exhorted her patient on
entering, with the words: "Enter into it, my daughter, enter into the
bosom of our Mother whose name is Yoalticitl ... warm thyself in the bath,
which is the house of flowers of our god ..." (Historia, book VI, chap.
XXVII).

The Vienna Codex contains, besides pictures of temples (fig. 41, _a_ and
_b_), two instances which elucidate the meaning of the design; _c_ of the
same figure displays the conventional symbol for land, fringed on three
sides. Enclosed in this and seen, in profile, is a stratum of
checker-board design, above which is a sheet of water; d displays a
conventionally drawn mountain, inside of which is the symbolical vase
filled with the design. From this steam or smoke ascends through the soil
of the mountain, and forces its way through the surface, above which we
see two recurved puffs of smoke and a young blossoming maize shoot,
conventionally drawn, such as may be seen worn by priestesses, as a
symbolical head decoration, on page 11 of the Vienna Codex. The seated
figure of a priest is represented as sheltering its growth with his
outspread mantle. On his back he displays a symbol, composed of two rolls
united by a crossband, which is met with in Maya and Mexican Codices. In
the latter the four projecting ends are usually painted with the colors of
the four quarters. As these are figured as united into a single sign, it
seems evident that this symbolized a union of the four elements deemed
necessary for the production of life by the ancient native philosophers.

The foregoing illustrations, to which more could be added, clearly
establish that the checkered design was associated with the symbols of
earth, heat and water. It obviously expressed the idea embodied in the
Nahuatl word xotlac=the heated earth; literally, glowing embers, also
budding and opening flowers. It was emblematic of the fall of the rain or
earth-wine upon the heated soil. In the temazcalli the same life-producing
union of the elements took place and aided human growth and health. It
would seem as though the appellation xoch-i-calli, bestowed upon the
sweat-house by the native medicine-woman, expressed the same train of
thought. Moreover, it is noteworthy, that the sound of the first part of
this name and of xo-tlac recurs in the Maya word for vase in general,
ho-och. The checker-board design would naturally have been employed in
connection with the festivals, associated with esoteric rites, which were
held i