RELIGIOUS USES OF PRECIOUS STONES 247
when
he smokes, clouds form in the sky and the rain descends. In the
sand-picture representing the God of the Whirlwind this divinity also
wears ear-pendants and a necklace of turquoise.35
Of
the turquoise in Aztec times we have the testimony of the missionary
Bernardino de Sahagun that one variety, presumably that regarded as
the finest and most attractive, bore the name teuxivitl, which
signified "turquoise of the gods." No one was allowed either to own or
wear this as it was exclusively devoted to the service of the gods,
whether as a temple offering, or for the decoration of the divine
images. Sahagun describes this turquoise as "fine, unspotted and very
clear. It was very rare and was brought to Mexico from afar. Some
specimens were of rounded shape, like a hazel-nut cut in half; others
were broad and flat, and some were pitted as though in a state of
decomposition." 36
The
god of fire, Xiuhtecutli, or Ixgocauhqui, presided over the ceremony of
piercing the ears of the young boys and girls. The image of this god
was decorated with ear-rings encrusted with a mosaic of turquoise. He
held in his left hand a buckler on which were five large green stones
called chalchiuitl (jadeite), placed in the form of a cross on a plate of gold almost covering the shield.37
At
the time of the Spanish Conquest an immense 'emerald, almost as large
as an ostrich egg, was adored by the Peruvians in the city of Manta.
This "emerald goddess" bore the name of Umina, and, like some of
35 Alfred Marston Tozzer, " Navajo Religious Ceremonials," Putnam Anniversary Volume, New York, 1909, pp. 323-326, 329, Plate II.
M Sahagun, " Historia general de las cosas de Nueva Espana," Mexico, 1830, vol. iii, p. 297.
" Sahagun, 1. c, 1829, vol. i, p. 18; lib. i, cap. xiii.
