaya. It is also possible, however, that the marriage was arranged precisely during these days so they could obtain permission to enter the Huahi Cahi.⁶

Contemporary ideas about the Vehe Kihin explain the motive behind Lord 8 Deer’s visit: he went to that fearful place to invoke the help of its Spirit Guardian, Lady 9 Grass. Young, daring, and desperate, he apparently was willing to accept any outcome, even to give up his life and soul, to resolve his predicament. The step was not as strange as it may seem. Recall that Lord 8 Deer’s father had been a Death priest and had recently died. Even today, people go to Yuku Kasa to meet with loved ones who have died shortly before, especially to ask them for information or counsel. Certainly, Lord 8 Deer counted on his father’s spiritual assistance “from the other side” in this dangerous operation. Besides, he did not go alone. He had convinced Lady 6 Monkey, the princess of Añute, to come with him. She was very young at the time, so we understand that the arrangement was not made with her but with her guardian, the priest Lord 10 Lizard. In going together to the Death Cave and sitting together in front of Lady 9 Grass, the young people presented themselves as allies or even more: as a future couple, a young man and girl seeking the arrangement of a marital alliance.

Daughter of the second son of the former Ñuu Tnoo king, Lady 6 Monkey was a logical prospective “leading lady” for the Ñuu Tnoo and Añute faction now that the crown prince, Lord 2 Rain ‘Ocoñaña,’ had fallen into enemy hands and the principal line of succession was in danger of being exterminated. Lord 8 Deer was not of royal blood and had no rights to the throne of Ñuu Tnoo, but as an accomplished warrior and son of the region’s most important spiritual and political leader, he had considerable prestige and even greater ambitions. The logical step for him to take to gain the status of leader of the war against Chiyo Yuhu and, ultimately, to become ruler of Ñuu Tnoo was to marry Lady 6 Monkey. The plan may have been instigated by Lady 4 Rabbit, at whose court Lord 8 Deer had passed the preceding years. She was both Lady 6 Monkey’s aunt (her father’s sister) and cousin (her mother’s sister’s daughter). In Dzaha Dzaui the relationship of cousin is qualified with the same term as “sister” (cuvui). Lord 8 Deer was twenty years old, a normal age to find a wife. He might even have been in love. A divine confirmation of his plans was obviously what he hoped for as the definitive argument that would overrule all objections people might have to such a union because of his low birth status.

The day for the visit to the Huahi Cahi seems to have been chosen because of its mantic significance as the eve of Lord 8 Deer’s birthday and calendar name. The year was probably not chosen but dictated by the political situation. Still, the date had its own symbolic value: it preceded the year bearer year 7 Flint day 7 Flint, the sacred founding date of Ñuu Tnoo. It had played a role in the priestly career of Lord 8 Deer’s father and had earlier been a year of going to the Huahi Cahi.⁷

The visit was a profoundly emotional and religious event. It was not a geographic displacement but a spiritual journey. According to Codex Añute (6-III), Lady 6 Monkey went on this journey by herself. Her guardian, the old priest Lord 10 Lizard, who held all four functions of the Supreme Council of Añute, guided her to the entrance of a cave. This seems to be one of the subterranean passages that, according to traditional belief, connected different towns in the Ñuu Dzaui region. Before entering, Lady 6 Monkey conjured the Spirit Guardian of the passage from an old bone she found there. The Ñuhu, named 6 Vulture, manifested himself seated on a jaguar pelt throne as the one who held power over the road along which Lady 6 Monkey wanted to travel. He granted permission, and she continued her journey, disappearing into the earth.⁸

According to Codex Tonindeye (44), it was a yahui, a nahual-priest in mystical ecstasy (with closed eyes), who guided both Lady 6 Monkey and Lord 8 Deer, the latter also qualified as a shamanic priest, a yaha yahui (“eagle–fire serpent”) or “nigromancer.”⁹ The name of the guiding shaman was Lord 3 Lizard ‘Rope, Knife,’ not to be confused with Lord 3 Lizard, the son of Lord 8 Wind of Chiyo Yuhu. This was a prince from the Town of Sacrifice at the foot of Blood Mountain, a younger brother of Lord 10 Rabbit ‘Blood Jaguar’ who had participated in the ceremonial salute of Lord 2 Rain ‘Ocoñaña.’ Lord 3 Lizard ‘Rope, Knife’ had been born in year 2 Flint (1040) and was now forty-three years old.

Codex Iya Nacuaa I (3/4-II) mentions three yaha yahui priests who guided Lady 6 Monkey and whose names can be reconstructed as Lord 10 [Rabbit ‘Blood Jaguar’], Lord [3 Lizard] ‘Rope, Knife,’ and Lord 4 Grass ‘War Eagle.’ Although the latter is unknown, in the first two we recognize the two brothers from Blood Mountain, acting here as confidants and allies of Lord 8 Deer. Each had initiated “the road,” that is, his ritual preparations, several years before: in 11 Reed, 9 [House?], and 13 [House?], respectively, which would correspond to 1075, 1073, and 1077. Furthermore, Lady 6 Monkey was accompanied by another yaha yahui priest with his eyes open, Lord 8? [damaged day sign] ‘Great War Fire.’

Presenting themselves to Lady 9 Grass, Lord 8 Deer offered her a heart, while Lady 6 Monkey gave her jewels and ritual garments—she was seated on the jaguar cushion, indicating her royal status. The Spirit of the Death Temple, who made a fear-inspiring appearance with her skeletal jaw and bloodshot eyes, spoke to the princess and commanded her to marry Lord 11 Wind ‘Blood Jaguar’ from Town of the Xipe Bundle, an elderly man who had married the half-sister of Lord 8 Deer, Lady 6 Lizard, in 1061.¹⁰ He was from an ancient noble house and one of the contacts and allies of Lord 5 Alligator. We read nothing about Lady 6 Lizard at this moment; she had likely died. But from her marriage with Lord 11 Wind, three children had been born: Lord 10 Dog ‘Sacred Eagle,’ Lord 6 House ‘Rope, Flints,’ and Lady 13 Serpent ‘Flowered Serpent.’

In giving these orders, Lady 9 Grass renewed the alliance of the Ñuu Tnoo and Añute faction with Town of the Xipe Bundle. This was a strategic move, as it gave Añute robust support from a prestigious neighboring town. We hypothetically locate Town of the Xipe Bundle in the Valley of Oaxaca to the east of Añute. At the same time, the move frustrated Lord 8 Deer’s dreams. Instead, Lady 9 Grass gave him several objects of power: an owl arrow and a skull shield (lethal weapons from the Huahi Cahi), a golden fish and a conch (references to the ocean), a bowl for sacrificed hearts, and a blue stone vessel for blood offerings (cuauxicalli). These objects had prophetic significance and were to play a role in significant events of Lord 8 Deer’s future life.¹¹

The young, ambitious warrior accepted the divine instructions, but the frustration of his plan and the rejection of his desire to marry Lady 6 Monkey must have been a huge blow to his ego. Therefore, Lady 9 Grass’s decision fomented hatred in Lord 8 Deer against Lord 11 Wind and his family, a hatred that, in the long run, was detrimental to this renewed alliance.

The visit to the Huahi Cahi is a crucial episode, as it influenced the rest of Lord 8 Deer’s life and thereby was critical for all subsequent dynastic history. It was a highly dramatic turning point, easily recognized by a Ñuu Dzaui public as the beginning of a story that could not end well, the start of a tragedy of greatness, power, and inevitable death. From now on there was a permanent root of evil in Lord 8 Deer’s success: he would get the wealth and the rulership he desired, but in a different way than he had expected. And he would not experience love. There would be violence, and killing, and in the end nothing of what he accumulated would remain.

Coming out of the Huahi Cahi, the couple separated. Lord 8 Deer paid his respects to the Tree of Lord Sun, standing there as a complement to the darkness of the Underworld.¹² According to Codex Iya Nacuaa I, pages 4-I and 3-III, Lord 8 Deer was accompanied into the Huahi Cahi by Lord 5 Rain ‘Smoking Mountain,’ who is fairly important in Codex Iya Nacuaa as Lord 8 Deer’s ally but who outside that codex is only mentioned once in Codex Tonindeye (58), as one of the many who saluted Lord 8 Deer when he became ruler in Ñuu Tnoo. Therefore, he is seen as a secondary figure who was of primary importance to—likely an ancestor of—the ruler who ordered the Codex Iya Nacuaa to be painted. This consideration and the entire context make it improbable that Lord 5 Rain was actually with Lord 8 Deer in the Huahi Cahi. His presence can be explained as a political claim, motivated by his descendant’s wish to enhance his prestige with a more spectacular role in the biography of Lord 8 Deer.

The next day, 7 Death, Lord 8 Deer went to a temple in an unidentified town, carrying the power objects of the Huahi Cahi.¹³ There he purified and sanctified the air through an offering of piciete (Nicotiana rustica). On the following days he performed a ritual invocation of the trees of the four directions and two other trees, placing offerings of piciete before them:

• on the day 8 Deer for the Tree of Where the Ñuhu Rises from the Ground (nuu nicana ñuhu), that is, the East

• on the day 9 Rabbit for the Tree of Split Hill–Dark Hill (Yucu Naa), that is, the North

• on the day 10 Water for the Tree of Ash River (Yaa Yuta), that is, the West

• on the day 11 Dog for the Tree of Death Temple (Huahi Cahi), that is, the South

• on the day 12 Monkey for the Tree of hand-like leaves

• on the day 13 Grass for the Tree of the pointed leaves

The sequence of days indicates that the trees were close together, like trees around one specific town, similar to the present-day crosses of the wards.¹⁴

Having paid his respects to the four corners of the world and the different trees, Lord 8 Deer returned to the Mountain of the Pointed Objects, and on the following day, 1 Reed, he made an offering there in the ball court. At that occasion he again wore the yaha yahui outfit of the shamanic priest.

After these preparations he set off on a long trip, together with a group of followers who carried the objects of power, to the village-state of Town of Hand Holding Feathers, which controlled the Mountain of the Bird. The latter is the well-known sign of Yucu Dzaa (Tututepec), located on the Pacific Coast. In the Ñuu Dzaui codices it appears as a Mountain or Stone with a Bird’s Head, to be read as “Mountain (yucu) of the Bird (dzaa).” Inside the bird’s head the lower part of a human face is sometimes painted, reinforcing the reading through the homonym dzaa, “chin.” The stone in the sign is explained by the fact that the central mountain in the town is actually called Yucu Yuu Dzaa, “Mountain of the Stone of the Bird.” The Town of Hand Holding Feathers is associated with Yucu Dzaa and is apparently an important place in the coastal region. Its main sign is the same as that in the hieroglyph of Yuta Tnoho and must be read as tnoho, tnuhu, or toho. Therefore, the place sign can be identified as Ñuu Sitoho, “Town of the Lords,” that is, Juquila, the main town of the Chah Tnio (Chatino) region.¹⁵ Codex Iya Nacuaa focuses on Yucu Dzaa (the place it comes from) and only mentions Ñuu Sitoho in passing. For the Ñuu Tnoo dynasty it was important to remember the king and queen of Ñuu Sitoho; later, a son of Lord 8 Deer would marry their daughter.

