rve as an axis or pivot. The association of this
peculiarity with the symbols of the North impressed me deeply and
involuntarily caused me to think of a title bestowed in the Codex Fuenleal
upon the supreme divinity, namely, "The Wheel of the Winds;" as well as of
an expression employed by Tezozomoc (Cronica, p. 574). Referring to the
constellations revered by the natives, he mentions "the North and its
wheel."

[Illustration.]

Figure 1

Realizing that some definite and important meaning must underlie the
remarkable representations of Tezcatlipoca, I resorted to all possible
means to gain an understanding of them. Referring to Nahuatl dictionaries,
I found a variety of synonymous names for a person who limped or was lame
or maimed. Amongst them was Popoztequi from poztequi, the verb, "to break
a leg." Other names were xopuztequi, xotemol and Icxipuztequi
(icxitl=foot). The latter name happened to be familiar to me, for the
commentator of the Vatican Codex, Padre Rios, gives it as the name of a
god and translates it as "the lame devil." He records it immediately after
Mictlantecuhtli, the lord of the North, and designates it as the name of
one of the four principal and primitive gods of the Mexicans.

The commentator of the Telleriano-Remensis Codex, moreover, records that
these four gods were "said to have been stars and had fallen from the
heavens. At the present time there are stars in the firmament named after
them" (Kingsborough, vol. v, pp. 132 and 162).

Other synonymous terms for lame persons were icxinecuiltic and
xonecuiltic. Tzimpuztequi, on the other hand, besides meaning lame, also
signified something crooked, bent or incurvated. The second name furnished
me with an important clue, for Sahagun distinctly records that the native
name for the constellation Ursa Minor was Xonecuilli and that it was
figured as an S (Historia, 1. VII, cap. 3). Besides, the Academia MS. of
his monumental work contains the native drawing of this star-group
reproduced as fig. 16, no. 1. He also states that S-shaped loaves of bread
named xonecuilli were made at a certain festival in honor of this
constellation, while the B.N. MS. records that a peculiar recurved weapon,
figured in the hands of deities, was named xonequitl (fig. 16, nos. 2 and
3).

The above data furnished me with indisputable evidence of the existence,
in ancient Mexico, of a species of star cult