Article suitable for Top Juniors and above

‘The Sinister Road: the Nine Levels of Mictlan’ by Gonzalo Zacaula Velázquez (2)

15th Apr 2023

Mexicolore contributor Gonzalo Zacaula Velázquez

Chapter 2...
The NOTES explain how the story fits - or doesn’t fit! - the illustrations and documented stages.

An intense noise disturbed their conversation. The face of the guide took on a worried appearance.
‘It’s time to get going. The servants of the enemy of human beings know we’re here – we’re at the outskirts of their domain, so up you get and walk. Don’t talk, just follow me, we need to get to the other side quickly, remember that first we’re crossing the river, so be careful.’
The man who’d been called a ‘package’ felt his stomach tightening: he would have to cross that river running with disease and pestilence. A thick cloud obscured the opposite bank and the noise was getting worse. Instantly he realised what it was…

In the distance a pack of enraged hounds was approaching, with rabid jaws, barking dementedly – the man’s first thought was to jump into the river out of fear. The guide helped him gather his wits; the river itself wasn’t very deep but the current made him lose his balance and he no longer felt the stones threatening to trip him. He carried on walking, slowly but purposefully.
’Hurry up!’ shouted the guide. ‘Those dogs can go in the water, but only for a short time and at a distance – they’re afraid of the river’s force. Run – the deeper we get the safer we’ll be…’
They advanced into the middle of the pestilent waters, the nauseating smell making the package sick. He was about to stop to clean himself when he heard the sound of hounds leaping into the water. He slowly struggled on, the current threatening to unbalance him. He continued walking, covered in muck, trying not to be sick again.

Shortly, the baying behind him changed to pitiful whimpering, but the poor soul kept imagining the fangs of the hounds sinking into this back…
Walking through the river was heavy going, very heavy, slow, the water feeling ever thicker with each step. He tried washing his hands with the river water, only to realise that they weren’t soaked with water but caked with blood. A panic attack hit him, but at the sound of the dogs he instinctively increased his pace, against all the odds.
And the stench made him nauseous at every instant. ‘Heavens alive, how revolting’ he thought. He imagined the snout of the dogs on his neck. He feared that at any moment they would bite him, causing him to bleed to death, and his blood would drain into that pestilent river. But little by little the barking and howling died down, he turned round on instinct and all he could see were the vague shadows of the dogs. They reached the opposite bank, he lay down in the sand, and laughed hysterically.

NOTES:-
Gonzalo has moved away from the traditional portrayal of the first challenge, in which a faithful dog guides the soul across a dangerous, fast-flowing river, and instead presents the soul and guide being chased by ferocious, blood-thirsty hounds. In fact, Dog was one of the twenty calendrical signs of the Aztecs, and represented loyalty. Both primary sources mention the river crossing with guide dog, though in the Florentine Codex this trial comes at the end of the journey, not the beginning.

Picture sources:-
• Dog crossing river - illustration by Miguel Covarrubias, scanned from The Aztecs: People of the Sun by Alfonso Caso; bottom photo from barclondon.com
• Main illustration by Steve Radzi/Mayavision for Mexicolore
• Dog sculpture: photo by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore
• B/W graphic: free internet image
• 2 dogs: photo by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore.