. Mexican and Central American antiquities, calendar systems, and history;. at it looks very much as if theintestines were being drawn from the body of the figure. This didindeed occur among certain tribes as an act of torture or sacrifice, ascan be gathered from a few passages, but it was by no means a univer-sal religious ceremony. On the other hand, the color of this strip, SELER] VENUS PERIOD IN PICTURE WRITINGS 369 which is yellow, in the Codex Vaticanus even dotted yellow and red,and the wavy outlines forcibly recall the manner in which the skinflayed from a human being, Xipes usual atti
. Mexican and Central American antiquities, calendar systems, and history;. at it looks very much as if theintestines were being drawn from the body of the figure. This didindeed occur among certain tribes as an act of torture or sacrifice, ascan be gathered from a few passages, but it was by no means a univer-sal religious ceremony. On the other hand, the color of this strip, SELER] VENUS PERIOD IN PICTURE WRITINGS 369 which is yellow, in the Codex Vaticanus even dotted yellow and red,and the wavy outlines forcibly recall the manner in which the skinflayed from a human being, Xipes usual attire, is commonly repre-sented in the picture writings. Since Xipe Totec is placed among thefive gods of this particular row, I am convinced that the act of tearingoff the strip is meant to represent the tlacaxipeualiztli, flaying ofthe victim , which was customary at the feast of Xipe Totec and alsoat the feasts of the earth goddess. In the fourth row five female divinities are represented as offeringthe breast to a naked human form (<2, figure 9G). I believe that this. / Fig. 96. Mexican deities and Maya hieroglyphs. row is intended to represent the nourishing of the gods, thetlatlatlaqualiliztli, which was the concluding act of the sacrifice, andconsisted in moistening the mouths of the idols with the blood of thevictims by means of a strip of paper or a rod dipped in the blood,which had been caught in a —No. 28—05 24 370 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 28 All the figures of the four rows are accompanied by day signs, fourwith each figure, placed in the order in which they follow each other,so that eight}7 day signs in all, or the twenty day signs repeated fourtimes, are set clown on these pages. Eighty days have no distinguish-able direct significance as a division of time. They denote a definitedivision neither of the tonalamatl, nor of the year, nor of any other ofthe usual periods of time. For 80 days before the principal feast thepriests fasted and sco
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