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“watery” terms, with references to water lilies, shells, and similar items. As a coincidence, the interpretatio christiana (interpretation of a non-Christian worldview in Christian terms) of the early colonial authors often equated the primordial period or earlier creation with the time before the Deluge. With this in mind, we can decode statements like those that qualify Chichén Itzá as
“the most ancient settlement and, according to the count of the Indians, the first that was populated after the Deluge” (de la Garza 1983: 426).
The TIME of DARKNESS
The Popol Vuh is an early colonial registration of precolonial sacred history.
Similar texts existed in Ñuu Dzaui civilization. Burgoa describes one such work, which was confiscated by the monks in Yodzo Cahi (Yanhuitlan):
Several years after this people had been baptized and after some of them had learned how to write, a manuscript book was found, on good paper, which contained histories in their language, such as those in Genesis, beginning with the creation of the world, the lives of their leaders, com-parable to those of the patriarchs, and the Great Flood, combined with illustrations, such as in our Bible. . . . And the identity of the author of this book was kept so much a secret that it was impossible to discover him or find him out, as the owner of the book claimed he had inherited it. The worst was that, although kept in the deposit box under two keys, it disap-peared as if it were smoke. (Burgoa 1934b, I: 288–289)
At the end of the sixteenth century the vicar of the Dominican convent in the Ñuu Dzaui town of Saha Yucu (Cuilapan) in the Valley of Oaxaca pos-sessed a similar book, which also consisted of a combination of an alphabetic text, probably in Dzaha Dzaui, and pictographic illustrations. The vicar in question may have been Fray Diego de Ontiveros, companion of the famous missionary Fray Gonzalo Lucero who spoke Dzaha Dzaui fairly well.1 The book in question is lost, but the Dominican friar Gregorio García included a Spanish summary in his book on the origin of Native American peoples. The first sentences seem to be a direct translation from the original:
In the year and on the day of darkness and obscurity before there were days or years, when the world was in great darkness and everything was chaos and confusion,
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The Spanish translation still contains the characteristic difrasismos of the original Dzaha Dzaui text. The expression quevui, cuiya, “day, year,” means
“time.” Obscurity and darkness—sa naa sa yavui—is a metaphor for “mys-tery.” So the first phrase, “in the year and on the day of obscurity and ness,” is to be understood as “in the mysterious time.” The primordial dark-ness is the time of sacred history, in which Gods and mythical creatures are the principal actors.2
This concept of a primordial era of darkness is present in many other areas of Mesoamerica. In Cholula an old man, “learned in the antiquities,”
told the Spanish chronicler Diego Durán:
In the beginning, before light and sun were created, the earth was in darkness and obscurity,
and without anything created.
All flat, without mountain nor abysm, surrounded on all sides by water, without trees nor creatures.
(Durán 1967, II: 17)
The Nahuatl word yoayan, “in the time of night,” is used in the same sense in chronicles like the Annals of Cuauhtitlan and is at the core of the sacred story of the First Sunrise in Teotihuacan.
Mitoa in oc iooaian, It is said that in the time of darkness, in aiamo tona, in aiamo tlahui: when there was still no light, no
dawn,
quilmach, it is said,
mocentlalique, mononotzque that they assembled and consulted together,
in teteuh: the Gods,
in umpa teutiuacan, there in Teotihuacan, quitoque: quimolhuique. they spoke and said:
“Tla xioalhuiian, teteuie: “Come here, oh Gods:
aquin tlatquiz? aquin tlamamaz? Who will take charge and be responsible in tonaz, in tlathuiz?” for the daybreak, the dawn?”
(Sahagún 1950–1978, book VII: ch. 2)3
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This basic concept of a time of darkness, Nuu Naa in Dzaha Dzaui, determines the structure of the Codex Yuta Tnoho. The book starts with a
“prologue” in Heaven. First, ten anonymous priestly figures (painted black) are seated with specific attributes and gestures. Taking the anonymous fig-ures as representations of specific actions, we read their position as the verb
“seating” (yocoo), which in Dzaha Dzaui has the connotation of “establishing oneself” and “beginning.” Combining these considerations, we understand the images as a series of phrases referring to the seating (i.e., establishment or creation) of elements, institutions, and places. Their sequence is clearly com-posed as a literary text: the figures are paired as difrasismos, and their hand gestures show a rhyming pattern: a-b, c-d, a-d, e-d, a-c. We can render its basic meaning more or less as follows:
These are the elegant words (of the sahu, parangón), the holy words, for which offerings of tobacco are made, about how it all began in Heaven,