Lord 8 Deer established himself in Yucu Dzaa, together with his half-brother, Lord 12 Movement ‘Blood Jaguar.’ Here, on the central mountain Yucu Yuu Dzaa itself, they constructed a Temple of Heaven as a copy of the one in Ñuu Tnoo, where their father had served as a high priest. The Sacred Bundle was deposited there, together with the Tnucucua staff of rulership. In front of the temple were placed the golden fish and skull shield Lord 8 Deer had received in the Huahi Cahi as signs of his mission. Modern building activity has affected the Yucu Yuu Dzaa, and no remains of ancient constructions can be seen today. But there are the great rocks on top of the mountain, the Protector Spirits, the Ndoso (Ndodzo), looking out silently over their lands. It is here that the Nahuales, the ra nduvi, gather. We hear other intriguing references. The small stream that flows in the direction of the large archaeological site of La Soledad, along which the passage of people over the centuries has carved out a deep path, is called Yutya Toho, just like the primordial Yuta Tnoho from which the Founders of the dynasty originally came.

6.4. Lord 8 Deer becoming ruler in Yucu Dzaa (Codex Iya Nacuaa I, 5).

Soon, Lord 8 Deer showed his training as a war leader. First, he presented himself before Lord 1 Death ‘Sun Serpent’ and Lady 11 Serpent ‘Flower–Quetzal Feathers,’ the rulers of Ñuu Sitoho (Juquila). This part of the coast may have been inhabited mainly by Nten Chah Tnio (Chatino), vassals to the kings of Ñuu Sitoho. After consulting with these rulers, Lord 8 Deer conquered Water of the Rubber Ball, burned the place, and took its ruler, Lord 9 Serpent, prisoner. Given the surroundings, the toponym may refer to an area in or next to the lagoons close to Yucu Dzaa, such as Chacahua or Manialtepec, which are of great economic importance as sources of fish, water birds, and similar wildlife.

This was the beginning of a series of military activities that would subjugate the main towns in the coastal area and thus lay the foundation for the later important realm and influence sphere of Yucu Dzaa.¹⁶ The sequences of conquests, we conclude, represent different campaigns, making it difficult to reconstruct a precise geographic order. Moreover, the codices differ as to the time lapse involved. Codex Iya Nacuaa mentions the year 7 Flint (1084). The area of the first campaign has not yet been identified but must have involved the core of what was to become the powerful village-state of Yucu Dzaa. According to Codex Tonindeye, the campaign ended with several lords coming to offer their valiant warriors (jaguar and eagle), their wealth (gold pieces and ornaments of quetzal feathers), and cacao groves (the cacao bean and the Spirit of the cacao)—a scene very similar to the coming together of local lineage heads for the foundation ritual of the realm.

Lord 8 Deer’s two half-brothers died during this time: on the day 8 Death of the year 9 Rabbit (1086), Lord 9 Movement ‘Bird’ and Lord 3 Water ‘Heron’ were sacrificed in Quetzal Town at ages thirty-eight and twenty-five, respectively. We do not know how this event was related to the military activities of Lord 8 Deer himself. The place sign normally represents Ñuu Ndodzo (Huitzo), which would situate the event in the Mixteca Alta.¹⁷

During this period, Lord 8 Deer seems to have operated mainly on his own. There is only a brief reference to Lord 12 Movement upon Lord 8 Deer’s arrival in Yucu Dzaa; the elder half-brother agreed with the founding of the temple and gave his general support. Interestingly, no mention is made of a marriage. After having been left by Lady 6 Monkey, Lord 8 Deer seems to have remained a bachelor, at least according to the versions registered by the surviving codices.

In the meantime, in the Mixteca Alta, Lady 6 Monkey had married Lord 11 Wind from Town of the Xipe Bundle, as the Spirit Guardian of the Huahi Cahi had told her to. Codex Ñuu Tnoo–Ndisi Nuu (36–35) gives a general description of this sequence of events. A messenger, Lord 1 House ‘Owl,’ had come to Añute to give presents to the rulers, Lord 10 Eagle ‘Stone Jaguar’ and Lady 9 Wind ‘Flint Quechquemitl’ (‘Power of Knives’), and to ask for Lady 6 Monkey’s hand for his king, Lord 11 Wind. This happened in the year 13 Rabbit (1090) on a day 8 Movement. The messenger’s calendar name may have been chosen for the occasion: the day 1 House is six days after 8 Movement and is dedicated to the Grandmother of the River (Sitna Yuta), the Patron of Human Procreation, and is thus ideal for arranging a marriage. Recall, too, the hypothesis that the realm of Lord 11 Wind was located in the Valley of Oaxaca. In the Beni Zaa calendar the day ‘House’ is called ‘Owl.’ Thus a curious prognostic element is brought into the narrative. The given name ‘Owl’ may only have been a rendering of his Beni Zaa calendric name, for which he was chosen to deliver his message. On the other hand, the owl is an omen of death, and this given name, therefore, may have functioned in the narrative as an indication to the public that something tragic was going to happen.

After the messenger had obtained the consent of the bride’s parents, the young couple went to the Huahi Cahi to offer precious gifts to Lady 9 Grass—the day has been scratched out. Several of the gifts were clearly related to the infernal atmosphere: jewels representing a skull and a heart, a “bat ballgame” with an “owl ring.” The jewels were explicitly characterized as coming from Sand Mountain, the land of Añute.

Then Lady 6 Monkey took a prisoner, Lord 10 Movement, on the day 10 Death of the year 13 Rabbit (1090), when she conquered Place of Reeds. The additional elements in the place sign are Crossed Legs, which reads ndisi, that is, “clearly visible,” and Breasts (ndodzo), which indicate that it was situated on top (ndodzo) of a mountain. We interpret this Place of Reeds as the Yucu Yoo (Acatepec), a stronghold in the northern part of Monte Albán, overlooking the valley and the commercial route to the rich lands of Xoconochco. The following day, 11 Deer, Lady 6 Monkey married Lord 11 Wind ‘Blood Jaguar.’

Codex Añute (7–8) conserves a fragment of the more detailed hometown version of this tale, in which the dramatic structure of the narrative is more explicit. Here it is told how after Lady 6 Monkey had returned from her trip with Lord 8 Deer to the Huahi Cahi, her marriage was prepared. The main elements can still be observed in present-day customs. Ritual dances were carried out around the teponaztle drum, with participants waving ita yedze herbs (hierba del borrachito) in their hands. The couple was guided and blessed in that ceremony by Lord 9 Wind and the divine Patrons of the four directions: Grandfather Lord 2 Dog of the North, Grandmother Lady 1 Eagle of the West, Young Lord 7 Flower of the East, and Lady 9 Grass of the South. The betrothed couple took a bath in the river. New clothes were given to them, among which was a precious woman’s gown (huipil), dyed with purple (caracol), and red tuniques (xicollis).

6.5a. Preparations for the marriage of Lady 6 Monkey, including the confrontation with the priests of Zaachila at Monte Albán (Codex Añute, 8).

Then, in the year 13 Rabbit (1090) on the day 9 Serpent, not her parents but her old tutor, who at the time had all the titles of the Supreme Council of Four, instructed two men to carry Lady 6 Monkey, as a bride, to her husband’s town. The two were selected because of their names: 2 Flower and 3 Alligator, two successive days of ritual importance—the two men may even have been twins. The road on which she was carried passed the Hill of the Moon and the Hill of the Insect, which we identify as a diagnostic combination, referring to the Yucu Yoo and Tiyuqh slopes of Monte Albán (Acatepec and Sayultepec).¹⁸

6.5b. The final part of the marriage of Lady 6 Monkey (Codex Añute, 8).

There, two men made stopping gestures from above. The common element in their given names is “long hair,” which indicates that they were priests (cf. the Nahuatl term papahuaque). This sign is combined with a Bent Mountain and a Carrying Frame, respectively. The latter two elements qualify them as priests of the “Big Mountain of Zaachila”—again, Monte Albán.

Plain of the White Carrying Frame appears associated with the so-called Xipe dynasty in Codex Tonindeye and elsewhere.¹⁹ The carrying frame (called cacaxtli in Nahuatl) is sito in Dzaha Dzaui, which apparently is used as a homonym to represent the word sitoho, toho, or to-, “Lord.” In combination with the color white (cuisi), we obtain the reading To-cuisi. We find the same sign also without the color white in contexts that suggest an identification as Zaachila. That is the case here. We saw earlier that Bent Mountain, to be read as Yucu Cahnu, “Big Mountain,” in combination with the Hill of the Moon and the Hill of the Insect, represents Monte Albán, the famous Classic archaeological site and the most impressive mountain in the Zaachila area.

The two priests shouted to Lady 6 Monkey yuchi yuchi, “thou shall be killed by a knife.” The princess understood this as a common curse or threat in Dzaha Dzaui. Alarmed, she again contacted the Guardian Spirit of the Huahi Cahi, who put at her disposal warriors from Ñuu Ndaya (Chalcatongo) and the Hill of the Deer, that is, the Cerro de los Cervatillos where the cave of the Huahi Cahi was located. With their help the princess 6 Monkey was able to gain a victory over the two priests and take them prisoner: one was sent back to Añute to be sacrificed, and the other was taken to the Town of the Xipe Bundle, where the groom, Lord 11 Wind, ruled. Because of this interruption the marriage did not take place on the day 11 Deer but on the next favorable day, 6 Eagle.

Thus, while Lord 8 Deer was extending his realm on the coast, Lady 6 Monkey ruled together with Lord 11 Wind in Town of the Xipe Bundle. Two sons were born: Lord 4 Wind ‘Yahui’ (‘Fire Serpent’) in the year 2 Flint (1092) and Lord 1 Alligator ‘Eagle of the Ball Court’ in the year 4 Rabbit (1094) or 5 Reed (1095)—according to Codex Ñuu Tnoo–Ndisi Nuu and Codex Añute, respectively.

In the year 2 Flint (1092), Lord 8 Deer established himself definitively as ruler of Yucu Dzaa. In the following years, 3 House to 6 Flint (1093–1096), he carried out a second military campaign. One of the first events was the conquest of Jade River. The crossing of the Río Verde implies a westward expansion from Yucu Dzaa along the coast. The next two conquests confirm this idea: House of the Stone Mountain and Mountain of the Lizard’s Head correspond to the neighboring towns Yucu Yuu, “Stone Mountain” (Tetepec in Nahuatl), and Dzini Titi, “Head of the Iguana,” that is, Huaxpaltepec, which are in that area.²⁰

Shortly thereafter, Codex Tonindeye mentions the conquests of Mountain of the Mask and Mountain of the Jar. According to Codex Yuta Tnoho (14), these two towns were situated within the influence sphere of Ñuu Ndaya (Chalcatongo). Taking into account the statements of both codices, we suggest that the two places are Cuanana (likely derived from Yucu Anana, “Mountain of the Face”) and Yucu Tindoho (“Mountain of the Jar”). This would mean that Lord 8 Deer extended his realm into the southern part of the Mixteca Alta.

6.6a. Conquests of Lord 8 Deer in the Mixtec coastal region; in the right-hand column, Yucu Yuu (Tetepec) and Dzini Titi (Huaxpaltepec) (Codex Tonindeye, 48).

The other places are less clear. Mountain of the Reed and the Lunar Nose Ornament is probably Yucu Yoo, “Mountain of the Moon or Reeds,” that is, Santa María Acatepec, northeast of Yucu Dzaa (Tututepec).²¹ The Place of Rain might be Nuu Dzavui (Jicayán de Tovar).

