Volume 3 — CHAPTER IX. GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP. (continued 2)

MIXCOATL, GOD OF HUNTING.

Mixcoatl is the god—or goddess according to some good authorities—of hunting. The name means 'cloud-serpent' and indeed seems common to a whole class of deities or heroes somewhat resembling the Nibelungs of northern European mythology.[IX-53] He is further supposed to be connected with the thunderstorm: "Mixcoatl, the Cloud-Serpent, or Iztac-Mixcoatl, the White or Gleaming Cloud-Serpent," writes Brinton,[IX-54] "said to have been the only divinity of the ancient Chichimecs, held in high honor by the Nahuas, Nicaraguans, and Otomís, and identical with Taras, supreme god of the Tarascos, and Camaxtli, god of the Teo-Chichimecs, is another personification of the thunderstorm. To this day this is the familiar name of the tropical tornado in the Mexican language. He was represented, like Jove, with a bundle of arrows in his hand, the thunderbolts. Both the Nahuas and Tarascos related legends in which he figured as father of the race of man. Like other lords of the lightning he was worshiped as the dispenser of riches and the patron of traffic; and in Nicaragua his image is described as being 'engraved stones' probably the supposed products of the thunder."

In the fourteenth month, called Quecholli, and beginning, according to Clavigero, on the fourteenth of November, there was made with many obscure ceremonies, a feast to this god. On the sixth day of the month all assembled at the cu of Huitzilopochtli, where during four days they made arrows and darts for use in war and for general practice at a mark, mortifying at the same time their flesh by drawing blood, and by abstaining from women and pulque. This done they made, in honor of the dead, certain little mimic darts of a hand long, of which four seem to have been tied together with four splinters of candle-wood pine; these were put on the graves, and at set of sun, lit and burned, after which the ashes were interred on the spot. There were taken a maize-stalk of nine knots with a paper flag on the top that hung down to the bottom, together with a shield and dart belonging to the dead man, and his maxtli and blanket; the last two being attached to the maize-stalk. The hanging flag was ornamented on either side with red cotton thread, in the figure of an X; a piece of twisted white thread also hung down to which was suspended a dead humming-bird. Handfuls of the white feathers of the heron were tied two and two and fastened to the burdened maize-stalk, while all the cotton threads used were covered with white hen's feathers, stuck on with resin. Lastly all these were burned on a stone block called the quaulixicalcalico.

In the court of the cu of Mixcoatl was scattered much dried grass brought from the mountains, upon which the old women-priests, or cioatlamacazque, seated themselves, each with a mat before her. All the women that had children came, each bringing her child and five sweet tamales; and the tamales were put on the mats before the old women, who in return took the children, tossed them in their arms and then returned them to their mothers.

DRIVE-HUNT OF MIXCOATL.

About the middle of the month was made a special feast to this god of the Otomís, to Mixcoatl. In the morning all prepared for a great drive-hunt, girding their blankets to their loins, and taking bows and arrows. They wended their way to a mountain-slope, anciently Zapatepec, or Yxillantonan, above the sierra of Atlacuizoayan, or as it is now called, according to Bustamante, Tacubaya. There they drove deer, rabbits, hares, coyotes, and other game together, little by little, every one in the meantime killing what he could; few or no animals escaping. To the most successful hunters blankets were given, and every one brought to his house the heads of the animals he had taken, and hanged them up for tokens of his prowess or activity.

There were human sacrifices in honor of this hunting god with other deities. The manufacturers of pulque bought, apparently two slaves who were decorated with paper and killed in honor of the gods Tlamatzincatl and Yzquitecatl; there were also sacrificed women supposed to represent the wives of these two deities. The calpixquis on their part led other two slaves to the death in honor of Mixcoatl and of Cohuatlicue his wife. On the morning of the last day but one of the month, all the doomed were brought out and led round the cu where they had to die; after mid-day they were led up the cu, round the sacrificial block, down again, then back to the calpulco, to be at once guarded and forced to keep awake for the night. At midnight their heads were shaven before the fire, and every one of them burned there what goods he had, little paper flags, cane tobacco-pipes[IX-55] and drinking-vessels; the women threw into the flame their raiment, their ornaments, their spindles, little baskets, vessels in which the spindles were twirled, warping-frames, fuller's earth, pieces of cane for pressing a fabric together, cords for fastening it up, maguey-thorns, measuring-rods, and other implements for weaving; and they said that all these things had to be given to them in the other world after their death. At daybreak these captives were carried or assisted up, each having a paper flag borne before him, to the several cues of the gods they were to die in honor of. Four that had to die, probably before Mixcoatl, were, each by four bearers, carried up to a temple, bound hand and foot to represent dead deer; while others were merely assisted up the steps by a youth at each arm, so that they should not faint nor fail; two other youths trailing or letting them down the same steps after they were dead. The preceding relates only to the male captives, the women being slain before the men, in a separate cu called the coatlan; it is said that as they were forced up the steps of it some screamed and others wept. In letting the dead bodies of these women down the steps again, it is also specially written, that they were not hurled down roughly, but rolled down little by little. At the place where the skulls of the dead were exposed, waited two old women called teixamique, having by them salt water and bread and a mess or gruel of some kind. The carcasses of the victims being brought to them, they dipped cane-leaves into the salt water and sprinkled the faces of them therewith, and into each mouth they put four morsels of bread moistened with the gruel or mess above-mentioned. Then the heads were cut off and spitted on poles; and so the feast ended.[IX-56]

