Note X-6 — Chapter X · GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.

Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 175-7; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 37. Sahagun calls them Quetzalcoatl Teoteztlamacazqui, who was also high-priest of Huitzilopochtli, and Tlaloctlamacazqui, who was Tlaloc's chief priest; they were equals, and elected from the most perfect, without reference to birth. Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. iii., pp. 276-7. There are two inconsistencies in this, the only strong contradiction of the statement of the above, as well as several other authors, who form the authority of my text: first, Sahagun calls the first high-priest Quetzalcoatl Teotectlamacazqui, a name which scarcely accords with the title of Huitzilopochtli's high-priest; secondly, he ignores the almost unanimous evidence of old writers, who state that the latter office was hereditary in a certain district. 'Al Summo Pontìfice llamaban en la lengua mexicana Tehuatecolt.' Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. cxxxiii. 'El mayor de todos que es superlado, Achcauhtli.' Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 323. But this was the title of the Tlascaltec high-priest. 'A los supremos Sacerdotes ... llamauan en su antigua lengua Papas.' Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., p. 336. See also Chaves, Rapport, in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série ii., tom. v., pp. 303-4.