Although we have doubts about the precise location of the conquered places, this military activity clearly established an impressive realm. Lord 8 Deer became ruler of Yucu Dzaa, first because of his alliance with the rulers of Ñuu Sitoho (Juquila) but foremost because of his own conquests, extending his kingdom along the coast. The important port of Huatulco to the east was part of this realm, as were Pinotepa and Jicayán to the West (Acuña 1984, I: 131, 189).

6.6b. Following his military success, Lord 8 Deer arrives in Ñuu Tnoo as “Conqueror of the Ocean” (Codex Tonindeye, 49).

Lord 8 Deer closed his military campaign with the conquest of the Town of Beans, the sign normally used for Ñuu Nduchi (Etla) in the Valley of Oaxaca.²² After that appears the sign of Ñuu Tnoo (Tilantongo); significantly, it is not listed as a conquest but as a visited place. There, in his hometown, Lord 8 Deer presented himself as a person standing on a conquered place, called “Water with Ñuhu figures in it,” to be read as Nduta Ñuhu, that is, the ocean. The days involved are in the year 6 Flint (1096): 7 Flint is given for the conquest of Ñuu Nduchi, and on 11 Wind, four days later, Lord 8 Deer appears as “Conqueror of the Ocean.” We take this to indicate that after conquering the coastal area he moved back into the Mixteca Alta, conquering Ñuu Nduchi (Etla) and paying a visit to his hometown, where he was honored as “Conqueror of the Ocean” by his elder half-brother (Lord 12 Movement ‘Blood Jaguar’) and his own younger brother (Lord 9 Flower ‘Sacred Arrow’).

The scene continues and shows that Lord 8 Deer, on the day 1 Alligator, directed himself to the Temple of Death, the Huahi Cahi of Chalcatongo, probably to express his thanks to Lady 9 Grass. The day 1 Alligator is a day of beginnings, so we suppose it was chosen as a good day to thank the Guardian Spirit for granting him the foundation of a kingdom. In the same way, twenty-two days earlier, on 4 Flint, he had deposited his arrows, together with the offering of several deer, in the Heaven Temple of Yucu Dzaa. The day 4 Flint was dedicated to one of the Cihuateotl manifestations that is a Patroness of flints and arrowheads, similar to the Goddess Itzpapalotl.²³

We do not know if Lord 8 Deer went back to Yucu Dzaa or remained in Ñuu Tnoo, or if he played any role in bringing about the suspenseful series of events set in motion in the final days of the year 6 Flint (1096). But his offerings in the Heaven Temple of Yucu Dzaa do suggest that he had contacted the deity that was going to play a crucial role in those events.

The DEATH of the CROWN PRINCE

Meanwhile, in the year 6 Flint (1096) the prince 2 Rain ‘Ocoñaña,’ heir to the throne of Ñuu Tnoo, had reached age twenty-one. On 1 Flint, the day before the day of his calendar name, he had an important conversation with Lord 10 Rabbit ‘Blood Jaguar.’ This man, recall, belonged to the dynasty of Town of Sacrifice at the Foot of Blood Mountain and was a grandson of the mighty Lord 8 Wind of Chiyo Yuhu (presumably deceased by now). As such, he was a second cousin of Lord 2 Rain’s father and would have been respected as an uncle by Lord 2 Rain. Having been born in 1031, he had reached the respectable age of sixty-five. His relationship with Lord 2 Rain went back to 1076 when he had been present at the ceremony in which the young boy had been bestowed with the royal title. Later, in 1083, he and his brother had guided Lord 8 Deer to the Huahi Cahi.²⁴

The subject of the conversation between Lord 10 Rabbit and Lord 2 Rain is not made explicit, but in view of the two men’s ages and family relationship, the elder man likely gave counsel and instructions to the prince. They spoke together a second time on the day 12 Water.

Then, on the day 7 Movement, the last day of the twenty-day period that had started on 1 Flint, Lord 2 Rain sat down in front of two priests: one in a white xicolli with black dots, the other an old man with a red xicolli. The first was the priest in charge of the Sacred Arrow, and the second was the one with the title ‘Smoke’ or ‘Cloud.’²⁵ Both were members of the Supreme Council of Four that assisted the ruler of Ñuu Tnoo.

The presence of these priests and the ritual day 7 Movement suggests that Lord 2 Rain was engaged in a ritual-political activity similar to the one Lord 5 Alligator, the father of Lord 8 Deer, had carried out at the beginning of his career. His body is painted black and his eyes are closed; apparently, he had entered the priestly trance. In one hand he holds a perforator for bloodletting, in the other he grasps an arrow, directing the point toward his chest. This is probably the Sacred Arrow, the War Spirit of Ñuu Tnoo. Still in trance, the prince perforated his ear and made a blood offering to the Ñuhu Lord 7 Vulture in Serpent River, the place of the Sacred Tree.

The tree points to the dynastic aspect of the ritual. Ñuhu Lord 7 Vulture was an ancestral figure who, according to Codex Yuta Tnoho (35), had been born from the Sacred Mother Tree. The Serpent River, Yute Coo (Alvarado: Yuta Coo), was an ancestral point of reference for the Ñuu Tnoo dynasty, which had also been visited by Lord 5 Alligator before he initiated his career as High Priest.²⁶ This, together with the presence of representatives of the Supreme Priestly Council, indicates that Lord 2 Rain’s ecstasy and bloodletting were part of a ritual aimed at obtaining an important political function in Ñuu Tnoo. Given his ancestry and birthright, it is logical to suppose that he was trying to obtain effective rulership.

The outcome was different, however. We see the calendar name 2 Rain connected to a “road of knife and star” that leads to Heaven. After that, a red line explicitly ends this chapter. A celestial road with knives and stars is a metaphor for shamanic trance.²⁷ The fact that it ends Lord 2 Rain’s career makes us understand that he went out on an ecstatic voyage but did not return: he died in the trance, leaving the kingdom of Ñuu Tnoo without a legitimate successor.

LORD 4 JAGUAR of TOLLAN

It was at this critical moment that Lord 8 Deer started a series of actions to capture the throne of Ñuu Tnoo. The political situation in the Mixteca Alta had changed. The former strong men, Lord 8 Wind of Chiyo Yuhu and the priest Lord 5 Alligator of Ñuu Tnoo, had died. Lord 8 Deer had built up an important realm on the Pacific Coast, whose influence was felt throughout Ñuu Dzaui. The death of Lord 2 Rain ‘Ocoñaña’ left the throne of Ñuu Tnoo vacant; there were no pretenders who belonged to the royal family, and Lord 8 Deer, because of his achievements, was now considered one of the candidates to become the new ruler in his ancestral town. But to be totally acceptable to all, he needed to obtain true royal status.

6.7a. After having been welcomed by his brothers (as priests from the Temple of Death), Lord 8 Deer brings offerings to the Temple of Yucu Dzaa and then transforms into a flying ball of fire (Codex Tonindeye, 50).

First, he went on an ecstatic voyage, as yaha yahui, to offer precious gifts to Lady 9 Reed, the Patron Deity of Blood Town, that is, Ñuu Niñe (Tonalá) in the Mixteca Baja. This was on the day 9 Serpent of the year 7 House, the third day of the year, only twenty-eight days after Lord 2 Rain’s ritual and death. The fact that Lord 8 Deer made this contact with that particular deity on that specific day is suggestive. The Goddess 9 Reed was the one who had manifested herself in the magic mirror a few days before Lord 2 Rain was born, making it clear that she was to rule his destiny. Her calendar name can be interpreted symbolically as a combination of death (number 9) and an arrow (reed). This symbolism is confirmed by her being a Ñuu Dzaui equivalent of the Goddess Itzcueye-Itzpapalotl, the power of the obsidian arrowhead.²⁸ Indeed, Lord 2 Rain died young because he touched the Sacred Arrow; this, then, seems to have been his destiny, announced in veiled terms before he was born. With such explicit references the story prepares the public to accept the end of the first dynasty of Ñuu Tnoo. Clearly, its destiny had been determined by the Gods, and a new dynasty had to replace it.

6.7b. Lord 8 Deer meets Lady 9 Reed and starts his journey to the North (Codex Tonindeye, 51).

Lord 8 Deer chose the day 9 Serpent to make his offerings to the Goddess who had brought all this about. Again, the number 9 symbolizes death and thus refers to the death of the young prince. Serpent is a sign of danger, intrigue, and venom. In combination, it seems a day appropriate to commemorate an intrigue in which venom was used to kill. As such, this offering scene suggests that Lord 8 Deer expressed his respect (cynics would say grateful recognition) to the Deity who had removed the heir to the throne by killing him with a fatal arrow.

At the same time, Lord 8 Deer implored the Goddess 9 Reed of Ñuu Niñe (Tonalá) in the Mixteca Baja to act as an intermediary with the powerful realm to the north, the Toltec empire in Central Mexico. It was in that impressive center of civilization that Lord 8 Deer planned to obtain the necessary prestige and political clout.²⁹ While ruling in Yucu Dzaa, he had already been in contact with the Toltecs, who must have taken special interest in the commercial route along the Mixtec coast toward Central America, a route essential for the introduction of metallurgy and copper or gold products.³⁰

On the other hand, Toltec armies had been approaching the Mixteca Alta. They had come as far as the Valley of Coixtlahuaca, where they enthroned a Lord 7 Water as founder of a new dynasty. The name of the Toltec ruler involved was Lord 4 Jaguar. We see him arriving with a macuahuitl, a wooden “sword” inlaid with obsidian blades, a favorite weapon of the Toltecs.³¹

He had been engaged in warfare in the region for ten years, between 10 Reed (1087) and 6 Flint (1096). It was in the year 7 House (1097), immediately after these war events, that the contact between Lord 4 Jaguar and Lord 8 Deer occurred. There is a geographical logic to the manner in which the Toltec king expanded his realm from Central Mexico into the Oaxaca region. By setting up his vassal as the local ruler over the Valley of Coixtlahuaca, he could create a power base that would allow him to bring the Mixteca Alta under his control. This brought him in contact with the influence sphere of Ñuu Tnoo (Tilantongo). Seeking an ally to appoint as a ruler over this area, he encountered Lord 8 Deer.

Who was this Lord 4 Jaguar? The Lienzo of Tlapiltepec tells us that his given name was ‘Serpent.’ Codex Tonindeye shows him with the face painting of Quetzalcoatl and the red-and-white striped body paint of Tlauizcalpantecuhtli (Venus) or Mixcoatl (the God of hunting). He is frequently depicted wearing an impressive feather headdress (apanecayotl), indicating the Toltec title Apanecatl. A peculiar and unique diagnostic is the pimple or tumor on his nose or forehead. Together with the way he functions in the narrative, the combination of these two elements—headdress and tumor—makes it possible to identify him as the famous Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, who ruled successively at Tula (Tollan) and Cholula (Cholollan).³² The Dominican chronicler Diego Durán describes an ancient picture of him:

This Topiltzin, who was also called Papa (“priest”), was a very venerated and religious person, held in great esteem and honored and adored as a saint. There is a large story about him. I saw him painted in the way that is reproduced above [in plate 1], on a very old paper, in Mexico City, as a noble personality. He was shown as an elderly man, with a large greyish and red beard, a long nose with some pimples on it, or somewhat eaten, a tall body, long hair . . . when he celebrated his feasts, he put that feather crown on. (Durán 1967, I: 9, 14; cf. plate 1)

The tumor on Lord 4 Jaguar’s nose or forehead in Codex Tonindeye corresponds to the “pimples” on Topiltzin’s nose mentioned by Durán. The name Topiltzin means “Our Honored Prince” (to-pil-tzin) or “Noble Staff of Office” (topil-tzin). Other sources call him Nacxitl, “4 Foot,” a calendar name in an archaic calendar system, such as used in Xochicalco.³³ We think 4 Jaguar was the Ñuu Dzaui translation of 4 Foot. Still another calendar name is given for him: Ce Acatl, “1 Reed”; this seems to be the name of the deity he was most associated with (as a priest in Tula and later, after his death): the Venus God.