MACUILXOCHITL.

In connection with the religious honors paid to the dead, it may be here said that the Mexicans had a deity of whom almost all we know is that he was the god of those that died in the houses of the lords or in the palaces of the principal men; he was called Macuilxochitl, 'the chief that gives flowers, or that takes care of the giving of flowers.'[IX-57] The festival of this god fell among the movable feasts and was called Xochilhuitl, or 'the festival of flowers.' There were in it the usual preliminary fasting (that is to say, eating but once a day, at noon, and then only of a restricted diet), blood-letting, and offering of food in the temple; though there did not occur therein anything suggestive either of a god of flowers or of a god of the more noble dead. The image of this deity was in the likeness of an almost naked man, either flayed or painted of a vermilion color; the mouth and chin were of three tints, white, black, and light blue; the face was of a light reddish tinge. It had a crown of light green color, with plumes of the same hue, and tassels that hung down to the shoulders. On the back of the idol was a device wrought in feathers, representing a banner planted on a hill; about the loins of it was a bright reddish blanket, fringed with sea-shells; curiously wrought sandals adorned its feet; on the left arm of it was a white shield, in the midst of which were set four stones, joined two and two; it held a sceptre, shaped like a heart and tipped with green and yellow feathers.[IX-58]

Ome Acatl was the god of banquets and of guests; his name signified 'two canes.' When a man made a feast to his friends, he had the image of this deity carried to his house by certain of its priests; and if the host did not do this, the deity appeared to him in a dream, rebuking him in such words as these: Thou bad man, because thou hast withheld from me my due honor, know that I will forsake thee and that thou shalt pay dearly for this insult. When this god was excessively angered, he was accustomed to mix hairs with the food and drink of the guests of the object of his wrath, so that the giver of the feast should be disgraced. As in the case of Huitzilopochtli, there was a kind of communion sacrament in connection with the adoration of this god of feasts: in each ward dough was taken and kneaded by the principal men into the figure of a bone of about a cubit long, called the bone of Ome Acatl. A night seems to have been spent in eating and in drinking pulque; then at break of day an unfortunate person, set up as the living image of the god, had his belly pricked with pins, or some such articles; being hurt thereby, as we are told. This done the bone was divided and each one ate what of it fell to his lot; and when those that had insulted this god ate, they often grew sick, and almost choked, and went stumbling and falling. Ome Acatl was represented as a man seated on a bunch of cyperus-sedges. His face was painted white and black; upon his head was a paper crown surrounded by a long and broad fillet of divers colors, knotted up at the back of the head; and again round and over the fillet, was wound a string of chalchiuite beads. His blanket was made like a net, and had a broad border of flowers woven into it. He bore a shield, from the lower part of which hung a kind of fringe of broad tassels. In the right hand he held a sceptre called the tlachielonique, or 'looker,'[IX-59] because it was furnished with a round plate through which a hole was pierced, and the god kept his face covered with the plate and looked through the hole.[IX-60]

IXTLILTON, HEALER OF CHILDREN.