3.1. The first page of Codex Yuta Tnoho (52); the reading starts in the lower right-hand corner.
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when it was determined how the days would be counted in scores of twenty,
when it was arranged how the divine power (Ñuhu) would rise and set, when death was seated, when worship was seated,
when the courses for the streams were traced, when the mountains were put in place,
i.e., when the water and the mountains, the communities, were established:
first the Black Town, Ñuu Tnoo (Tilantongo), then the White Town, Tocuisi (Zaachila?),
the Place of Heaven (on Cavua Caa Andevui near Yuta Tnoho), the Place of the Throne (Yucu Aniñe, Monte Albán?).
These were places of flint knives, of power over life and death, places where the staffs of authority were planted,
the valleys of quetzal feathers and blood, i.e., of the noble lords, holy enclosures of the rosette and the palm leaves for bloodletting, with the House of Down Balls, the House of the Throne,
i.e., the houses of holiness and peace, the temples of ecstasy, and the houses of the royal seat and glory, the palaces of authority.
There were seated the primordial celestial pair of Ndodzos (Ancient Rulers) the venerated Ancestors: Lady 1 Deer and Lord 1 Deer,
First Mother and First Father, Founders and Protectors,
who united in themselves the Power of Death and the Breath of Life.
The opening phrase—a speaking priest to whom another priest makes an offering of piciete (Nicotiana rustica)—can be interpreted as a parallel to the beginning of the Popol Vuh: are u xe oher, “this is the beginning of the ancient account.” The images that follow have several symbolic associa-tions. The dichotomy of darkness and days, which connotes the opposition between chaos and order, leads to that of the rising and descending Ñuhu, a term used for “sun” but also for “divinity” in general. The image therefore refers to the movement of the sun as the logical element to follow the cre-ation of the days, but at the same time it connotes the cycle of the forces of life and Nature: the sprouting and withering of crops, birth and death. The latter opposition is made explicit in the following image: the seating of death, paired with the figure of a priest carrying the tobacco gourd, representing the cult. This combination, also seen in other Mesoamerican sources, reminds us that death and worship belong together. Human life is characterized by respect for superior forces, and the religious emotion itself is provoked by the
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awareness of our limitations.4 Religious practice leads logically to the concept of the human community, situated in its natural niche of “water and moun-tain,” a well-known difrasismo (contracted to altepetl in Nahuatl). The fact that both terms form a conceptual unity stresses once again the interconnect-edness and coherence of the foregoing pairs.
After this initial phrase, a number of concrete communities are men-tioned. Here the same principle of symbolic combinations is applied. The toponyms are ordered in pairs, starting with Ñuu Tnoo, the Black Town (Tilantongo), as the place with which the codex was connected. It is com-bined with a White Town, which must be interpreted as a place of equal sta-tus. Tocuisi, “(Place of the) White Lords,” that is, the city-state of Zaachila, capital of the Beni Zaa in the Valley of Oaxaca, is the best candidate in view of its importance in Ñuu Dzaui history. The next two toponyms contain sym-bolic references to power; the Place of Heaven is associated elsewhere with Yuta Tnoho (Apoala) as the primordial site of the origin of dynasties, while the Place of the Throne must have a similar status and is probably identical to the Mountain of the Seated Ruler, which represents the center of Monte Albán on the Map of Xoxocotlan.5 As we will see, both places played a crucial role in the early history of the Ñuu Tnoo ruling family.
The fifth and sixth toponyms pair a Place of Flint Knives with a Place of Staffs. A Town of Flints appears in the historical record; Ñuu Yuchi, iden-tified as Mogote del Cacique (in San José Tres Lagunas, today an agencia of Ñuu Tnoo), for a short but important period, took the position of Ñuu Tnoo as the central mat and throne in Ñuu Dzaui. The pairing with a Place of Staffs, however, suggests another reading; the latter could also indicate a specific place, such as Yucu Tatnu (Topiltepec, “Mountain of Staffs”), but it does not function as an important toponym in the codices. We therefore prefer to read that sign for the moment as a general reference that qualifies the five mentioned toponyms as “places where the staffs have been located,”
that is, “places of rulership and power.” This suggests that the reference to the flint knives is to be interpreted in a parallel way, as flint knife and staff often appear combined. On page 48, the Codex Yuta Tnoho shows how the staff with flint was brought down from the Place of Heaven to Ñuu Tnoo. The symbolic associations of the flint knife are determined by its use as a killing instrument.