6.8. Lord 8 Deer receiving the Toltec ambassadors (Codex Ñuu Tnoo–Ndisi Nuu, 10-III).

In colonial sources Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl is described as an archetypal priest: “castísimo, honestísimo, moderatísimo.”³⁴ Originally, he had lived in Tollan Xicocotitlan (Tula Hidalgo) as a pious priest-ruler with a peaceful and prosperous reign, but because of bad omens, intrigues, and real conflicts—interpreted by the sources as influences from demons—Quetzalcoatl had left that capital. The Annals of Cuauhtitlan tell us in metaphoric language that his position had become untenable because he had slept through a ritual vigil. He had invoked “my sister, the mat of quetzal feathers,” a designation of the mat in the nahual language (ceremonial and shamanic speech).³⁵ The implication is obvious: he had gone to sleep, a scandalous misstep in Mesoamerican terms. European authors later interpreted this phrasing as a reference to his having committed incest with his sister or another form of adultery, an act that would correspond more to their own concept of unacceptable behavior.

There are some indications that a dual rulership existed in Tula, with one leading figure associated with Quetzalcoatl and the other with Tezcatlipoca.³⁶ The Central Mexican sources suggest that during the crisis described earlier, those complementary powers openly confronted each other. After leaving Tula, Quetzalcoatl established a new capital in Cholula. In Tula he seems to have been succeeded by Huemac, who was symbolically identified with Tezcatlipoca. For historians of Tula the departure of the priest-king was traumatic, the beginning of the end of Tula’s dominant position and therefore of Toltec civilization in general. Passing over Quetzalcoatl’s rule in Cholula, they seem to have blended several successive events into one, creating the portentous story of a king who left his capital and ultimately went to the Gulf Coast to die. Moreover, this dramatic journey was equated to and merged with the journey of the Creator God Quetzalcoatl (Lord 9 Wind in the Ñuu Dzaui codices), who in his travels gave names to places and founded kingdoms. Historical reality, however, seems to have been more complex. The lamentation that the pious priest king was seduced by war demons suggests to us that in the process of moving to Cholula, Quetzalcoatl changed his position and became a warlord.³⁷

Friar Juan de Torquemada explains that he ruled for some time in Cholula and expanded his power from there into the Oaxaca region, specifically into Ñuu Dzaui: “[Quetzalcoatl] left Tula very annoyed and came to Cholula, where he lived many years with his people, several of which he sent from there to the province Oaxaca, to populate it, and to the whole Mixteca Baja and Alta and to the Zapotec regions. And those people, they say, made those big and luxurious roman buildings in Mitla (which signifies ‘Underworld’ in the Mexican language)” (Torquemada 1975–1979, book III: ch. 7; cf. Acuña 1984–1985, I: 129).

In the Lienzo of Tlapiltepec and the Ñuu Dzaui codices we find Lord 4 Jaguar ‘Nacxitl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl’ as an expansionist ruler of Cholula, setting up a vassal kingdom at Coixtlahuaca. The text of the Annals of Cuauhtitlan connects this event with the expansion of the Toltecs toward the Maya area. According to the Tula tradition, just discussed, this expansion is described as part of the downfall, after the priest-king left the original capital Tula.

Auh in tolteca niman yaque . . . quiçato huehue quauhtitlan.

oc oncan chixque yn tamazolac catca

yn oncan tlapiaya yn itoca atonal.

nyman no tehuan quinhuicac yn imaçehualhuan.

niman onehuaque yn tolteca. . . .

aun yn oyaque yn ocallacque altepetl

ypan çequintin motlallique cholollan

teohuacan cozcatlan

nonohualco teotlillan

coayxtlahuacan tamaçollac

copilco topillan

ayotlan maçatlan

ynic nohuian anahuacatlalli motlallito

yn axcan ompa onoque.

And the Toltecs went . . . and passed by Old Cuauhtitlan,

where they waited sometime for a native of Tamazolac,

who was in charge there, named Atonal.

He brought his subjects with him.

Then the Toltecs left. . . .

Going and entering in the towns,

some established themselves in Cholula,

Tehuacan, Cozcatlan,

Nonohualco, Teotlillan,

Coixtlahuaca, Tamazolac,

Copilco, Topillan,

Ayotlan and Mazatlan,

until they had settled the whole of Anahuac,

where they are still living today.

               (Annals of Cuauhtitlan 1975: § 67; Lehmann 1938: 107–109)

It was during this process that Quetzalcoatl, or Lord 4 Jaguar, came in direct contact with Lord 8 Deer. Both saw it as very convenient to unite their forces.

The ALLIANCE

The Ñuu Dzaui codices differ somewhat from one another as to the exact way in which the alliance came into being. The most detailed story is given in Codex Iya Nacuaa (I, 9–12). It starts in the year 7 House (1097) with a large road that can be read as “far away.” The first mentioned individual is a man, identified by the black painting around his eye as a tay sahmi nuu, “man with the burned eye,” that is, a “Mexican” or rather a speaker of Nahuatl.³⁸ This Toltec lord was engaged in priestly and military functions: he is shown carrying a piciete gourd on his back and a lance in his hand. An individual characteristic is his intertwined hair, ending in a double lock on his forehead. His calendar name has been obliterated.

Under the supervision of this Toltec lord, a hunchback, called Lord 10 Wind, performed a series of ritual activities. Hunchbacks were held in special esteem and occupied functions at the royal court of the Toltec capital.³⁹ The fact that he does not have the burned eye face painting but instead has a normal calendar name suggests that this particular hunchback was a Ñuu Dzaui man. He performed the bloodletting rite and deposited the perforator and the blood-soaked leaves before a Hill of the Lord’s Head. From there the roads of the two men joined. Under the watchful eye of the Toltec lord, the hunchback priest vomited into a river—likely as part of a shaman’s cleansing ritual. After that he went into a mountain, that is, a cave, to have a vision. The Toltec lord drew him out. Both men are then shown seated on thrones consulting with each other. The hunchback has laid down his ax before the Toltec lord as a sign of friendship.

These scenes suggest that a Ñuu Dzaui hunchback had achieved significant merit because of his priestly activities and had become the trusted ally and assistant of an important Toltec noble.

Then, the hunchback guided his friend on an important international mission; the Toltec lord is carrying a fan—the attribute of merchants and ambassadors—together with his lance. The hunchback went in front and passed through a river, a natural boundary of the region to be entered. The Toltec lord thus arrived at a Cave of the Descending Ñuhu (“deity”). This image suggests that he was going eastward from the central Toltec area toward Ñuu Dzaui. The Descending Ñuhu is an expression for “west” (sa yocai ñuhu) in Dzaha Dzaui and may refer to the Ñuu Dzaui western frontier. At the same time, we should understand this as a statement that the Ñuhu of the cave gave the two men permission to continue their journey into Ñuu Dzaui territory. A day is mentioned: the number is 1, but the sign is obliterated.

The Toltec lord and his assistant, the hunchback, met with a man called 1 Alligator, probably a Ñuu Dzaui noble or king. In the next scene Lord 1 Alligator is shown together with the hunchback guiding the Toltec ambassador, gesturing that he should follow them.⁴⁰ The hunchback priest went into a river and washed himself. There Lady 9 Reed manifested herself to him. The Goddess was seated in a cave. This was the same Lady 9 Reed whom Lord 8 Deer had visited in trance to offer a heart and blood, to deposit his weapons before her, and to perform the war ritual, that is, to say thanks for his victories and ask for strength.⁴¹

The war ritual is indicated through the combination of the sign for speaking to the four directions, the circle of leaves on which offerings were put, and the chevron band (yecu) with trembling lines (tnañu), meaning “war.” The same signs are found as rock paintings in caves on the Cerro de las Flores in the vicinity of Ñuu Niñe (Tonalá), demonstrating that preparatory rituals for war campaigns were indeed carried out here. We suspect this was the exact place where Lord 8 Deer presented himself to Lady 9 Reed, performing precisely that ritual. The site forms part of El Boquerón, an impressive canyon through which the Río Salado enters the Valley of Ñuu Niñe.

Tradition attributes the origin of the El Boquerón gorge to a primordial struggle between a Goddess and a huge serpent that had encircled her beloved, the king of Tezoatlan. To liberate him, the Goddess cut off the serpent’s head. The blow of her machete created the gorge. The head of the animal is now the Cerro de la Culebra, while the body is the mountainous range on the other side of El Boquerón, to which the Cerro de las Flores belongs. This story throws another light on the serpents in the hair of Lady 9 Reed: she was the Patron Deity (ndodzo) of the Cerro de la Culebra.

Climbing the Cerro de las Flores between impressive organ cactuses and gray boulders, we have a dazzling view of the Valley of Ñuu Niñe (Tonalá), with Tiyusi (San Andrés Sabanillos) on the horizon. In the steep cliff are three caves, one above the other, with some distance between them. All contain ancient paintings. Those in the second cave are clearly related to the codex style. Among them we recognize the bands of chevrons, which signify yecu, “struggle, war”; the bound volutes, which represent the ritual speech to the four directions (prayer); and the cords of fasting and bloodletting. From this cave a series of painted stylized human figures moves upward along the cliff. Everything indicates that these caves were ceremonial retreats for spiritual preparation and vision quest. In modern folklore this is considered an enchanted or haunted place where the “devil” lives, which confirms the interpretation of this site as an ancient sacred place.⁴² The combined evidence of codices, archaeology, and oral tradition suggests that it was dedicated to Lady 9 Reed as the Divine Arrowhead, the Goddess of Life Struggles and War. This, then, must be the cave in which she appears seated in Codex Iya Nacuaa. The river in which the hunchback priest bathed is placed directly in front of this cave. This must be the Boquerón itself.

By order of the Toltec lord, a local priest, Lord 1 Flint, took it upon himself to carry the image of Lady 9 Reed. Together with the hunchback, they returned to the palace of the Toltec king, Lord 4 Jaguar, who in turn performed the war ritual before Lady 9 Reed and accepted her instructions.⁴³ Both the Goddess and the Toltec lord then spoke to other important personages, probably princes of Jaguar Town, Ñuu Ñaña (Cuyotepeji), in the Mixteca Baja.

Codex Tonindeye (50) puts the sequence in reverse order: the scene of Lord 8 Deer’s meeting with Lady 9 Reed is preceded by two toponyms, Mountain of the Throne and Mountain of the Jaguar. Originally, these would have represented the ruler of Ñuu Ñaña, but in the eyes of the Tonindeye painter they became transformed into the place where Lord 8 Deer started the ecstatic voyage toward the Goddess. Perhaps the painter took these signs as representations of the ancient ceremonial plaza of Monte Albán (Yucu Anii and Toto Cuiñe).

