Article suitable for Top Juniors and above

‘The Sinister Road: the Nine Levels of Mictlan’ by Gonzalo Zacaula Velázquez (6)

16th Apr 2023

Mexicolore contributor Gonzalo Zacaula Velázquez

Chapter 6...
The NOTES explain how the story fits - or doesn’t fit! - the illustrations and documented stages.

Almost immediately his sleep was disturbed by a movement, he opened his eyes, the light irritating him.
‘What’s going on?’ He had only just fallen asleep.
‘It doesn’t matter, don’t worry; remember those ropes you had? Tie one round you and pass me the other end.’
Grumpily the man obeyed. For a moment he noticed something strange: he tried to walk but his feet weren’t on the ground and he felt himself turning upside-down. The guide pulled him close. Package laughed like a child at the sensation of floating. ‘Careful – I don’t want to lose you. Here we’ll be floating – don’t laugh, these winds are ferocious, we could get separated along the way and end up crashing against the mountains. They may not be sharp-edged but getting hurled against the rocks is no joke.’
Laughing at first, then afraid, then curious and finally happy, floating was fun, even though he had nothing to hold onto. He turned over, feet up, everything – the ground, the sky, the mountains - revolving around him. With the help of the guide he managed to stay upright. He smiled, he had never before experienced such a wonderful feeling of flying.

He felt another sharp tug, as if the wind was directing him. The guide was in front, kicking out with his feet, trying to find the least dangerous route. He tried to do the same, admiring the agility of birds in the air. This was hilarious – if only his children could see him now! Suddenly he thought of them. Yes, he had three, two young boys and a girl, all gorgeous. Why hadn’t he remembered them before? And his wife, his parents, his friends…? His ramblings were cut short by a stronger tug: the guide was anxiously trying to avoid them crashing against the mountainside. The danger made him flap his arms desperately, like the wings of a bird.
The ever stronger winds seemed to want to dash them against the mountain. What had seemed entertaining to begin with was now, hours later, anything but a game. He felt at times they were moving backwards or unable to move, the swaying making him see strange horizons that turned over at the whim of the air flow. He heard a shout -
‘We’re almost there. As soon as you get your feet on the ground, run as fast as you can, or you might get shot by a flurry of murderous arrows.’
‘We’re there? But I feel we’re still flying in circles. Eh, what arrows? Who hates me so much?’

NOTES:-
• The sixth level of the underworld was called Pancuecuetla[ca]yan in Nahuatl, meaning ‘Where Banners are Flourished’ or ‘Place Where People Fly and Whirl Like Flags’ in the Codex Vaticanus A/Rios, and Gonzalo is faithful to this, though he omits any reference to banners
• The Florentine Codex gives this stage a different name - Chicuey Tiliuhcan or ‘The Eight Hills’ - and makes no mention of banners
• In our sequence of illustrations, following Manuel Aguilar-Moreno’s description, we’ve included banners fluttering in Gonzalo’s chapter 8, alongside the mysterious giant lizard...

Picture sources:-
• ‘The body of a goddess of death...’ image scanned from The Codex Borgia: a full-colour restoration of the ancient Mexican Manuscript by Gisele Díaz and Alan Rodgers, Dover Publications, 1993
• Main illustration by Steve Radzi/Mayavision for Mexicolore
• Pantitlan image from the Florentine Codex scanned from our own copy of the Club Internacional del Libro 3-volume facsimile edition, Madrid, 1994.