The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12) - Mirrors

208 The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12)[175]Sahagun's accountof the ancientMexican religion.again at the temple, one of them bringing the skin of a wild beast,elaborately ornamented, in which the linen cloth containing thesheaf was enveloped. The sheaf was then carried once more inprocession to the field from which it had been taken. Here a smallcavity or subterranean chamber had been prepared, in which theprecious sheaf was deposited, wrapt in its various envelopes.After sacrifice had been offered to the gods of the fields for anabundant crop the chamber was closed and covered over withearth. Immediately thereafter the sowing began. Finally, whenthe time of harvest drew near, the buried sheaf was solemnlydisinterred by the priests, who distributed the grain to all whoasked for it. The packets of grain so distributed were carefullypreserved as talismans till the harvest. 567 In these ceremonies,which continued to be annually celebrated long after the Spanishconquest, the intention of keeping the finest sheaf buried inthe maize field from seed-time to harvest was undoubtedly toquicken the growth of the maize.A fuller and to some extent different account of the ancientMexican worship of the maize has been given us by the Franciscanmonk Bernardino de Sahagun, who arrived in Mexico in 1529,only eight years after its conquest by the Spaniards, and devotedthe remaining sixty-one years of his long life to labouring amongthe Indians for their moral and spiritual good. Uniting thetener muchas en lugar de Conopas [household gods]. Otras son algunas cañasfertiles de maiz, que con la fertilidad de la tierra dieron muchas maçorcas,y grandes, o quando salen dos maçorcas juntas, y estas son las principales,Zaramamas, y assi las reverencian como a madres del maiz, a estas llamantambien Huantayzara, o Ayrihuayzara. A este tercer genero no le dan laadoracion que a Huaca, ni Conopa, sino que le tienen supersticiosamentecomo una cosa sagrada, y colgando estas cañas con muchos choclos de unosramos de sauce bailen con ellas el bayle, que llaman Ayrihua, y acabadoel bayle, las queman, y sacrifican a Libiac para que les de buena cosecha.Con la misma supersticion guardan las mazorcas del maiz, que salen muy567 Brasseur de Bourbourg, Histoire des Nations civilisées du Mexique et del'Amérique Centrale (Paris 1857-1859), iii. 40 sqq. Compare id., iii. 505 sq.;E. J. Payne, History of the New World called America, i. 419 sq.