Yxtliton, or Ixtlilton—that is to say 'the little negro,' according to Sahagun, and 'the black-faced,' according to Clavigero—was a god who cured children of various diseases.[IX-61] His 'oratory' was a kind of temporary building made of painted boards; his image was neither graven nor painted; it was a living man decorated with certain vestments. In this temple or oratory were kept many pans and jars, covered with boards, and containing a fluid which was called 'black water.' When a child sickened, it was brought to this temple and one of these jars was uncovered, upon which the child drank of the black water and was healed of its disease—the cure being probably most prompt and complete when the priests as well as the god knew something of physic. When one made a feast to this god—which seems to have been when one made new pulque—the man that was the image of Ixtlilton came to the house of the feast-giver with music and dancing, and preceded by the smoke of copal incense. The representative of the deity having arrived, the first thing he did was to eat and drink; there were more dances and festivities in his honor, in which he took part, and then he entered the cellar of the house, where were many jars of pulque that had been covered for four days with boards or lids of some kind. He opened one or many of these jars, a ceremony called 'the opening of the first, or of the new wine,' and himself with those that were with him drank thereof. This done, he went out into the court-yard of the house, where there were prepared certain jars of the above-mentioned black water, which also had been kept covered four days; these he opened, and if there was found therein any dirt, or piece of straw, or hair, or ash, it was taken as a sign that the giver of the feast was a man of evil life, an adulterer, or a thief, or a quarrelsome person, and he was affronted with the charge accordingly. When the representative of the god set out from the house where all this occurred, he was presented with certain blankets called yxguen, or ixquen, that is to say, 'covering of the face,' because when any fault had been found in the black water, the giver of the feast was put to shame.[IX-62]

OPUCHTLI, GOD OF FISHING.

Opuchtli, or Opochtli, 'the left-handed,' was venerated by fishermen as their protector and the inventor of their nets, fish-spears, oars, and other gear. In Cuitlahuac, an island of lake Chalco, there was a god of fishing called Amimitl, who, according to Clavigero, differed from the first-mentioned only in name. Sahagun says that Opuchtli was counted among the number of the Tlaloques, and that the offerings made to him were composed of pulque, stalks of green maize, flowers, the smoking-canes, or pipes called yietl, copal incense, the odorous herb yiauhtli, and parched maize. These things seem to have been strewed before him as rushes used to be strewed before a procession. There were used in these solemnities certain rattles enclosed in hollow walking-sticks. The image of this god was like a man, almost naked, with the face of that grey tint seen in quails' feathers; on the head was a paper crown of divers colors, made like a rose, as it were, of leaves overlapping each other, topped by green feathers issuing from a yellow tassel; other long tassels hung from this crown to the shoulders of the idol. Crossed over the breast was a green stole resembling that worn by the Christian priest when saying mass; on the feet were white sandals; on the left arm was a red shield, and in the centre of its field a white flower with four leaves disposed like a cross; and in the left hand was a sceptre of a peculiar fashion.[IX-63]

Xipe, or Totec, or Xipetotec, or Thipetotec, is, according to Clavigero, a god whose name has no meaning,[IX-64] who was the deity of the goldsmiths, and who was much venerated by the Mexicans, they being persuaded that those that neglected his worship would be smitten with diseases; especially the boils, the itch, and pains of the head and eyes. They excelled themselves therefore in cruelty at his festival time, occurring ordinarily in the second month.

Sahagun describes this god as specially honored by dwellers on the sea-shore, and as having had his origin at Zapotlan in Jalisco. He was supposed to afflict people with sore eyes and with various skin-diseases, such as small-pox, abscesses, and itch. His image was made like a human form, one side or flank of it being painted yellow, and the other of a tawny color; down each side of the face from the brow to the jaw a thin stripe was wrought; and on the head was a little cap with hanging tassels. The upper part of the body was clothed with the flayed skin of a man; round the loins was girt a kind of green skirt. It had on one arm a yellow shield with a red border, and held in both hands a scepter shaped like the calix of a poppy and tipped with an arrow-head.[IX-65]

EATING THE BODIES OF THE SACRIFICED.

