ove, and his blood was then smeared on the mouth of certain
idols representing the Below. In the B. N. MS. an interesting illustration
and account are given of an idol of the earth-mother who is figured as
standing on a pedestal adorned with skulls and cross-bones with
outstretched tongue which signified, "that she always had great thirst for
human blood" and "never refused sacrifices offered to her."

Two priests are likewise pictured in the act of offering bowls containing
human blood to the idol and a third, mounted on a ladder, is pouring the
contents of another bowl over its head. It is obvious how the constant
associations of the earth-mother with sanguinary sacrifices and
bloodthirstiness would, in time, give rise to the idea of a hostile,
maleficent power, linked with darkness and devouring fire, who, under the
aspect of the serpent-woman, waged an eternal warfare on the human race
and clamored for victims and bloody sacrifices. The natural sequence to
the above associations is that in ancient Mexico the powers exerting fatal
influence upon the human race are all represented as female, viz.: the
Cihuacoatl or woman-serpent, the Ciuapipiltin and the Tzit-zime, etc.
These and various other personifications of the female principle are
described in detail in my notes and commentary to the B. N. MS.

After considering the foregoing data it seems impossible not to conclude
that it must have taken centuries of time for the idea of duality, or of
the Above and Below to have taken such a deep hold upon the native mind
and to have produced such a growth of symbolism and association in so many
ramifications of thought. Let us endeavor to obtain a further insight into
the native mode of thought by carefully studying some significant details
concerning the social organization of the Mexicans from the time of
Acamapichtli to that of Montezuma and the influences it had been subjected
to gradually. This, the first ruler, unquestionably ruled as the
Cihuacoatl, a name which means either Woman-serpent or Female-twin. This
fact in itself testifies to an epoch-making change in the organization of
the Mexican government, in the making of which a concession was made to a
previously existing order of things, by the retention of the female title
by a male ruler.

Having carefully studied the question for many years, I have long
considered it proven that when the Mexicans settled in the valley of
Mexico they came under a series of infl