Some difference exists as to the names of the ambassadors. In Codex Iya Nacuaa we recognize Lord 1 . . . ‘Serpent Ear-Ornament’ (Coanacoch in Nahuatl) and Lord 3 . . . ‘Blood Serpent’ (Ezcoatl). The first of these is present in the lists of Codices Tonindeye and Ñuu Tnoo–Ndisi Nuu as well. Codex Tonindeye gives his full calendar name as Lord 1 Deer but at the same time indicates that the calendar name of ‘Blood Serpent’ was 7 Serpent. Codex Ñuu Tnoo–Ndisi Nuu does not give calendar names but has Coanacoch accompanied by ‘Smoking Shield’ (Chimalpopoca) and a man whose name seems to have been Hummingbird (Huitzilin)—he is holding a bowl with pulque in his hand, while his foot is connected with the fire sign, reading nduvua ñuhu (“foot,” that is, “arrow,” and “fire,” meaning “war”).

Lord 1 Deer ‘Coanacoch’ is clearly associated with Jaguar Town, Ñuu Ñaña (Cuyotepeji), in Codex Tonindeye, pages 65–66, where he is accompanied by Lord 9 Wind ‘Quetzalcoatl’ and Lord 3 Deer ‘Blood Serpent.’ We therefore think Lord 3 . . . ‘Blood Serpent’ in Codex Iya Nacuaa is actually Lord 3 Deer and is related to the same town as Lord 1 Deer.

Lord 1 Deer ‘Coanacoch’ also appears in Codex Ñuu Ñaña (Egerton), page 1, as the priest who assisted at the birth (inauguration) of the first ruler of Jaguar Town, Ñuu Ñaña (Cuyotepeji), who was drawn up from Jaguar Mountain by an eagle. Jaguar Mountain would be the Yucu Ñaña, where a cave is considered the place of origin of the ancient rulers: Cahua Ndiatu. Its name has been translated as “Cave of the Palate,” but the more probable meaning is “Cave of Good Fortune.”⁴⁴

This suggests that Lord 1 Deer had been instrumental in establishing a dynasty with Toltec prestige in Ñuu Ñaña. It is interesting that during a lawsuit in 1582, testimony was given that the Ñuu Ñaña had been founded “more than 500 years ago” (Paillés Hernández 1993: 38). The Toltec king, Lord 4 Jaguar, likely chose Lord 1 Deer as one of his confidants because of his prominent activity in the Mixteca Baja. The ambassadors Lord 1 Deer and Lord 3 Deer traveled toward the court of Lord 8 Deer, guided by priests Lord 9 Wind ‘Quetzalcoatl’ and Lord 7 Vulture ‘Red Beard,’ ancestal deities of the Ñuu Dzaui people. The leader carried a bone flute on his back as a sign of his military prowess and leadership.⁴⁵

The ambassadors marched toward a cave, presumably the same cave of the Descending Ñuhu (West) that was the western frontier of Ñuu Dzaui. Then they made contact with the successful Ñuu Dzaui leader. Codex Ñuu Tnoo–Ndisi Nuu shows how Lord 8 Deer welcomed them with a ceremonial salute. An omen was seen: when Lord 8 Deer decapitated a quail as an offering to his visitors, an eagle came down from Heaven and grasped the quail’s head.⁴⁶ The scene recalls a similar omen at Lord 8 Deer’s birth. As is often the case, this sign clearly indicates that divine powers were guiding the events, but what it meant to the beholders is difficult to reconstruct. The eagle stands for bravery in war, as in the heraldic symbol of Tenochtitlan: the eagle with the sign of water and fire (war) in its beak. As such, the eagle is related to the Sun God but also to the frightening Cihuacoatl Quilaztli, the Patron of Women who died in childbirth, the Mexica version of Lady 9 Grass. A positive interpretation of the omen would have been that the solar deity dictated the destiny of the two powers—Toltecs and Ñuu Dzaui—and would have a decisive influence over their alliance, that a great and victorious war campaign would follow, and that bravery was to be shown. A more negative reading would be that Lady 9 Grass of the Huahi Cahi reminded Lord 8 Deer that she was in control and was waiting for her payback—his soul. Still another, more mundane preoccupation would be that somebody represented by an eagle would grab whatever was in Lord 8 Deer’s hands and take over the initiative. All these possible interpretations are brought to play in the continuation of the story. For the moment, however, they remained without consequence.

The ambassadors’ first act was to invite Lord 8 Deer to a ball game. This form of physical competition seems to have functioned as a political instrument of the Toltec realm. The ruler Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl is said to have offered his rivals a mosaic of precious stones of different colors put together in the shape of a ball court, divided into four squares, with a ball made out of a carbuncle.⁴⁷ The idea is clear: the ball court was a symbol of the quadripartite order of an overarching empire. That political structure had room for local governors, who would make decisions in their own territories, but in international affairs they would act together as allies. This model offered a way of resolving conflicts and rivalries in a peaceful manner. This precious jewel was now presented to Lord 8 Deer as an invitation to participate in a game and therefore as a proposal to participate in the political alliance that formed the Toltec empire. In this way an armed conflict between Toltecs and Ñuu Dzaui could be avoided, and Lord 8 Deer was to be recognized as a supreme ruler within his own region.

The codices suggest that an actual ball game was to be played. Lord 8 Deer prepared himself by withdrawing into a cave. There, in trance, he communicated with Lord 7 Vulture ‘Red Beard,’ the divine Ancestor who had also been invoked by Lord 2 Rain ‘Ocoñaña.’ The Ñuhu showed respect to Lord 8 Deer, crossing his arms, and he gave him advice. Then a rodent brought jaguar claws and deer hoofs into the cave. These may have been understood as lucky charms, but at the same time they hinted at the connection between ‘Jaguar Claw’ (Lord 8 Deer) and the other people, represented by deer hoofs, the emblem of Mixcoatl, the God of hunting.⁴⁸ Lord 8 Deer wore the jaguar claw as a glove for the game, symbolizing the force of his hand. His Toltec opponent used the deer hoofs as an ear ornament—in conformity with the attributes of the Toltec-Chichimec Patron God Mixcoatl.

Apparently, Lord 8 Deer won the game because his Toltec opponent offered him valuable gifts. Afterward they had a meeting during which Lord 8 Deer pledged his support and alliance to the Toltecs. Codex Iya Nacuaa (I, 12-III) shows him with his hand raised as a sign of ndaha, “tribute” or “service,” in front of a Toltec lord. The latter, seated in a palace, signals with his forefinger, a gesture we read as yotasi tnuni, “to give orders.” Behind the Toltec lord a Flattened Mountain with Pyramid is mentioned as his place of origin, perhaps representing the other name of Cholula, Ñuu Ndiyo, “Town of Stairs,” or referring in a general way to a ceremonial center.

Immediately after agreeing to become part of the Toltec imperial structure, Lord 8 Deer made a long journey to the Temple of Death, the Huahi Cahi, to consult with Lady 9 Grass and ask for her continuing support. From there he and his half-brother, Lord 12 Movement, set out on a war campaign. They conquered Mountain of the Moon. We interpret this place as the Yucu Yoo (Acatepec) fortress on top of the northern cliffs of Monte Albán. The date for the conquest is the day 2 Movement of the year 7 House (1097). The rulers or persons in charge of the place were taken prisoner: Lord 1 Movement was subdued by Lord 12 Movement, and Lord 3 Alligator was captured by Lord 8 Deer.⁴⁹ Recall that seven years earlier, in the year 13 Rabbit (1090), Lady 6 Monkey had conquered this same place. Perhaps Lord 3 Alligator was identical to the man of that name who had accompanied her when she was carried to her husband; as the helper of his queen, he may have been charged with supervision of the conquered site.

After this accomplishment, Lord 8 Deer undertook the long journey to visit the Toltec king, Lord 4 Jaguar, taking his prisoner with him as well as his power objects: the Shield of Death, the Owl Arrow, and the Sacred Bundle. He traveled with Lord 12 Movement, who was fifty-two years old. Their journey started on the day 12 Deer (ten days after the conquest). Among the days mentioned further are 5 Reed and 9 Movement, which are in a logical sequence.⁵⁰ Then, on 11 Rain, Lord 8 Deer arrived at the northern frontier of Ñuu Dzaui, the area of Dark Mountain (Yucu Naa). There he camped in Stone Valley, which must correspond with the entrance to the Valley of Puebla.⁵¹

Descending from the rugged mountains, Lord 8 Deer had entered the spacious and fertile Valley of Cholula. On the following day, 12 Flower, he passed the Snow Topped Volcano and a Mountain Dedicated to the Rain Deity. From there he sent his brother, Lord 9 Flower, ahead as an ambassador to arrange the meeting with the Toltec king. On the next day, 13 Alligator, Lord 8 Deer was welcomed by Lord 4 Jaguar in front of the Sacred Bundle.⁵²

One day later still, on 1 Wind, he underwent the ceremony of Toltec rulership. We see Lord 8 Deer reclining on a jaguar throne; a Toltec nobleman, Lord 8 Death ‘Eagle Eye’ (‘Cuauhtlix’) perforated his septum and placed in his nose the turquoise ornament, the yacaxiuitl.

This happened in front of the Temple of the White Disks in the Town of the Cattail Reeds, situated in a big plain. The Town of the Cattail Reeds was called Ñuu Cohyo in Dzaha Dzaui and Tollan in Nahuatl. Its location in a plain, separated from the Ñuu Dzaui mountains by a snow-topped volcano, is highly suggestive of Cholollan (Cholula).⁵³ This important Toltec capital was also known as Tollan and had a special relationship with Quetzalcoatl.⁵⁴ This was the place where the Toltec royal investiture rites were traditionally celebrated. The exact place of that ritual is identified as a temple decorated with white discs or pearls in its roof and nose ornaments (yacaxiuitl) on top.⁵⁵ The Relación Geográfica of Cholula describes how those who were to inherit a kingdom in the surrounding regions came to this town to pay their respects to Quetzalcoatl, offering precious feathers, blankets, gold, jade, and other valuable goods to his statue. Then they were led to a special sanctuary where the two high priests perforated their ears, nose, or lips, according to the kingdom they were to receive (Acuña 1984–1985, II: 130–131). The Popol Vuh confirms and illustrates the importance of the link with Nacxitl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl for Quiché rulers in their quest for legitimation. He was the one who granted the insignia of rulership and confirmed the Founders of local dynasties in their royal powers:

And then they came before the lord named Nacxit, the great lord and sole

judge over a populous domain.

And he was the one who gave out the signs of lordship, all the emblems;

the signs of the Keeper of the Mat and the Keeper of the Reception House

Mat were set forth.

And when the signs of the splendour and lordship of the Keeper of the

Mat and the Keeper of the Reception House Mat were set forth, Nacxit

gave a complete set of the emblems of lordship.

Here are their names:

Canopy, throne.

Bone flute, bird whistle.

Paint of powdered yellow stone.

Puma’s paw, jaguar’s paw.

Head and hoof of deer.

Bracelet of rattling snail shells.

Gourd of tobacco.

Nosepiece.

Parrot feathers, heron feathers.

They brought all of these when they came away.

From across the sea, they brought back the writings about Tulan.