The beginning of the codex, then, after the opening phrases, seems to mention four concrete places, which we can identify as the two primary
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ical centers of Ñuu Tnoo and Zaachila with their respective sacred places of ori-gin: the Mountain of Heaven near Apoala and the ancient acropolis of Monte Albán.
The other signs we can understand as qualifiers that indicate the ritual and ideo-logical importance of these sites.
In the next scene, Lady 1 Deer and Lord 1 Deer appear. This establishes a direct con-nection with Gregorio García’s text about the primordial time of darkness:
In that time . . . appeared visibly a God (Ñuhu) whose name was 1 Deer and whose given name was Puma Serpent, and a very pretty and beautiful Goddess (Ñuhu), whose name was 1 Deer
and whose given name was Jaguar Serpent. . . . With their omnipotence and wisdom
they made and founded a huge rock,
on top of which they constructed some palaces, very sumptuous and made with great skill, which were their seat and dwelling on earth. . . . This rock with the places of the Gods (Ñuhu)
was on a very high mountain, close to the village of Apoala, which is in the province of the Mixteca Alta.
This rock . . . was called Place where the Heaven was.
(García 1981, book V: ch. 4)
On the eastern side of the small valley in which the village of Yuta Tnoho (Apoala) is located, we find the mountain these historical sources name as the residence of the primordial couple: the Kaua Kaandiui (Cavua Caa Andevui), “Rock that Rises into Heaven” or “Rock on which the Heaven Rests.” Combining this identification with the idea that Heaven is also a sym-bolic place where shamans go to visit and receive power from the Ancestors, we understand this reference as an indication of an important ancient wor-ship that must have taken place on that mountaintop.
When we climb it today, we become more and more impressed. The Mountain of Heaven is indeed a shrine, crowned by a series of walls that 3.2. The Primordial Couple, Lady 1 Deer and Lord 1 Deer (Codex Yuta Tnoho, 52).
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integrate natural boulders into an ancient pyramid. On the top we still find offerings of shells and other remains of ongoing rituals. We are standing high in a wide-open space, with blue mountain ranges all around. Floating on the distant horizon is the shining white cone of the Pico de Orizaba. Far below lies the sacred valley of Yuta Tnoho as in a vision. We are close to the drift-ing clouds in a sphere of mystery. Above us a soardrift-ing eagle. Silence. Only the wind and the first drops of the summer rain . . .
The BIRTH of LORD 9 WIND
Codex Yuta Tnoho continues, showing that Lady 1 Deer and Lord 1 Deer, as primordial Parents and Creators, brought forth the Elements of Nature and the First Beings, among whom were Lord 4 Alligator ‘Coyote Serpent’ and Lord 11 Alligator ‘Jade Serpent,’ as well as Lord 4 Serpent (Qhyo) and Lord 7 Serpent (Sayo), the Patron Deities of Ñuu Tnoo.6 They also gave origin to the Spirits of trees and stones, to the Spirits of the days 7 Eagle and 7 Rain, the sacred days of the dynasties of Ñuu Tnoo and Zaachila, as well as to the volcanic powers, illnesses, and specific symbols of priestly ranks. The Spirits of trees, stones, the days 7 Eagle and 7 Rain, and the volcanic powers then marched toward the huge pochote tree in the Sacred Valley, that is, the Sacred Mother Tree in the Valley of Yuta Tnoho (Apoala).
The story is interrupted here to introduce a second primordial couple:
Lord 8 Alligator and Lady 4 Dog, seated in the Town of Jade and Turquoise (49). They too were Old Ones, deified Ancestors, seated in Heaven. The Maize Flower Maiden (Yoco) and the Dog Spirits of Wealth (To-ina) were their offspring.
The Town of Jade and Turquoise is obviously an important place in this origin story. The context suggests that it was located inside the Ñuu Dzaui region and had a status similar to that of the Mountain of Heaven at Yuta Tnoho (Apoala). A jewel or jade occurs next to a large Tree of Origin depicted in Codex Añute, page 2. In that case it is the Sacred Tree of the Town of Flames, which has been identified as Ñuu Ndecu (Achiutla). Indeed, the lat-ter town is mentioned in the chronicle of Fray Francisco de Burgoa (1934b, I: 277) as one of the places to which the Ñuu Dzaui dynasties attributed their origin. Burgoa further calls Ñuu Ndecu (Achiutla) the “main temple of this nation, the oracle to consult for all matters of war and peace,” and docu-ments the name of its Sacred Bundle as “Heart of the People” (Burgoa 1934b,
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I: 332 ff). Three stones form part of the Ñuu Ndecu toponym in Codex Añute (2): Stone of Jade (or Jewel), Stone of the Puma, and Stone of Flames.
The latter of these is probably connected with the toponym Town of Flames, while the first two may represent two of the four wards mentioned with their Nahuatl names in an early colonial document known as the Suma de Visitas:
Xiutepeque, “Turquoise Mountain,” and Miztepeque, “Puma Mountain,”
respectively. The other two wards were called Iquipaltepeque, “Throne Mountain,” and Iztepeque, which may mean either “Knife Mountain” (itz-tepec) or “Blood Mountain” (ez-(itz-tepec).
These combined data suggest that the Town of Jade and Turquoise in Codex Yuta Tnoho, page 49, is an alternative (possibly more archaic) place sign of Ñuu Ndecu.7
The old couple, Lord 8 Alligator and Lady 4 Dog, performed rituals for a series of thirteen stones, each named in a particular way. Among them are 3.3. The Place of Thirteen Stones and the birth of Lord 9 Wind ‘Quetzalcoatl’ (Codex Yuta Tnoho, 49).
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Stone of the Jewel (Xiutepeque?), Stone of Sacrifice (Iztepeque?), and Stone of the Puma (Miztepeque?). The listing of thirteen stones recalls the Nahuatl concept teicpalli, “stone seats (of rulership).”8 A prayer text from Guerrero comes to mind:
Yoco, on the mat, on the throne,
on the thirteen thrones of the Great Rain, I came to put in rows of thirteen for you, Rain, you who are living in the houses of the mountain, in the sanctuaries of the mountain.
Thirteen are the offerings for you, thirteen to drink, thirteen to eat.
(Schultze Jena 1933–1938, III: 84)
After all the stones have been mentioned by name, Lord 9 Wind
‘Quetzalcoatl’ was born from a huge flint. He was the principal Founding Figure of ancient Ñuu Dzaui sacred history, a direct parallel to the divine Quetzalcoatl, the Plumed Serpent, that is, the Whirlwind, the main culture hero in the Central Mexican, that is, Toltec, tradition:
Quetzalcoatl—the wind,
the guide and roadsweeper of the rain gods,
of the masters of the water, of those who brought rain.
And when the wind rose, when the dust rumbled,
and it crackled and there was a great din, and it became dark and the wind blew in many directions and it thundered, then it was said: Quetzalcoatl is wrathful.
(Sahagún 1950–1978, book I: ch. 5)
He is still very important in local lore. In present-day Ñuu Ndeya (Chalcatongo) he is well-known as Koo Sau, the “Rain Snake,” which cor-responds to Coo Dzavui in the orthography of Alvarado. Codex Yuta Tnoho shows his actions in the primordial time of foundation (in illo tempore); later, he was venerated as a Sacred Bundle in different important sanctuaries.9 According to Burgoa, the Sacred Bundle that was venerated as the Heart of the People in Ñuu Ndecu contained a jade statuette of a winged serpent, clearly an image of Quetzalcoatl. If our reading is correct, Codex Yuta Tnoho explains that Lord 9 Wind ‘Quetzalcoatl’ was born from a huge flint in that Town of Jade, Ñuu Ndecu.
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The following series of paired manifestations of the Quetzalcoatl figure, each with different attributes, is to be read as an invocation phrased in dif-rasismos (Codex Yuta Ynoho, 48). Lord 9 Wind is characterized as the lord of the precious materials and adornments that symbolize civilization: cotton, jade, gold, specific earplugs. He is the one with religious power: the magic dancer who fascinates and baffles people, the one venerated with braziers, the one who twists his limbs in shamanic convulsions. He is the mighty con-queror who inspires the warriors. And above all he is the speaker of precious words, the painter of books, from whose heart the songs flow because he is the pious one, the one who carries in his heart the Ñuhu and the Sacred Bundle of sticks symbolizing the Ancestors.
Lord 9 Wind was instructed by the Old Ones in the Place of Heaven as a young nahual-priest in a visionary trance. Heaven is the general symbol of
Lord 9 Wind was instructed by the Old Ones in the Place of Heaven as a young nahual-priest in a visionary trance. Heaven is the general symbol of