Pre-Columbian Mexican god of spring and of new vegetation; he is also the patron of precious metals.
Originating with the Zapotec Indians, he was adopted by the Aztec s. A symbol of new vegetation, he is always depicted in art wearing a freshly flayed skin, representing the "new skin" that covers the earth in spring. In the second ritual month of the Aztec calendar, priests sacrificed human victims by removing their hearts or shooting them with arrows, flayed the bodies, and put on the skins, which were dyed yellow and called "golden clothes."