                                                              (Tedlock 1985: 203–204)⁵⁶

In a similar way, Lord 8 Deer became the ally of the extremely powerful and prestigious Lord 4 Jaguar ‘Nacxitl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl,’ king of the Toltecs. On the day 4 Serpent, still in the year 7 House (1097), three days after the nose piercing ceremony, the two made offerings together, perhaps because Lord 8 Deer had to leave. Their equal position in the ritual shows that, at least according to the Ñuu Dzaui point of view, they were true allies on equal footing.

6.9. Lord 8 Deer brings his prisoner to Lord 4 Jaguar in Tollan and receives the nose ornament (Codex Ñuu Tnoo–Ndisi Nuu, 9-II).

The THRONE of ÑUU TNOO

Ñuu Dzaui recorded history starts in the time the Classic imperial structure of Monte Albán had broken down and a crisis cult spread across the region, giving rise to a new socio-political arrangement, with new families coming to power in the ninth century A.D. The relations—first friendly, then hostile—between the rulers of Chiyo Yuhu (Suchixtlan) and Ñuu Tnoo (Tilantongo) dominated the scene. The move of Añute toward independence led to open war between the two around the middle of the eleventh century; that was the situation when Lord 8 Deer was growing up. As he had to leave the region, he constructed his own power base on the Mixtec Coast, in Yucu Dzaa (Tututepec), which not only permitted him to regain influence in the Mixteca Alta but also made him an interesting partner for the Toltec empire. Thus taking possession of the throne of Ñuu Tnoo, he created a central capital for Ñuu Dzaui there.

Lord 8 Deer’s first act in his new status was to start a war campaign. Three days after celebrating his ritual with the Toltec king, he launched an attack, together with his brother Lord 9 Flower, against Town of the Eagle, Mountain of the Eagle, and Cliff with Waterfall.⁵⁷ These glyphs may represent centers of resistance within the Ñuu Dzaui region. After a quick victory, Lord 8 Deer went back to Ñuu Tnoo and there, in front of the Temple of Heaven, he drilled the new fire, indicating that a new era had begun and that a new dynasty was to be founded.⁵⁸ He chose the appropriate day 1 Alligator, associated with beginnings. It was thirty-nine days after the nose piercing ceremony. He also made offerings to the Trees of the Directions, invoking each one on a successive day.

On 2 Wind (the day after 1 Alligator) he prayed to the Tree of the Emerging Ñuhu, that is, the East. On 3 House he prayed to the Tree of the West. On 4 Lizard he did not make an offering. Normally, it would have been the Tree of the North’s turn, but it was probably left out because he had just made an alliance with the Toltecs who were his northern neighbors. On 5 Serpent he invoked the Tree of the South. The days 6 Death and 7 Deer were those of a closing ceremony for all the trees, represented by a tree with hand-like leaves and a tree with pointed leaves.⁵⁹

A sacrifice was made: on the day 4 Movement (eleven days after 6 Death), a bowl with blood and a knife were placed in front of a temple. Three days later, on the day 7 Flower, a yahui priest threw an offering of piciete into the air for the Spirit of the Weapons. These two days, 4 Movement and 7 Flower, had special religious importance: they were the calendar names of two Divine Ancestors, who apparently had died in battle in primordial times.⁶⁰

Yet another war ritual was carried out. On the day 9 Wind, dedicated to the great Culture Hero, rituals were celebrated for the Sacred Arrow and the Tnucucua staff of power.⁶¹

Then an enormous gathering was organized in Ñuu Tnoo. Princes from many village-states came to pay their respects to Lord 8 Deer, enthroned by the Toltec rulership, and his half-brother, Lord 12 Movement. The ceremony was a sequel to the offering of royalty to Lord 2 Rain ‘Ocoñaña’ twenty-two years earlier.⁶² It was the day 4 Wind of the year 8 Rabbit (1098).

Lord 8 Deer had arranged for his elder half-brother, Lord 12 Movement, his trusted companion, to sit behind him (or next to him) and participate in the homage offered by so many princes and nobles. Regardless of personal appreciation, he might have had a political motive as well. As the oldest son from his father’s first marriage, Lord 12 Movement had inherited a strong and loyal network of lineage heads. As the son of a Beni Zaa princess from Zaachila, he also embodied his father’s policy within the Valley of Oaxaca, specifically with the capital that had taken the place of the ancient Monte Albán. Lord 8 Deer, on the other hand, was slowly but surely replacing that old network with a new one of his own, focused on the Toltec empire. By sharing his newly obtained Toltec status with his half-brother, he avoided possible dissent from the lineages loyal to his father’s original policy.

Recall that generations earlier Lord 10 Flower, the son of the founders of the Ñuu Tnoo dynasty, Lord 9 Wind and Lady 5 Reed from Monte Albán, had received the given name ‘Jaguar of the Burned Eyes’ or ‘Mexican Jaguar.’ This name usually commemorates a triumph against Nahuatl speakers. If that interpretation is correct, it would mean that a prince of Ñuu Tnoo had already participated in battles against the expanding Toltecs.

In changing the political alignment, Lord 8 Deer had to move carefully. His good relationship with his elder half-brother was therefore very important. Princes from many places attended the meeting. First mentioned was the Huahi Cahi, an ominous reminder of the true origin of Lord 8 Deer’s power.⁶³ Then were members of the aristocracy, among them Lord 13 Jaguar ‘War Eagle,’ about whom we will hear more, and Lord 5 Rain ‘Smoking Mountain,’ who plays a special role in Codex Iya Nacuaa.⁶⁴ Others represented “the water and the mountain,” yucu nduta, the difrasismo for “community.”⁶⁵

After these, a series of specific places is mentioned:

• Town of the Spiderweb: Andua in the Valley of Yodzo Cahi (Yanhuitlan).

• White Town and Cloud Mountain with Face.

• Deep Valley.⁶⁶

• Mountain with Face, the hometown of Lord 8 Deer’s mother, possibly Ixtepec (today Mixtepec) near Zaachila.

• Tail Mountain, which belonged to the same political unit as Mountain with Face.

• Mountain of Flints, the place where Ñuu Yuchi, Town of Flints, was later built, the site now known as Mogote del Cacique close to Ñuu Tnoo.⁶⁷

• Cut or Sliced Mountain: Ñuu Ñañu, old Tamazola.

• Hill of the Doubled Long Leaf (?).⁶⁸

• Hill where a Man Crawls Through.⁶⁹

• White Plain with Palace of the White Carrying Frame at the Foot of the Curved (i.e., Big) Mountain with Plants representing Tocuisi (Zaachila). Its two princes show the characteristic face painting of the dynasty, to which Lord 12 Movement’s mother also belonged.

• Mountain of the Blanket.⁷⁰

• Mountain of the Sitting Man with Green Twigs might be a reference to Tocuii, “Green Lords,” that is, the Coixtlahuaca Valley.

• Town of Feathers then might be Ihuitlan, so important in the history of the Coixtlahuaca area.⁷¹

• Town of the Lying Arrow: Ndaa Nduvua (Miltepec).⁷²

• Mountain of the Seated Ruler, possibly Toavui (Chila) in the Mixteca Baja.⁷³

• River of the Fire Serpent, perhaps related to the preceding sign.⁷⁴

• Valley of Gravel.⁷⁵

• Plain of Feathers.⁷⁶

• Town of Blood, Ñuu Niñe (Tonalá).

• Green Plain of Feathers, perhaps Yodzo Cuiya (Juxtlahuaca).⁷⁷

• Town of the Jaguar, Ñuu Ñaña (Cuyotepeji), the village-state that was the home of the important ambassador Lord 1 Deer.

• Town of the Death-Mouth in the Rocky Surface may be Ayuu, “Place of Stone.”⁷⁸

• Mountain of Pearls and a Lord, perhaps Nuu Siya (Tezoatlan).

• Town of Trees, possibly Yucu Tnuyaca, “Place of the Yaca tree or Cuezcomate,” that is, Tecamachalco.⁷⁹

• Rock of the Face, which could be Dziñe Yucu (Tepeaca).

• Town of the Cut or Leveled Mountain.

We are not sure about a number of identifications, but there is sufficient evidence to conclude that these places are located partly in the near vicinity of Ñuu Tnoo, partly in the Valley of Oaxaca (Zaachila), and partly in the Mixteca Baja and Southern Puebla—the latter being within the Toltec influence sphere.

After this inauguration ceremony Lord 8 Deer received the pledge of loyalty from his elder half-brother, Lord 12 Movement, his younger brother, Lord 9 Flower, and his maternal half-brother, Lord 8 Flower. As signs of their disposition to support him and be his loyal captains, they placed their shields and spears before him.⁸⁰ All this happened on the day 4 Wind.

During the following days Lord 8 Deer, accompanied by Lord 12 Movement, made a journey. They started by taking up the ancient power objects Lord 8 Deer had placed in front of the Temple of Heaven in Ñuu Tnoo: the Sacred Arrow and the Tnucucua staff. Originally, Lord 9 Wind and Lord 12 Wind, who had received these objects in Heaven, had brought them to Ñuu Tnoo.⁸¹ They spoke to the four directions and performed the war ritual with the Death Shield, which Lord 8 Deer had received in the Huahi Cahi.⁸²

Although Lord 8 Deer appears in the codices as the story’s most important protagonist, it seems that he and his elder half-brother shared the rulership status. Priests of Lady 9 Reed and Lady 9 Grass, as well as the carrier of the Dynastic Bundle, guided them. Their first station, on the day 5 House, was Stone of the Xipe Bundle, one of the founding communities of the Ñuu Tnoo village-state and in recent times the place where Lord 5 Movement (the father of Lord 2 Rain ‘Ocoñaña’) had resided, under the supervision of Lord 8 Wind of Chiyo Yuhu. Now this site was formally reincorporated in the Ñuu Tnoo kingdom. Further, they went to the different mountains and rivers, thrones and altars, that is, the different communities, towns, and sanctuaries of the kingdom, to seat the Sacred Bundle and the Xipe Bundle and to perform the war ritual and the royal pulque ritual. Old priests offered piciete. This took place on the days 5 House, 6 Lizard, 7 Serpent, 8 Death, and 9 Deer. On the day 10 Rabbit a human sacrifice was made for the Sacred Bundle after valiant warriors had fought one another. Lord 9 Flower ‘Sacred Arrow,’ Lord 8 Deer’s younger brother, directed the ceremony in his function of yahui priest.

Then, starting on the day 11 Water, several specific places were visited. We suppose that Lord 8 Deer in this way defined and reaffirmed the frontiers of the realm of Ñuu Tnoo.

The version of Codex Iya Nacuaa I (18-II) begins by showing Lord 8 Deer seated on his throne. Before him a war band (yecu) is depicted as the sign that initiates the list of toponyms. This band of chevrons may represent a woven hem of a garment, which would explain its use for edge, border, and frontier lines with enemies. The logical thing for a ruler to do at that moment would be to take possession of his territory.

The versions of Codex Iya Nacuaa and Codex Tonindeye only coincide as to the Mountain of Arrows, which could be Ndaa Nduvua (Miltepec) but also any other similarly named place. The difference might result from the fact that each codex refers to the diagnostic boundary places at a specific moment of redaction, while the precise extension of the village-state changed over time.

