female water goddess is Chalchiutlycue, this detail is
significant and will be referred to later on. It is noteworthy that on
both pages 5 and 6 the performance of the above rite is accompanied by the
image of the goddess of the earth and underworld, represented with a
death's head, and with her hair strewn with stars. Her body is that of a
green lizard, and she carries ears and blossoms of maize and holds a blue
garment on which the chalchihuitl symbol figures.

In connection with representatives of the human form outstretched in
sacrifice, on whose body the rite of kindling the sacred fire or of
extracting the heart is being performed, it seems evident that, under the
dominion of the fundamental ideas I have been discussing, the native sages
regarded and utilized the human form as an image of the Middle and Four
Quarters. It is well known that the number 20 was termed "one count" and
connected with the number of fingers and toes, distributed equally on his
four extremities. The human victim thus formed a living swastika or cross
and became not only the consecrated image of the supreme, creative,
central divinity who controlled the Four Quarters, but also an image of
the central government with its supreme ruler; whilst the four chiefs of
the Quarters were symbolized by the four limbs. Each of these terminated
in a symbolized group consisting of a hand, maitl, with a thumb (=touey
mapilli or vei mapilli, literally, the great finger, or our great finger)
and four fingers (mapilli); or of a great toe, touei xopil or topec-xopil
(literally, our great toe, or our lord toe) and of four toes=xopilli.

[Illustration.]

Figure 29.

The above association of ideas was doubtlessly accentuated by the fact
that the word pilli means a nobleman, a chieftain; thence he terms
pilconetl=the son of a nobleman and pilhua=he who has sons (pil in this
case meaning son and hua=possessor of). This latter fact could have been
very aptly conveyed in the picture-writings by employing fingers to
express the sound "pilli." The number of sons a chieftain had could thus
be easily expressed by his exhibiting a corresponding number of fingers. I
shall revert to this possibility presently, and now referring to fig. 29,
no. 2, direct attention to the obvious intention to express the idea that
the fire produced was distributed to the four quarters by means of the
figures, painted in symboli