Note 73 — Chapter V · DEITIES OF THE EARTH AND GROWTH PROPER (continued 2)

Tititl (“Stretching of Limbs”).—This festival was held in the Kalends of the seventeenth month, probably about December 19.73 A female slave was bought by the authorities and dressed as follows: She wore an upper garment or peplum of white stuff and a skirt of the same colour, beneath which showed the citlalicue, or star-skirt, of the goddess, a dress sprinkled with stars, cut at the ankles in the shape of many thongs, from each of which hung a small shell, so that when she walked these came together and made a rattling sound. Her sandals were white and she bore a shield whitened with chalk, having a design of eagle’s feathers in the centre. Fringes of heron’s feathers terminating in eagle’s plumes hung from the lower edge of the shield. In the other hand she carried the tzotozopaztli, a wooden knife, used for pressing cloth. Her face was painted black and yellow. Her hair was dressed in the form known as tzompilinalli, or “hair tied at the temples,” and eagle’s plumes fell from it behind.