Mar 13, 1996 Dear Carolyn, You have I think identified a very significant nexus for precisely the kind of appropriation we talked about. The reference to the thigh-skin mask is specifically linked to the ceremonies in the month of Ochpaniztli. The name of the month refers to the sweeping of the streets with brooms, which you will recall is what Coatlicue, the mother, was doing when she conceived. The feast starts with dancers waving blossoms of cempoalxochitl, the marigold, as they danced. Marigolds were in some sense linked with the sun. This dance took place in late afternoon, until sunset. Eight days later, the women who are curers took part in a mock battle. They were in two teams. The battle is described as making her laugh, keeping her from weeping. The two teams threw balls of Tillandsia, bromeliads, at each other, as well as more marigolds. These skirmishes went on for four days. The next day, at sundown, accompanied by the women curers, the Teteo Innan impersonator went to the marketplace where she was met by the priests of the corn goddess, Chicomecoatl (7 serpent); Teteo Innan scattered corn meal around the marketplace and 'stamped' all over it. Then when she was taken to the temple to wait, the women curers said "My dear daughter, now at last the ruler Moctezuma will sleep with you. Be happy." At midnight they took her out and sacrificed her, and flayed her skin, which a male priest wore, and taking the skin from her thigh, they made the mask for the impersonator of Cinteotl, the maize god, her son. The male wearing her skin runs down from the temple with his troops, who are described as Huastecs-- in Aztec thought, naked people-- and the warriors of the Mexica ran also with them. This running is called "they fight with grass" because they carried straw brooms covered in blood to strike each other; the Teteo Innan male-in-woman's-skin and her Huastecs finally put the Mexica warriors to flight. From midday to sunset the dance went on. The same sequence was repeated from dawn to dusk the next day. When the dance ended in 'late afternoon', four priests of Chicome Coatl, the corn goddess strewed maize seeds at 'the banquet table of Huitzilopochtli', a low small pyramid. From the top of that pyramid they scattered four colors of corn seeds on the crowd: white, yellow, red, and black; along with squash seed. After they scattered the seeds, the priest brought down from the temple of Huitzilopochtli a vessel full of white feathers and chalk, and a series of warriors ran off after grabbing the feathers, which are described as 'billowing up'. They ran toward Toci, and she ran after them, crying war cries. The people she passed spat at her and threw their marigolds at her. Motecuzoma ran along, although he and most of those running are said to have stopped soon. But the offering priests ran all the way with her to Tocititlan, that is, the land of Toci, the Grandmother. They took her up to the top of a wooden structure, and set the skin on this frame so it was looking out, and took away the costume and regalia. Have to go. I'm late for a meeting, but I'll send more later. . . . Rosy