In the Tonindeye version, a Stone Shield of the Bird and a Valley of the Column are mentioned, which also occur in Codex Yodzo Cahi (Yanhuitlan), pl. xiii, as frontier markers of the main town.⁸³ This suggests that these sites represent the boundary between Ñuu Tnoo and Yodzo Cahi.

Another place is Valley of the Flowering Magueyes, which may represent the frontier with Zaachila. The same toponym is mentioned later in the story (Codex Ñuu Tnoo–Ndisi Nuu, 14-V) as a tributary (ndaha, “hand”) of Zaachila.

The last sign in the Codex Iya Nacuaa version is a hand with a painting or carving instruments on top of a frieze. It seems to represent the delineation of the ñuu, or sovereign community.

Finally, on the day 11 Alligator, Lord 8 Deer again went to Mountain of the Eagle, situated close to White Town at Cloud Mountain and Rock of the Quetzal (Ñuu Ndodzo, Huitzo?), where priests saluted him. This ceremony was probably intended to honor the Divine Ancestors 11 Alligator and 4 Alligator, associated with Heaven.⁸⁴ The celebration period took the entire twenty-day period between these two days.

The day 9 Serpent occurred during the next twenty-day period, the day on which Lord 8 Deer had first contacted Lady 9 Reed. He now entered her sanctuary (dzoco) again and spoke to her, presumably to express his continued thankfulness for her intervention, which had made the alliance with the Toltecs possible, and to affirm his commitment to serve and honor her with sacrifices. Appropriately, that same day he was visited by the Toltec king Lord 4 Jaguar ‘Nacxitl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl,’ who invited him to participate in a military expedition.⁸⁵ The men performed a war dance together in Ñuu Tnoo.

JOURNEY to the SUN GOD

The campaign or journey of Nacxitl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl to the East is also mentioned in the Central Mexican sources. The motivation for this expedition was probably predetermined by the Classic pattern, which, as we saw, can be demonstrated in Early Classic Tikal and Monte Albán. As early as those times, the rulers of a Central Mexican, Toltec empire made incursions into Oaxaca and the Maya lands. The commercial interest in tropical products, united with an ideology of a pan-regional empire, may have been the motivator. Ideologically, the East is also the region of Heaven, the place of origin of shamanic powers. Great fame was to be won by such an enterprise. According to the Central Mexican tradition, Nacxitl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl used to say that the Sun had called him: “And when the people asked him what he was going to do there, Quetzalcoatl answered that the ruler of those lands, who was the Sun, had called for him. This story was wide-spread among the Mexicans” (Torquemada 1975–1979, book VI: ch. 24). The answer is formulated in the lordly language of metaphors, according to which “going to the realm of the Sun God” means “looking for fame,” following the destiny of a warrior.⁸⁶

6.10. Lord 8 Deer and Lord 4 Jaguar crossing a large tropical lagoon (Codex Tonindeye, 75).

Lord 8 Deer took up arms and prepared himself through a ritual penis perforation, which permitted him to transform into an eagle and fire serpent (yaha yahui) and thus strengthened his magical powers.⁸⁷ On the day 2 Movement, thirty-two days after 9 Serpent, he performed further rituals, together with Lord 4 Jaguar ‘Nacxitl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl,’ in front of a Pyramid of Quetzal Feathers in a large valley, probably the Tlachiualtepetl in Ñuu Ndiyo, that is, Cholula. Lord 8 Deer put up his right hand, not fully opened as a tributary would be but with only the index and middle finger raised. We interpret this gesture as indicating togetherness (tnaha), that is, obeying in friendship and alliance.

Then the yahui priest Lord 12 Vulture, the first person who had greeted Lord 8 Deer as ruler of Ñuu Tnoo, offered bowls with the liquid of the sacrificial knives to the mountains from whence the palm leaves for the ritual had been taken.⁸⁸ Burying the knives there meant the preparation ceremonies had ended.

Lord 8 Deer was not going alone on the journey but was accompanied by his elder half-brother, Lord 12 Movement, and his younger brother, Lord 9 Flower. On the day 8 Eagle, still in the year 8 Rabbit (1098), they began with the conquest of Place of the Plumed Grasses. Here one omen of Lord 8 Deer’s birth was fulfilled: the long plumed grass (zacatl or acxoyatl). The rest of the campaign took place in the following year, 9 Reed (1099), which was under the divine patronage of Lady 9 Reed, who was now guiding the actions of both Lord 8 Deer and Lord 4 Jaguar.

6.11a. Lord 8 Deer entering the nahual world (Codex Tonindeye, 76a).

As for the route, the Codices Iya Nacuaa and Tonindeye list a series of conquered places, which do not occur elsewhere in the Ñuu Dzaui records and thus, presumably, are outside the Ñuu Dzaui territory. The general direction of the campaign is clear, however, from the Central Mexican and Maya sources. The Annals of Cuauhtitlan (Velázquez 1975, § 67) mention Copilco, Topillan, Ayotlan, and Mazatlan. Of these, the first two are probably Copilco-Topilco situated on the Gulf Coast, on the road to Xicalango. The second pair is more difficult to identify with certainty, as it consists of fairly common names. Mazatlan, “Place of Deer,” may refer to the province Cehache east of Acalan. But we also find a Mazatlan together with an Ayutla, “Place of the Turtles,” in the Xoconochco area, that is, on the route to Guatemala (cf. Codex Mendoza, 47). Those references may proceed from a combination of data from different campaigns. The same may be true for the lists of toponyms given in the Codices Iya Nacuaa and Tonindeye. As we are dealing with pictorial representations of Dzaha Dzaui versions of names in other languages, in sequences that may have been confused because of the lack of precise geographic knowledge, we should be extremely careful in suggesting identifications here. That is even more true where the same toponym occurs in different areas; for example, the House of the Turtle (Codex Iya Nacuaa I, 20-II) may represent the earlier mentioned Ayutla but could also refer to Ayotzintepec in the Chinantla region or some other turtle place elsewhere.

6.11b. The sacrificed warriors (Codex Tonindeye, 76b).

It is clear from the sources that Nacxitl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl was traveling eastward; he followed the Gulf Coast, moved past Xicalango, crossed the Laguna de Términos, and invaded Yucatan, where he settled in Chichén Itzá and Mayapan.⁸⁹ Combining the Central Mexican data with those of the Ñuu Dzaui codices, it becomes clear that the tradition often presents a telescopic image. A single voyage is mentioned in most written sources, as a mixture or combination of what actually must have been fairly distinct voyages: first, the campaign of conquests (because of the taking possession of and giving names to places, often identified with the primordial voyage of the Creator God Quetzalcoatl; going around on Earth; and founding village-states, dynasties, and cults), and second, a much later voyage when Nacxitl retired to the same area, during which he died.⁹⁰

The latter journey was the true end of the Toltec empire. But we can imagine that in the eyes of the historians of Tula Xicocotitlan, the end had already begun when Nacxitl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl left their city for Cholula. According to their “school,” the two campaigns were just successive phases of the same phenomenon. For us, however, it is important to separate the expansion, led by a strong king at the peak of his power, from his melancholic and dramatic final journey.

Among the places in this liminal area, we can hypothetically identify the River with House as Acalan, “Place of the Water Houses or Canoes,” situated upstream on one of the rivers (probably the Río Candelaria) that flows into the Laguna de Términos.⁹¹ A general name for the Gulf Coast area beyond Xicalango was Tlapallan, “Red or Colored Place.” From representing only a specific place, this term had become generalized as a marker of sacred geography, indicating East and the liminal area between the Mexican and Maya worlds, the Place of Dawn. It is also identified with Tlillan Tlapallan, the Place of the Black and the Colored (paint), where the wise ancient Toltecs from Teotihuacan had gone after the fall of their great capital. In the interpretatio christiana it became an equivalent of the Red Sea. Related toponyms are Nonoalco and Teotlixco.⁹²

The most impressive scene from this campaign is the one in which the two rulers and those accompanying them cross a huge extension of water, some in canoes, others swimming with gourds bound on their backs. The huge waves and the wide horizon (“where the heaven rests on the waters”) indicate the open sea. The presence of alligators makes it clear that this is a wide lagoon. Codex Iya Nacuaa (I, 22–23) identifies the waters with a place name: the frieze with the step fret motif means ñuu, “place,” in combination with a series of rectangles in different colors. We might read this as “Place of Colors,” in Nahuatl, Tlapallan.

Codex Tonindeye (75) describes the voyage as the conquest of the Island of the Red and White Loincloth (a place Codex Iya Nacuaa mentions somewhat later, after the crossing of the waters). A local man leads the way. As is logical in the Ñuu Dzaui version, Lord 8 Deer is in front, but it is Lord 4 Jaguar who throws the spear of conquest and takes possession of the island. The geographic description, compared to the context of the travels of Nacxitl toward the Maya area, suggests that they are in the Laguna de Términos and that the conquered island is the Isla del Carmen.⁹³ The conquest is precisely dated: the days 10 Serpent, 11 Death, and 12 Deer of the year 9 Reed (1099).

Among the places conquered after this impressive event we find less precise toponyms but more generalized descriptions, such as “Ancient Town,” “Sacred Valley of the Lords,” “Place where the Sun God rises amidst the trees” (Teotlixco?), “Tree of Blood, Tree of the Rain God,” “Precious River,” and “Plain where the Sun rises, where the Ñuhu rises.”⁹⁴ This is appropriate within the context of the campaign becoming increasingly elevated to the level of a religious quest in a sacred landscape. Our heroes have passed the liminal area and are nearing the realm of the Gods.

A series of days is given for these conquests, and they do not seem to be in chronological sequence. However, one clear date stands out: the day 4 Alligator of the year 9 Reed, 174 days after the passage of the Laguna de Términos.⁹⁵ This was the day on which the voyage to the Sun God, Lord 1 Death, reached its final phase. The symbolic connotation was appealing to Ñuu Dzaui historians: the days 4 Alligator and 1 Death were the calendar names of the founders of the Ñuu Tnoo dynasty.

A Mountain of the Fire Serpent, a nahual place, marks the passage to the Other World. Before entering here, a life had to be sacrificed. On the hill we see the extended dead body of a warrior with the given name ‘Stone Shield.’ Under him the day 9 Flower is given; next to the mountain we see the day 12 Death.

If we follow Alfonso Caso and identify 9 Flower as the calendar name of the man who was killed, we can construct a rather fanciful but fascinating hypothesis to explain the scene. That calendar name would make it possible to identify the dead man as Lord 9 Flower ‘Blood Shield,’ the son of Lord 13 Dog, ruler of Mountain of Seven Stones, and Lady 6 Eagle, the daughter of Lord 8 Alligator ‘Blood Coyote’ and Lady 9 Monkey ‘Jewel Quetzal,’ rulers of Ñuu Ndaya (Chalcatongo).⁹⁶ The fact that he was a prince of Mountain of Seven Stones would account for the slight differences in the personal names of Lord 9 Flower; he may also have been known as ‘(Blood) Shield of Stones.’ Recall that Lady 6 Eagle was Lord 8 Deer’s niece. Her mother, Lady 9 Monkey, was Lord 8 Deer’s younger sister; she had been born in the year 13 Flint (1064), so she was now thirty-five years old. In ancient Ñuu Dzaui custom, this was enough time for Lady 9 Monkey to have grown up, married, and had a child and for that child to have grown up and married. Indeed, her daughter, Lady 6 Eagle, had married Lord 13 Dog, the ruler of Mountain of Seven Stones.