On the last day of the second month—or, according to some authors, of the first—Tlacaxipehualiztli, there was celebrated a solemn feast in honor at once of Xipetotec and of Huitzilopochtli. It was preceded by a very solemn dance at noon of the day before. As the night of the vigil fell, the captives were shut up and guarded; at midnight—the time when it was usual to draw blood from the ears—the hair of the middle of the head of each was shaven away before a fire. When the dawn appeared they were led by their owners to the foot of the stairs of the temple of Huitzilopochtli—and if they would not ascend willingly the priests dragged them up by the hair. The priests threw them down one by one on the back on a stone of three quarters of a yard or more high, and square on the top something more than a foot every way. Two assistants held the victim down by the feet, two by the hands, and one by the head—this last according to many accounts putting a yoke over the neck of the man and so pressing it down. Then the priest, holding with both hands a splinter of flint, or a stone resembling flint, like a large lance-head, struck across the breast therewith, and tore out the heart through the gash so made; which, after offering it to the sun and other gods by holding it up toward the four quarters of heaven, he threw into a wooden vessel.[IX-66] The blood was collected also in a vessel and given to the owner of the dead captive, while the body, thrown down the temple steps, was taken to the calpule by certain old men, called quaquacuiltin, flayed, cut into pieces, and divided for eating; the king receiving the flesh of the thigh, while the rest of the carcass was eaten at the house of the owner of the captive, though, as will appear by a remark hereafter,[IX-67] it is improbable that the captor or owner himself ate any of it. With the skin of these flayed persons, a party of youths called the tototecli clothed themselves, and fought in sham fight with another party of young men; prisoners being taken on both sides, who were not released without a ransom of some kind or other. This sham battle was succeeded by combats of a terribly real sort, the famous so-called gladiatorial fights of Mexico. On a great round stone, like an enormous mill-stone, a captive was tied by a cord, passing round his waist and through the hole of the stone, long enough to permit him freedom of motion everywhere about the block—set near or at a temple called yopico, of the god Totec, or Xipe.[IX-68] With various ceremonies, more particularly described in the preceding volume, the bound man furnished with inferior weapons was made to fight with a picked Mexican champion—the latter holding up his sword and shield to the sun before engaging. If, as sometimes happened, the desperate though hampered and ill-armed captive—whose club-sword was, by a refinement of mockery, deprived of its jagged flint edging and set with feathers—slew his opponent, another champion was sent against him, and so on to the number of five, at which point, according to some, the captive was set free; though according to other authorities, he was not allowed so to escape, but champions were sent against him till he fell. Upon which a priest called the yooallaoa opened his breast, tore out his heart, offered it to the sun, and threw it into the usual wooden vessel; while the ropes used for binding to the fighting-stone were carried to the four quarters of the world, reverently with weeping and sighing. A second priest thrust a piece of cane into the gash in the victim's breast and held it up stained with blood to the sun. Then the owner of the captive came and received the blood into a vessel bordered with feathers; this vessel he took with a little cane-and-feather broom or aspergillum and went about all the temples and calpules, giving to each of the idols, as it were to taste of the blood of his captive. The slain body was then carried to the calpulco—where, while alive, it had been confined the night before the sacrifice—and there skinned. Thence it was brought to the house of its owner, who divided and made presents of it to his superiors, relatives, and friends; not however tasting thereof himself, for, we are told, "he counted it as the flesh of his own body," because from the hour that he took the prisoner "he held him to be his son, and the captive looked up to his captor as to a father."

RELATIONS BETWEEN CAPTOR AND CAPTIVE.

The skins of the dead belonged to their captors, who gave them again to others to be worn by them for apparently twenty days, probably as a kind of penance—the persons so clothed collecting alms from everyone in the meantime and bringing all they got, each to the man that had given him the skin. When done with, these skins were hid away in a rotting condition in a certain cave, while the ex-wearers thereof washed themselves with great rejoicings. At the putting away of these skins there assisted numbers of people ill with the itch and such other diseases as Xipe inflicted—hoping thus to be healed of their infirmities, and it is said that many were so cured.[IX-69]

The merchants of Mexico—a class of men who hawked their goods from place to place and wandered often far into strange countries to buy or sell—had various deities to whom they did special honor. Among these the chief, and often the only one mentioned, was the god Yiacatecutli, or Jacateuctli, or Iyacatecuhtli, that is 'the lord that guides,' otherwise called Yacacoliuhqui, or Jacacoliuhqui.[IX-70] This chief god of the merchants had, however, according to Sahagun, five brothers and a sister, also reverenced by traders, the sister being called Chalmecacioatl, and the brothers respectively Chiconquiavitl, Xomocuil, Nacxitl, Cochimetl, and Yacapitzaoac. The principal image of this god was a figure representing a man walking along a road with a staff; the face black and white; the hair tied up in a bundle on the middle of the top of the head with two tassels of rich quetzal-feathers; the ear-rings of gold; the mantle blue, bordered with a flowered fringe, and covered with a red net, through whose meshes the blue appeared; round the ankles leather straps from which hung marine shells; curiously wrought sandals on the feet; and on the arm a plain unornamented yellow shield, with a spot of light blue in the centre of its field. Practically, however, every merchant reverenced his own stout staff—generally made of a solid, knotless piece of black cane, called utatl—as the representative or symbol of this god Yiacatecutli; keeping it, when not in use, in the oratory or sacred place in his house, and invariably putting food before it preliminary to eating his own meal. When traveling the traders were accustomed nightly to stack up their staves in a convenient position, bind them about, build a fire before them,[IX-71] and then offering blood and copal, pray for preservation and shelter from the many perils to which their wandering life made them especially subject.[IX-72]

NAPATECUTLI.

