In Aztec religion, Huixtocihuatl (or Uixtochihuatl, Uixtociuatl) was a fertility goddess who presided over salt and salt water. The Aztecs considered her to be the older sister of the rain gods, including Tlaloc in most sources. Much of the information known about Huixtocihuatl and how the Aztecs celebrated her comes from Bernardino de Sahagún's manuscripts. His Florentine Codex explains how Huixtocihuatl became the salt god. It records that Huixtocihuatl angered her younger brothers, the Tlaloques, by mocking them, so they banished her to the salt beds. It was there where she discovered salt and how it was created. Her association with the provider gods was not necessarily positive, and her association with urine and filth was not necessarily negative. The Aztecs recognized filth and disorder as a vital stage in the patterns of growth and renewal.
Iconography
thumb|upright|alt=|16th century illustration from the 2nd book, 26th chapter of Sahagun's Florentine Codex. The top panel depicts Huixtocihuatl's impersonator in a procession, while the bottom panel depicts the priests sacrificing her. Note the likeness of the ixiptla to a blossoming maize plant.
Primeros Memoriales, a manuscript written by Bernardino de Sahagún before his Florentine Codex, contains a description of Huixtocihuatl paired with an illustration. The Aztecs believed that the essence of a deity could be captured by a human impersonator, or ixiptla, of the god. Primeros Memoriales therefore illustrates and describes the likeness of Huixtocihuatl, who would have embodied the salt god. Sahagun's description closely follows its associated illustration, saying