Note VIII-9 — Chapter VIII · GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.

This Paynalton, or Paynal, was a kind of deputy-god, or substitute for Huitzilopochtli; used in cases of urgent haste and immediate emergency, where perhaps it might be thought there was not time for the lengthened ceremonies necessary to the invocation of the greater war deity. Sahagun's account of Paynal is concise, and will throw light on the remarks of Torquemada, as given above in the text. Sahagun says, in effect: This god Paynal was a kind of sub-captain to Huitzilopochtli. The latter, as chief-captain, dictated the deliberate undertaking of war against any province; the former, as vicar to the other, served when it became unexpectedly necessary to take up arms and make front hurriedly against an enemy. Then it was that Paynal—whose name means 'swift, or hurried,'—when living on earth set out in person to stir up the people to repulse the enemy. Upon his death he was deified and a festival appointed in his honor. In this festival, his image, richly decorated, was carried in a long procession, every one, bearer of the idol or not, running as fast as he could; all of which represented the promptness that is many times necessary to resist the assault of a foe attacking by surprise or ambuscade. Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., p. 2.