In Aztec cosmology, López Luján knew, this tableau suggested the first level of the underworld, with the canine serving to guide its master's soul across a dangerous river. But which human soul?

Hygiene and ritual marked every moment of life for pregnant Aztec women. The tlamatlquiticitl—midwife—offered those in her charge a remarkable 16th-century birthing plan, combining practical ...

The spirits would travel from the alternate afterlives and the mortal world. Mictlán, the underworld of Aztec mythology, was thought to be divided into nine regions, depending on how the deceased ...

The story begins with the Aztec God of death and lightning, the Xolotl. As legends have it, he was a monstrous dog that guarded the sun god and ushered souls to the underworld every night.