Article suitable for Top Juniors and above

‘The Sinister Road: the Nine Levels of Mictlan’ by Gonzalo Zacaula Velázquez (5)

16th Apr 2023

Mexicolore contributor Gonzalo Zacaula Velázquez

Chapter 5...
The NOTES explain how the story fits - or doesn’t fit! - the illustrations and documented stages.

The guide was urging him on:-
‘Come on, up you get, no time to rest. When the all-powerful voice of Ehécatl echoes round these slopes, it could be the end of us. Check what’s in your pack again.’
Caked in blood, his clothes soaking, he managed to look into the bag; a small perfume flask fell from his hands, luckily without breaking.
‘That’ll do fine, dab yourself with it, it’ll help heal the wounds. I can see they gave you a good send-off; look for some clothes or cape to protect you from the wind. You’ll need it.’
‘Who packed these things for me? How would they have known what I would need?’
‘I’ve no idea, friend, no-one tells me anything, but in general folk come well prepared.’
‘There are more of us? How come I’ve not seen anyone else?’ Just then the wind stiffened. The guide had already put on extra clothing. He looked bleakly into his bag and his face lit up: there was a blanket and a cloak with a hood attached.

The guide was calling again –
‘Hurry up, the wind is stiffening, Kisin has begged Ehécatl to block our way. This bit is going to be more difficult.’
They started walking, the cold increasing. The wind was blowing strongly and they had to lean forward to avoid it hurting their faces. They could see snow falling, covering all in its path. The route disappeared, they detoured and carried slowly on. The guide paused from time to time, moving sideways, searching for the path forward. Package was completely exhausted. The guide noticed his pace had slowed, as he kept having to stop and wait for him. He tried to offer encouragement –
‘Press on – we’ll be able to have a rest soon, after we’ve crossed the eighth hill.’

The tired soul hadn’t even realised they’d passed seven already; he felt his strength draining away, each step demanding a supreme effort. Fortunately the guide took him by the arm, smiled and told him to rest – they would continue the next day. It was the last he heard.

NOTES:-
• Again, Gonzalo remains faithful here to the two codices, both of which talk of the soul having to pass through the Place of the Obsidian-Bladed Wind, Itzehecayan. However, the two sources locate the place differently - Vaticanus A lists it as hazard no. 5, whereas in the Florentine it’s no. 7.
• Sahagún, in the Florentine Codex gives this challenge by far the longest description of them all (three paragraphs compared to a couple of lines for the others), including this:-
’In this place of the obsidian-bladed wins, it was said that there was much suffering. By winds were all the obsidian blades and the stones swept along. And hence when men died, [their kin] burned with them all their baskets with insignia, their shields, their obsidian-bladed swords, and all the things [they had wrested] from their captives, and all their capes, and all which had been their various clothing...
’It was said that they would make themselves an enclosure [with these things]; thus they would crouch protected from the obsidian-bladed winds; not much would they suffer. But he who had no wretched clothing, who went just as he was, endured much, suffered much...’
• Our main (animated) illustration above relates to Sahagún referring to this fifth stage as ‘The 8 Plains’ or gorges.

Picture sources:-
• Snowstorm image scanned from Codex Telleriano-Remensis by Eloise Quiñones Keber, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1995
• Main illustration by Steve Radzi/Mayavision for Mexicolore
• Blizzard photo downloaded from https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-is-a-ground-blizzard.html
• Wind calendar sign: graphic by Felipe Dávalos/Mexicolore.