Napatecutli, that is to say 'four times lord,' was the god of the mat-makers and of all workers in water-flags and rushes. A beneficent and helpful divinity, and one of the Tlalocs, he was known by various names, such as Tepahpaca Teaaltati, 'the purifier or washer;' Quitzetzelohua, or Tlaitlanililoni, 'he that scatters or winnows down;' Tlanempopoloa, 'he that is large and liberal;' Teatzelhuia, 'he that sprinkles with water;' and Amotenenqua, 'he that shows himself grateful.' This god had two temples in Mexico and his festival fell in the thirteenth month, by Clavigero's reckoning. His image resembled a black man, the face being spotted with white and black, with tassels hanging down behind supporting a green plume of three feathers. Round the loins and reaching to the knees was girt a kind of white and black skirt or petticoat, adorned with little sea-shells. The sandals of this idol were white; on its left arm was a shield made like the broad leaf of the water-lily, or nenuphar; while the right hand held a sceptre like a flowering staff, the flowers being of paper; and across the body, passing under the left arm, was a white scarf, painted over with black flowers.[IX-73]

The Mexicans had several gods of wine, or rather of pulque; of these the chief seems to have been Tezcatzoncatl, otherwise known as Tequechmecaniani 'the strangler,' and as Teatlahuiani 'the drowner;' epithets suggested by the effects of drunkenness. The companion deities of this Aztec Dionysus were called as a class by the somewhat extraordinary name of Centzontotochtin or 'the four hundred rabbits'; Yiaulatecatl, Yzquitecatl, Acoloa, Thilhoa, Pantecatl (the Patecatl of the interpreters of the codices), Tultecatl, Papaztac, Tlaltecaiooa, Ometochtli (often referred to as the principal god of wine), Tepuztecatl, Chimapalnecatl, were deities of this class. The principal characteristic of the image of the Mexican god of drunkenness was, according to Mendieta and Motolinia, a kind of vessel carried on the head of the idol, into which vessel wine was ceremoniously poured. The feast of this god, like that of the preceding divinity, fell in the thirteenth month, Tepeilhuitl, and in his temple in the city of Mexico there served four hundred consecrated priests, so great was the service done this everywhere too widely and well known god.[IX-74]

THE HOUSEHOLD GODS.

The Mexicans had certain household gods called Tepitoton, or Tepictoton, 'the little ones,'—small statues of which kings kept six in their houses, nobles four, and common folks two. Whether these were a particular class of deities or merely miniature images of the already described greater gods it is hard to say. Similar small idols are said to have adorned streets, cross-roads, fountains and other places of public traffic and resort.[IX-75]

THE CEREMONIAL CALENDAR.

With these Tepitoton may be said to finish the list of Mexican gods of any repute or any general notoriety; so that it seems fit to give here a condensed and arranged résumé of all the fixed festivals and celebrations of the Aztec calendar, with its eighteen months of twenty days each, and its five supplementary days at the end of the year. There is some disagreement as to which of the months the year began with; but it will best suit our present purpose to follow the arrangement of Sahagun, the interpreters of the Codices, Torquemada, and Clavigero, in which the month variously called Atlcahualco, or Quahuitlehua, or Cihuailhuitl, or Xilomanaliztli, is the first.[IX-76] The name Atlchualco, or Atlaooalo, or Atalcaoplo, means 'the buying or scarcity of water;' Quahuitlehua, or Quavitleloa, 'the sprouting of trees;' and Xilomanaliztli, 'the offering of Xilotl (that is heads of maize, which were then presented to the gods to secure their blessing on the seed time).' This first month beginning on the second of February according to Sahagun, the eighteenth according to Gama, and the twenty-sixth according to Clavigero, was consecrated to Tlaloc and the other gods of water, and in it great numbers of children were sacrificed.[IX-77] In further honor of the Tlalocs there were also at this time killed many captives on the gladiatorial stone.

