connected with the
circumpolar constellations and with Tezcatlipoca, the lord of the North,
the central figure of the native cosmogony. It was puzzling to find this
god connected not only with the Ursa Major but also with Ursa Minor, but
an indication suggesting a possible explanation or reconciliation of these
apparent inconsistencies is furnished by the descriptions of the strange
ritual performance, which was annually repeated at the festival
Tlacaxipehualiztli and was evidently the dramatization of a sacred myth.

As an illustration and a description of this rite are contained in the
B.N. MS. and the subject is fully treated in my commentary, I shall but
allude here to its salient features. It represented a mortal combat
between a prisoner, attached by a short piece of cord to the centre of a
large circular stone, and five warriors, who fought him singly. The fifth,
who was masked as an ocelot and always obtained victory in the unequal
contest, fought with his left hand, being "left-handed," a peculiarity
ascribed to Huitzilopochtli. It was he who subsequently wore the skin of
the flayed victim, an action which obviously symbolized a metamorphosis.
One point is obvious: this drama exhibits the victor as a warrior who was
able to circumscribe the stone freely and was masked as an
ocelot--Tezcatlipoca--the Ursa Major, but was endowed, at the same time,
with the left-handedness identified with Huitzilopochtli. This mythical
personage vanquishes and actually wears the skin of the man attached to
the stone; becomes his embodiment, in point of fact, and obtains the
supremacy for which he had fought so desperately. In the light shed by the
Codex Fuenleal, before cited, it was easy to see that the entire
performance dramatized the mythical combat between Tezcatlipoca and
Huitzilopochtli for the position of the ruling power, in the heavens--the
sun. At the same time it was decidedly puzzling to find celestial
supremacy personified by a man, firmly fastened to one spot, the centre of
a stone circle. It was impossible not to perceive the identity of thought
underlying the representation of this prisoner and the pictures of
Tezcatlipoca, the one-footed or lame god--Xonecuilli the Ursa Minor. It was
moreover of extreme interest to note the existence of traditional records,
preserved in the native myths, of changes in the relative positions of
celestial bodies and of the Ursa Major in particular.

Whilst dwelling upon the strikin