s a
protection and safeguard for her sacred person. It may be that for the
reasons of safety and preservation the female ruler, who was the living
representative of the Cihuacoatl, gradually retired into absolute
seclusion whilst a man of her kin assumed, in public, her title and
prerogatives.

Unless it is assumed that this was the case, it seems impossible to
explain why Acamapichtli is designated in the Codex Mendoza (Kingsborough,
vol. I, pl. II) as having begun to rule in the year I Tecpatl or flint
(approximately corresponding to A.D. 1364) with the title of
"Woman-serpent"=Cihuacoatl. From this date the title seems always to have
been borne by a man. When human sacrifices had become a prominent feature
of the native cult and it became a duty of the Cihuacoatl to perform the
bloody rite, it is obvious that it became impossible for a woman to fill
the position.

We obtain, however, glimpses of the shadowy form of an invisible and
venerable female ruler who is at the head of the "House of Women," watches
over the welfare of the women of the tribe and officiates as a priestess,
with her assistants, at births, baptisms and marriages. In order to
account for the obscurity which surrounds her, it should be noticed that
the mere fact that the ideas of darkness and seclusion became indelibly
associated with the female sex, would naturally and inevitably cause women
to be housed up, veiled and condemned to comparative inaction and
immobility. A primitive stage in the growth of the above idea is shown in
the case of the Huaxtecas, the women of which tribe wore abundant covering
whilst the men, on religious principle, wore none. A careful study of the
conditions surrounding the Cihuacoatl or high priest shows that he also
conformed to the exigencies of his position when he acted as the
representative of the hidden forces of Nature, of the female principle. He
and the entire priesthood smeared their bodies with black, cultivated long
hair, and wore, during the performance of certain religious ceremonies, a
wide and long garment reaching to the ground. It is noticeable that the
designs on the garments of the priests, in the B. N. MS., are invariably
executed in red and yellow, the symbolical colors of the north and west,
combined with black the symbol of the union of both, the Below. In this
connection it is noteworthy that in Mexican pictography the faces of women
are usually painted yellow--the color of the West=the female