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god; and this is also the reason why several authors have believed, that the rite of circumcision was established among the Mexicans. But if possible the people of Yucatan and the Totonacas used this rite, it was never practised by the Mexican, or any other nation of the empire.

In the sixth month, which began about the sixth of June, the third festival of the god Tlaloc was celebrated. They strewed the temple in a curious manner, with rushes from the lake of Citlaltepec. The priests who went to fetch them, committed various hostilities upon all passengers whom they met in their way, plundering them of every thing they had about them, and sometimes even stripping them quite naked, and beating them if they made any resistance. With such impunity were these priests, turned assassins, favoured, that they not only robbed the common people, but even carried off the royal tribute from the collectors of them, if they chanced to meet with them, no private persons being allowed to make complaint against them nor the king to punish them for such enormities. On the day of the festival, they all eat a certain kind of gruel which they called Etzalli from which the month took the name of Etzalquatiztli. They carried to the temple a vast quantity of painted paper and elastic gum, with which they besmeared the paper and the cheeks of the idol.

After this ridiculous ceremony, they sacrificed several prisoners who were clothed in habits the same with that of the god Tlaloc, and his companions, and in order to complete the scene of their cruelty, the priests, attended by a great croud of people, went in vessels to a certain place of the lake, where in former times there was a whirlpool, and there sacrificed two children of both sexes, by drowning them, along with the hearts of the prisoners who had been sacrificed at this festival, in order to obtain from their gods the necessary rains for their fields. Upon this occasion, those ministers of the temple, who, in the course of that year, had neither been negligeut in office, or convicted of some high misdemeanor which was not, however, deserving of capital punishment, were stripped of their priesthood, aud received a chastisement similar to the trick which is practised on seamen the first time they pass the line, but more severe, as by being repeatedly ducked in the water they were at least so exhausted, it became necessary to carry them home to their houses to be recovered.

In the seventh month, which began upon the 26th of June, the festival of Huixtocihuatbl, the goddess of salt, was celebrated. A day before the festival there was a great dance of women, who danced in a circle, joined to each other by strings or cords of different flowers, and wearing garlands of wormwood on their

to his own pleasure. After this period was elapsed, they clothed a female prisoner in the habit of Teteoinan, or the mother of the gods, whose festival was celebrating; the prisoners was attended by many women, and particularly by the midwives, who for four whole days employed themselves to amuse and comfort her. When the principal day of the festival was arrived, they led this woman to the upper area of the temple of that goddess, where they sacrificed her; but this was not performed in the usual mode, nor upon the common altar where other victims were sacrificed, for they beheaded her upon the shoulders of another woman, and stripped her skin off, which a youth, with a numerous attendance, carried to present to the idol of Huitcilopochtli, in memory of the inhuman sacrifice which their ancestors had made of the princess of Colhuacan; but before it was presented, they sacrificed in the usual mode, four prisoners, in memory, as is probable, of the four Xochimilcan prisoners. which they had sacrificed during their captivity in Colhuacan. In this month they made a review of their troops, and enlisted those youths who were destined for the profession of arms, and who, in future were to serve in war when there should be occasion. All the nobles and populace swept the temples, on which account this month took the name of Ochpaniztli, which signifies, a sweeping. They cleaned and mended the streets, and repaired the acqueducts and their houses, all which labours were attended with many superstitious rites.

In the twelfth month, which began upon the 4th of October, they celebrated the festival of the arrival of the gods, which they expressed by the word Teotleco, which name they also gave to both the month and the festival. On the 16th day of this month they covered all the temples, and the corner stones of the streets of the city with green branches. On the 18th, the gods, according to their account, began to arrive, the first of whom was the great god Tezcatlipoca. They spread before the door of the sanctuary of this god a mat made of the palm-tree, and sprinkled upon it some powder of maize. The high-priest stood in watch all the preceding night, and went frequently to look at the mat, and as soon as he discovered any footsteps upon the powder, which had been trod upon, no doubt, by some other deceitful priest, he began to cry out, "Our great god has now arrived." All the other priests, with a great croud of people, repaired there to adore him, and celebrate his arrival with hymns and dances, which were repeated all the rest of the night. On the two days following, other gods successively arrived, and on the twentieth and last day, when they believed that all the gods were come, a number of youths dressed in the form of various monsters, danced around a large fire, into which, from

time to time, they threw prisoners, who were there consumed as burnt sacrifices. At sunset they made great entertainments, at which they drank more than usual, imagining, that the wine with which they filled their bellies, would serve to wash the feet of their gods. To such excesses did the barbarous superstition of those people lead! Nor was the ceremony which they practised, in order to preserve their children from the evil which they dreaded from one of their gods, less extravagant: this was the custom of sticking a number of feathers on their shoulders, their arms, and legs, by means of turpentine.