It was the second month, called Tlacaxiphualiztli,[IX-78] or 'the flaying of men,' that was specially famous for its gladiatorial sacrifices, sacrifices already described and performed to the honor of Xipe, or Xipetotec.[IX-79]

The third month called Tozoztontli, 'the lesser fast or penance,' was inaugurated by the sacrifice on the mountains of children to the Tlalocs. Those also that traded in flowers and were called Sochimanque, or Xochimanqui, made a festival to their goddess, Coatlycue, or Coatlantona, offering her the first-fruits of the flowers of the year, of these that had grown in the precincts of the cu yapico, a cu as we have seen, consecrated to Tlaloc. Into a cave belonging to this temple there were also at this time cast the now rotten skins of the human beings that had been flayed in the preceding month. Thither, "stinking like dead dogs," as Sahagun phrases it, marched in procession the persons that wore these skins and there they put them off, washing themselves with many ceremonies; and sick folk troubled with certain skin-diseases followed and looked on, hoping by the sight of all these things to be healed of their infirmities. The owners of the captives that had been slain had also been doing penance for twenty days, neither washing nor bathing during that time; and they now, when they had seen the skins deposited in the cave, washed and gave a banquet to all their friends and relatives, performing many ceremonies with the bones of the dead captives. All the twenty days of this month singing exercises, praising the god, were carried on in the houses called Cuicacalli, the performers not dancing but remaining seated.

The fourth month was called, in contradistinction to the third, Veitozoztli, or Hueytozoztli, that is to say, 'the greater penance or letting of blood;' because in it not only the priests but also the populace and nobility did penance, drawing blood from their ears, shins, and other parts of the body, and exposing at their doors leaves of sword-grass stained therewith. After this they performed certain already described ceremonies,[IX-80] and then made, out of the dough known as tzoalli,[IX-81] an image of the goddess Chicomecoatl, in the court-yard of her temple, offering before it all kinds of maize, beans, and chian, because she was the maker and giver of these things and the sustainer of the people. In this month, as well as in the three months preceding, little children were sacrificed, a cruelty which was supposed to please the water gods, and which was kept up till the rains began to fall abundantly.

THE MONTH TOXCATL.

The fifth month, called Toxcatl and sometimes Tepopochuiliztli,[IX-82] was begun by the most solemn and famous feast of the year, in honor of the principal Mexican god, a god known by a multitude of names and epithets, among which were Tezcatlipoca, Titlacaoan, Yautl, Telpuchtli, and Tlamatzincatl. A year before this feast, one of the most distinguished of the captives reserved for sacrifice was chosen out for superior grace and personal appearance from among all his fellows, and given in charge to the priestly functionaries called calpixques. These instructed him with great diligence in all the arts pertaining to good breeding, according to the Mexican idea: such as playing on the flute, walking, speaking, saluting those he happened to meet, the use and carrying about of straight cane tobacco-pipes and of flowers, with the dexterous smoking of the one, and the graceful inhalation of the odor of the other. He was attended upon by eight pages, who were clad in the livery of the palace, and had perfect liberty to go where he pleased night and day; while his food was so rich that to guard against his growing too fat, it was at times necessary to vary the diet by a purge of salt and water. Everywhere honored and adored as the living image and accredited representative of Tezcatlipoca, he went about playing on a small shrill clay flute, or fife, and adorned with rich and curious raiment furnished by the king, while all he met did him reverence kissing the earth. All his body and face was painted—black, it would appear; his long hair flowed to the waist; his head was covered with white hens' feathers stuck on with resin, and covered with a garland of the flowers called yzquisuchitl; while two strings of the same flowers crossed his body in the fashion of cross-belts. Earrings of gold, a necklace of precious stones with a great dependent gem hanging to the breast, a lip-ornament (barbote) of sea-shell, bracelets of gold above the elbow on each arm, and strings of gems called macuextli winding from wrist almost to elbow, glittered and flashed back the light as the doomed man-god moved. He was covered with a rich beautifully fringed mantle of netting, and bore on his shoulders something like a purse made of white cloth of a span square, ornamented with tassels and fringe. A white maxtli of a span broad went about his loins, the two ends, curiously wrought, falling in front almost to the knee. Little bells of gold kept time with every motion of his feet, which were shod with painted sandals called ocelunacace.

