Note 223 — Chapter VII · EDUCATION, MARRIAGE, CONCUBINAGE, CHILDBIRTH, AND BAPTISM.

The following are contradictory accounts of baptism. On the fourth day the child and mother took a purification bath, and the assembled guests were feasted on zamorra, a dish made from maize and the flesh of hens, deer, etc. Three days after, the mother carried the child to the adjoining ward, accompanied by six little boys, if it was a male child, otherwise six girls went with her, to carry the implements or insignia of the father's trade. Here she washed the child in a stream, and then returned home. Two years after a feast was served in the house of the most intimate neighbor, who was asked to name the child, and with him it remained and was held as a member of his family. Chaves, Rapport, in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série ii., tom. v., pp. 306-8. The infant was carried to the temple, where the priest made an oration on the miseries to be endured in this world, and placed a sword in the right hand of the child and a buckler in the left; or, if it was destined to be a mechanic, an artisan's tool; if a girl it received a distaff. The priest then took the child to the altar and drew a few drops of blood from its body with a maguey-thorn or knife, after which he threw water over it, delivering certain imprecations the while. Touron, Hist. Gén., tom. iii., pp. 12-13. The implements were placed in the hands of the child by the priest before the idol. Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., p. 374. Also Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. xvii. The child underwent three baptisms or baths. Zuazo, Carta, in Icazbalceta, Col. de Doc., tom. i., p. 364. On the seventh day the baptism took place, and a dart was placed in the hand of the child to signify that he should become a defender of his country. Motolinia, Hist. Indios, in Id., p. 37. In Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano (Vaticano), tav. xxxi., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 181, it is stated that the child was sprinkled with a bunch of ficitle dipped in water, and fumigated with incense before receiving its name. Offerings were made at the temple which the priest divided among the school children. Tylor, in his Anahuac, p. 279, and Primitive Culture, vol. ii., pp. 429-36 gives short reviews of the baptismal ceremony and its moral import.