Note IX-34 — Chapter IX · GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.

'De esto bien se arguye que aunque habian hecho muchos pecados en tiempo de su juventud, no se confesaban de ellos hasta la vejez, por no se obligar á cesar de pecar antes de la vejez, por la opinion que tenian, que el que tornaba á reincidir en los pecados, al que se confesaba una vez no tenia remedio.' Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. vii., pp. 6-8; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. i., pp. 10-16. Prescott writes, Mex., vol. i., p. 68: 'It is remarkable that they administered the rites of confession and absolution. The secrets of the confessional were held inviolable, and penances were imposed of much the same kind as those enjoined in the Roman Catholic Church. There were two remarkable peculiarities in the Aztec ceremony. The first was, that, as the repetition of an offence, once atoned for, was deemed inexpiable, confession was made but once in a man's life, and was usually deferred to a late period of it, when the penitent unburdened his conscience, and settled, at once, the long arrears of iniquity. Another peculiarity was, that priestly absolution was received in place of the legal punishment of offences, and authorized an acquittal in case of arrest.' Mention of Tlazolteotl will be found in Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 309; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 62, 79; Herrera, Hist. Gen., tom. i., dec. ii., lib. vi., cap. xv.; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 21. They say that Yxcuina, who was the goddess of shame, protected adulterers. She was the goddess of salt, of dirt, and of immodesty, and the cause of all sins. They painted her with two faces, or with two different colors on the face. She was the wife of Mizuitlantecutli, the god of hell. She was also the goddess of prostitutes; and she presided over these thirteen signs, which were all unlucky, and thus they held that those who were born in these signs would be rogues or prostitutes. Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano, (Vaticano), tav. xxxix., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 184; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Quatre Lettres, pp. 291-2, 301.