All this was the attire he wore from the beginning of his year of preparation; but twenty days before the coming of the festival, they changed his vestments, washed away the paint or dye from his skin, and cut down his long hair to the length, and arranged it after the fashion, of the hair of the captains, tying it up on the crown of the head with feathers and fringe and two gold-buttoned tassels. At the same time they married to him four damsels, who had been pampered and educated for this purpose, and who were surnamed respectively after the four goddesses, Xochiquetzal, Xilonen, Atlatonan, and Vixtocioatl.[IX-83] Five days before the great day of the feast,[IX-84] the day of the feast being counted one, all the people, high and low, the king it would appear being alone excepted, went out to celebrate with the man-god a solemn banquet and dance, in the ward called Tecanman; the fourth day before the feast, the same was done in the ward in which was guarded the statue of Tezcatlipoca. The little hill, or island, called Tepetzinco, rising out of the waters of the lake of Mexico, was the scene of the next day's solemnities; solemnities renewed for the last time on the next day, or that immediately preceding the great day, on another like island called Tepelpulco, or Tepepulco. There, with the four women that had been given him for his consolation, the honored victim was put into a covered canoe usually reserved for the sole use of the king; and he was carried across the lake to a place called Tlapitzaoayan, near the road that goes from Yztapalapan to Chalco, at a place where was a little hill called Acacuilpan, or Cabaltepec. Here left him the four beautiful girls, whose society for twenty days he had enjoyed, they returning to the capital with all the people; there accompanying the hero of this terrible tragedy only those eight attendants that had been with him all the year. Almost alone, done with the joys of beauty, banquet, and dance, bearing a bundle of his flutes, he walked to a little ill-built cu, some distance from the road mentioned above, and about a league removed from the city. He marched up the temple steps, not dragged, not bound, not carried like a common slave or captive; and as he ascended he dashed down and broke on every step one of the flutes that he had been accustomed to play on in the days of his prosperity. He reached the top;—by sickening repetition we have learned to know the rest; one thing only, from the sacrificial stone his body was not hurled down the steps, but was carried by four men down to the Tzompantli, to the place of the spitting of heads.

THE FEAST OF TOXCATL.

And the chroniclers say that all this signified that those who enjoyed riches, delights in this life, should at the end come to poverty and sorrow—so determined are these same chroniclers to let nothing escape without its moral.

In this feast of Toxcatl, in the cu called Huitznahuac, where the image of Huitzilopochtli was always kept, the priests made a bust of this god out of tzoalli dough, with pieces of mizquitl-wood inserted by way of bones. They decorated it with his ornaments; putting on a jacket wrought over with human bones, a mantle of very thin nequen, and another mantle called the tlaquaquallo, covered with rich feathers, fitting the head below and widening out above; in the middle of this stood up a little rod, also decorated with feathers and sticking into the top of the rod was a flint knife half covered with blood. The image was set on a platform made of pieces of wood resembling snakes and so arranged that heads and tails alternated all the way round; the whole borne by many captains and men of war. Before this image and platform a number of strong youths carried an enormous sheet of paper resembling pasteboard, twenty fathoms long, one fathom broad, and a little less than an inch thick; it was supported by spear-shafts arranged in pairs of one shaft above and one below the paper, while persons on either side of the paper held each one of these pairs in one hand. When the procession, with dancing and singing, reached the cu to be ascended, the snaky platform was carefully and cautiously hoisted up by cords attached to its four corners, the image was set on a seat, and those that carried the paper rolled it up and set down the roll before the bust of the god. It was sunset when the image was so set up; and the following morning every one offered food in his own house before the image of Huitzilopochtli there, incensing also such images of other gods as he had, and then went to offer quails' blood before the bust set up on the cu. The king began, wringing off the heads of four quails; the priests offered next, then all the people; the whole multitude carrying clay fire-pans and burning copal incense of every kind, after which every one threw his live coals upon a great hearth in the temple-yard. The virgins painted their faces, put on their heads garlands of parched maize with strings of the same across their breasts, decorated their arms and legs with red feathers, and carried black paper flags stuck into split canes. The flags of the daughters of nobles were not of paper but of a thin cloth called canaoac, painted with vertical black stripes. These girls joining hands danced round the great hearth, upon or over which on an elevated place of some kind there danced, giving the time and step, two men, having each a kind of pine cage covered with paper flags on his shoulders, the strap supporting which passed, not across the forehead—the usual way for men to carry a burden—but across the chest as was the fashion with women. The priests of the temple, dancing on this occasion with the women, bore shields of paper, crumpled up like great flowers; their heads were adorned with white feathers, their lips and part of the face were smeared with sugar-cane juice which produced a peculiar effect over the black with which their faces were always painted. They carried in their hands pieces of paper called amasmaxtli, and sceptres of palm-wood tipped with a black flower and having in the lower part a ball of black feathers. In dancing they used this sceptre like a staff, and the part by which they grasped it was wrapped round with a paper painted with black lines. The music for the dancers was supplied by a party of unseen musicians, who occupied one of the temple buildings, where they sat, he that played on the drum in the centre, and the performers on the other instruments about him. The men and women danced on till night, but the strictest order and decency were preserved, and any lewd word or look brought down swift punishment from the appointed overseers.