During the years of forging the alliance with the Toltecs (1096–1097), Lord 8 Deer had again visited the Huahi Cahi in Ñuu Ndaya. It is plausible that at those occasions he had contact with his brother-in-law; he also would have noticed that his niece, Lady 6 Eagle, had grown up. Recall that according to the ancient Ñuu Dzaui elite custom, she was a logical marriage partner for him. Uncle-niece marriages were rather common as a strategy to reunite the heritage. Indeed, some years later Lord 8 Deer would marry Lady 6 Eagle, who, therefore, left her husband, Lord 13 Dog.

Given its proximity to Ñuu Ndaya (Chalcatongo), this Mountain of Seven Stones, where Lady 6 Eagle lived with her first husband, can be identified as Yuu Usa, today pronounced locally as Yuu Usha, the correct name of Santa Catarina Yuxia.⁹⁷ The latter community, pertaining to Ñuu Ndaya (Chalcatongo), derives its name from a peculiar rock formation in the center of town, known even today as Yuu Usha, “Stone Seven.” Presumably, this place name has a symbolic meaning, comparable to that of Chicomoztoc (“Seven Caves”) for the Nahuas. Perhaps Yuu Usa was also a place of origin. Local people recall that in ancient times a female Ndoso (Divine Ruler) from Ñuu Ndaya married the Lord Ndoso of Yucu Dzaa (Tututepec). Consequently, the coast became very rich, it is said; otherwise all that richness would have remained in the Mixteca Alta. The Ndoso of Yucu Dzaa is well-known: it is the large boulder on top of Yucu Yuu Dzaa, a hill in the center of modern San Pedro Tututepec. It was here that Lord 8 Deer, coming from Ñuu Tnoo, founded his new Temple of Heaven. As for Lady Ndoso of Ñuu Ndaya, the actual site of her birth is pinpointed as a mountain with an important archaeological site, behind the present church of San Felipe Tindacu, a neighboring village of Yuxia and close to the actual Chalcatongo. The name of that mountain in Tindacu is also Yuku Saa, “Hill of the Birds” (Yucu Dzaa in the orthography of Alvarado). The codices only mention one ancient queen from Ñuu Ndaya who married a ruler of Yucu Dzaa: Lady 6 Eagle, the second wife of Lord 8 Deer. One wonders if local lore conserves the memory of a historical event here. We have no way to be sure, but the geographic context is suggestive. A princess of the ruling lineage of Ñuu Ndaya could very well have been born in the ancient site of San Felipe Tindacu, a tributary community, and it would have been perfectly natural for her to marry a nobleman from the neighboring community Yuxia, down the impressive gorge of the Río Hondo. Farther south, down that same blue gorge, toward the horizon, we see the dominant and mysterious peak of Yuku Kasa, the Entrance to the Other World, still invoked by the elders of Tindacu in ritual prayers directed to the Seven Mountains and the Seven Seas.

How do we explain the unexpected presence and death of Lady 6 Eagle’s son at such a crucial moment during Lord 8 Deer’s voyage to the Sun God? Given the short time span for the generations of her mother and herself, Lady 6 Eagle can only have been between fifteen and twenty years old at the time of the campaign to Xicalango. Her son, therefore, must have been a very young boy or even a baby at the time. His representation as a warrior must be just a pictorial convention.

Of course, it is possible that the names are just a coincidence and that the Lord 9 Flower who was killed when Lord 8 Deer was about to pass the threshold to the Other World is not related to anybody else we know of through the codices, but we doubt that. We think his death at such a crucial event must have had a special and dramatic meaning for it to be commemorated this way. Thinking further about the incident, we came to this reasoning. Such a small boy was certainly not alone with the warriors on that long campaign; his mother must have accompanied him. But, if so, what was Lady 6 Eagle doing there? It is curious that Lord 8 Deer made that daring journey in the company of his niece, who, as we know, some years later would become his wife. And why is she not mentioned explicitly? Was her husband still alive, was she there with him? The story would have a very dramatic twist if we supposed that she and Lord 8 Deer had already been cultivating a loving relationship long before they actually married, in other words, if she accompanied Lord 8 Deer as his mistress. Building further on this speculation, we can even ask whether Lord 9 Flower was in fact not the son of the ruler of Stone Mountain but Lord 8 Deer’s illegitimate child. We stress that there is no evidence whatsoever to back up such a guess; on the other hand, the theme of a father asked to sacrifice his young child to obtain a crucial favor from the deities is well-known from other cultures (e.g., the stories of Isaac and Iphigenia).

The days associated with the killing of Lord 9 Flower are 12 Death and 9 Grass. Both are out of sequence. Possibly, 9 Grass is an esoteric calendar name (nahualtocaitl) of the nahual mountain and at the same time a reminder of the strong hold the powers of the Huahi Cahi had on all this. The most probable date for the event is 9 Death.

After killing Lord 9 Flower from behind, Lord 8 Deer entered the nahual world over the fallen body. The Central Mexican histories recall a similar event: “Topiltzin . . . took the road towards the sea and there he opened, just with his word, a big mountain and entered it” (Durán 1967, I: 12). The first sight was horrifying. Warriors and princes who had fallen in battle or been executed as prisoners of war came toward him carrying the banners of sacrifice, their arms still bound by the ropes of captivity, their hearts ripped out, blood streaming from their chests.⁹⁸ But Lord 8 Deer did not panic. He stopped their advance and subdued them. The heroes passed by and came to the entrance of the Underworld—its esoteric calendar name was 9 Serpent, a ritually important day, reminiscent of the earlier offerings by Lord 8 Deer to Lady 9 Reed. On the day 10 Deer (corrected from 11 Deer, which is out of sequence), they conquered the Hills of the Ancestors.

The next day, 11 Rabbit, they forced their way into the House of the Sun. Here Lord 8 Deer, Lord 12 Movement, and Lord 4 Jaguar had to confront the divine sentinels: Old Coyote (the trickster) and the God of Death.⁹⁹ They did so successfully and then kneeled in the presence of the Sun God, Lord 1 Death, seated in his precious temple. It was the sacred day 7 Movement, which in earlier years had been used for special ceremonies by Lord 5 Alligator and Lord 2 Rain.¹⁰⁰ Our heroes offered gold and jade to the Sun God, who ordered them first to do penitence and bloodletting.

Thirteen days later, on 7 Dog, Lord 8 Deer and Lord 4 Jaguar ‘Nacxitl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl’ drilled the new fire in front of the Sun’s House, the place of origin of all rulership.¹⁰¹ They then left the nahual world through a precious hole in the Mountain of the Fire Serpent. The day was 9 Grass, the esoteric name of that mountain but probably also the day on which the event took place, two days after 7 Dog.¹⁰²

Where did all this happen? Obviously, the description refers to the House of the Sun (Tonatiuh Ichan in Nahuatl) as a divine place, the realm of the dead warriors who accompanied the Sun during the first half of his daily journey. On the other hand, this entrance in the Other World is embedded in a geographic context of a voyage that had just passed the Laguna de Términos. From this perspective one would situate the House of the Sun God in Maya land, in Yucatan. This idea is reinforced by several sources that tell us that Nacxitl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl arrived in Maya land, where he became known as Kukulkan, and established himself at Chichén Itzá, where he is credited with building the famous “Castillo,” or Temple of Kukulkan. Given the archaeological presence of earlier construction phases, he probably amplified the already existing “old Castillo”:

It is believed among the Indians that with the Itzas who occupied Chichen Itza, there reigned a great lord, named Kukulkan and that the principal building, which is called Kukulkan, shows this to be true. They say that he arrived from the West; but they differ among themselves as to whether he arrived before or after the Itzas or with them. They say that he was favorably disposed, and had no wife or children, and that after his return he was regarded in Mexico as one of their gods and called Quetzalcouatl; and they also considered him a god in Yucatan on account of his being a just statesman; and this is seen in the order which he imposed on Yucatan. (Tozzer 1941: 20–23)

The Relación Geográfica of Izamal and Santa María confirms that in the past the great ruler who had his court in Chichén Itzá had received tribute from all of Mexico and Guatemala (de la Garza 1983: 305). Perhaps this is the court referred to by the Popol Vuh and the Título de Totonicapan when they locate the Tollan of Nacxitl in the East, “where the sun rises.” Then the Quiché lords would not have gone to Cholula to get their insignia of royalty together with the art of writing but to Chichén Itzá as a kind of eastern Toltec capital.¹⁰³

In the Temple of the Jaguars in Chichén Itzá, next to the great ball court, reliefs and frescoes describe the battles of a great Lord Plumed Serpent, whose iconography suggests that Kukulkan-Quetzalcoatl is meant. The relief on the lintel of the building shows that Lord Plumed Serpent presents himself before Lord Sun. How all this fits in with the chronology of Chichén Itzá, which is presently under revision, is not yet clear. The temple in question seems to date from an earlier period, but the lintel and frescoes may have been added later.¹⁰⁴

We take the encounter of Plumed Serpent and Sun as a direct parallel to the scenes in the Codices Tonindeye and Iya Nacuaa, where Lord 4 Jaguar ‘Nacxitl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl’—together with his ally Lord 8 Deer (crucial to Ñuu Dzaui historiography but irrelevant in other sources)—meets the Sun God. The deity may have been impersonated by the Ah Kin May, the great Sun priest who seems to have been the central religious authority among the Mayas of Yucatan.¹⁰⁵ This is likely the scene remembered as an emblem on Ñuu Dzaui shields and polychrome ceramics: “The victory over the sun is such a common theme in Mixtec heraldry that they paint on their coats of arms, and even on some cups and bowls of the nobles, a captain in armour, with a feather crown, holding shield, bow and arrows in his hands, and in front of him the sun, going down among grey clouds” (Burgoa 1934b, I: 371). In colonial times this theme was synthesized and transformed into the legend of the Flechador del Sol, the prince who shot the Sun and became ruler of Ñuu Tnoo.

As for Nacxitl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, his appearance on the stage of Ñuu Dzaui history is like a whirlwind, sudden and strong, uprooting and pushing people toward great transformation. Following the example of the divine Lord 9 Wind ‘Quetzalcoatl,’ the creator of human society on earth, he inspired new artistic and political developments by connecting Ñuu Dzaui to the mainstream of Mesoamerican culture, the Toltecayotl. His vision had a similar impact all over Mesoamerica. The symbolism of the Plumed Serpent was already important in Preclassic and Classic times, but this extraordinary charismatic leader gave it a new dimension within the context of a rapidly spreading revival and intensification of the Quetzalcoatl cult.¹⁰⁶ Tying history to ritual, the human to the divine, the emblematic figure of Nacxitl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl had a catalyzing effect on the Toltec realm, on the Maya communities in Yucatan and Guatemala, and, as has become clear, on the Ñuu Dzaui.

Our reading of Lord 4 Jaguar’s activities in the codices has important implications for all of Mesoamerican history and archaeology. New questions arise about the precise chronology of the events, the growth and composition of the Toltec realm, and the nature of the interaction among Central Mexico, Oaxaca, and the Maya area in the Early Postclassic (manifest in the development of the Mixteca-Puebla style). These topics merit a much more detailed analysis, which falls outside the scope of this book. Several insightful works have been written about different aspects of the religious symbolism and historical reality of the Quetzalcoatl figure. Still, many mysteries remain.