DEATH OF THE YXTEUCALLI.

This feast was closed by the death of a youth who had been during the past year dedicated to and taken care of for Huitzilopochtli, resembling in this the victim of Tezcatlipoca, whose companion he had indeed been, but without receiving such high honors. This Huitzilopochtli youth was entitled Yxteucalli, or Tlacabepan, or Teicauhtzin, and was held to be the image and representative of the god. When the day of his death came, the priests decorated him with papers painted over with black circles, and put a mitre of eagles' feathers on his head, in the midst of whose plumes was stuck a flint knife, stained half way up with blood and adorned with red feathers. Tied to his shoulders, by strings passing across the breast, was a piece of very thin cloth about a span square, and over it hung a little bag. Over one of his arms was thrown a wild beast's skin, arranged somewhat like a maniple; bells of gold jingled at his legs as he walked or danced. There were two peculiar things connected with the death of this youth; first he had absolute liberty of choice regarding the hour in which he was to die; and second, he was not extended upon any block or altar, but when he wished he threw himself into the arms of the priests, and had his heart so cut out. His head was then hacked off and spitted alongside of that of the Tezcatlipoca youth, of whom we have spoken already. In this same day the priests made little marks on children, cutting them, with thin stone knives, in the breast, stomach, wrists, and fleshy part of the arms; marks, as the Spanish priests considered, by which the devil should know his own sheep.[IX-85] The ceremonies of the ensuing monthly festivals have already been described at length.[IX-86]

MISCELLANEOUS FEASTS.

There were, besides, a number of movable feasts in honor of the higher gods, the celestial bodies, and the patron deities of the various trades and professions. Sahagun gives an account of sixteen movable feasts, many of which, however, contained no religious element.[IX-87] The first was dedicated to the sun, to whom a ghostly deputation of eighteen souls was sent to make known the wants of the people, and implore future favors. The selected victims were ranged in order at the place of sacrifice, and addressed by the priest, who exhorted them to bear in mind the sacred nature of their mission, and the glory which would be theirs upon its proper fulfillment. The music now strikes up; amid the crash and din the victims one after another are stretched upon the altar; a few flashes of the iztli-knife in the practiced hand of the slayer, and the embassy has set out for the presence of the sun.[IX-88]

The sixth, seventh, and eleventh festivals were celebrated to Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca, and Huitzilopochtli respectively. The public and household idols of these gods were at such seasons decorated, and presented with offerings of food, quails, and incense. During the festival of the god of fire, the thirteenth of the movable feasts, various public officials were elected, and a great many grand banquets given. The atamalqualiztli, or 'fast of bread and water,' seems to have been one of the most important of the movable feasts. The people prepared for its celebration, which took place every eight years, by a rigid fast, broken only by a midday meal of water and unsalted bread. Those who offended the gods by neglecting to observe this fast were thought to expose themselves to an attack of leprosy. The people indulged in all sorts of amusements during the holiday season which succeeded the fast. The most interesting feature of the festivities was a bal masqué, which was supposed to be attended by all the gods. The chief honors of the day were, however, rendered to the Tlalocs, and round their effigy, which stood in the midst of a pond alive with frogs and snakes, the dancers whirled continually. It was a part of the ceremonies for a number of men called maxatecaz to devour the reptiles in the pond; this they did by each seizing a snake or a frog in his teeth, and swallowing it gradually as he joined in the dance; the one who first bolted his titbit cried out triumphantly, 'Papa, papa!'

Every fourth year, called teoxihuitl, or 'divine year,' and at the beginning of every period of thirteen years, the feasts were more numerous and on a larger scale, the fasts more severe, and the sacrifices far greater in number than upon ordinary occasions.[IX-89] The entire series of festivals may be said to have closed with the solemn Toxilmolpilia, or 'binding up of the years,' which took place every fifty-two years, and marked the expiration and renewal of the world's lease of existence.[IX-90]