In the thirteenth month, which began on the 24th of October the festival of the gods of water and the mountains was celebrated. The name Tepcilhuitl, which was given to this month, signified only the festival of the mountains. They made little ountains of paper, on which they placed some little serpents made of wood, or of roots of trees, and certain small idols called Ehecatotontin, covered with a particular paste. They put both upon the altars and worshipped them, as the images of the gods of the mountains, sung hymns to them, and presented copal and meats to them. The prisoners who were sacrificed at this festival were five in number, one man and four women; to each of which a particular name was given, alluding, probably, to some mystery of which we are ignorant. They clothed them in painted paper, which was besmeared with elastic gum, and carried them in procession in litters, after which they sacrificed them in the usual manner.

In the fourteenth month, which commenced on the 13th of November, was the festival of Mixcoatl, goddess of the chace. It was preceded by four days of rigid and general fasting accompanied with the effusion cf blood, during which time they made arrows and darts for the supply of their arsenals, and also certain small arrows which they placed together with pieces of pine, and some meats, upon the tombs of their relations, and after one day burned them. When the fast was over, the inhabitants of Mexico and Tlatelolco went out to a general chase in the neighbouring mountains, and all the animals which were brought, with great rejoicings to Mexico, where they were sacrificed to Mixcoat; the king himself was present not only at the sacrifice, but likewise at the chase. They gave to this month the name of Quecholli, because at this season the beautiful bird that went among them by that name, and by many called fiammingo, made its appearance on the banks of the Mexican lake.

In the fifteenth month, the beginning of which was on the 3d day of December, the third and principal festival of Huitzilopochtli and his brother was celebrated. On the first day of the month, the priests formed two statues of those two gods.

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statue, which pierced it through and through. They then said that their god was dead. One of the principal priests cut out the heart of the statue, and gave it to the king to eat. The body was divided into two parts; one of which was given to the people of Tlatelolco, and the other to the Mexicans. The share was again divided into four parts, for the four quarters of the city, and each of these four parts into as many minute particles as there were men in each quarter. This ceremony they expressed by the word Teocualo, which signifies the god to be eaten. The women never tasted this sacred paste, probably, because they had no concern with the profession of arms. We are ignorant, whether or not they made the same use of the statue of Tlacahuepan. The Mexicans gave to this month the name of Panquetzaliztli, which signifies, the raising of the standard, alluding to the one which they carried in the above procession. In this month they employed themselves in renewing the boundaries, and repairing the inclosures of their fields.

In the sixteenth month, which began upon the 23d of December, the fifth and last festival of the gods of water, and the mountains, took place. They prepared for it with the usual austerities, by making oblations of copal and other aromatic gums. They formed little figures of the mountains, which they consecrated to those gods, and certain little idols made of the paste of various eatable seeds, of which when they had worshipped them, they opened the breasts, and cut out the hearts, with a weaver's shuttle, and afterwards cut off their heads, in imitation of the rites of the sacrifices. The body was divided by the beads of families among their domestics, in order that by eating them they might be preserved from certain distempers, to which those persons who were negligent of worship to those deities conceived themselves to be subject. They burned the habits in which they had dressed the small idols, and preserved the ashes with the utmost care in their oratories, and also the vessels in which the images had been formed. Besides these rites, which were usually observed in private houses, they made some sacrifices of human victims in the temple. For four days preceding the festival, a strict fast was observed, accompanied with the effusion of blood. This month was called Atemoztli, which signifies the descent of the water, for a reason which we will immediately mention.

In the seventeenth month, which began upon the 12th of January, they celebrated the festival of the goddess Ilamateuctli A female prisoner was selected to represent her, and was clothed the habit of her idol. They made her dance alone to a tune cich some old priests sung to her, and she was permitted to

s her affliction at her approaching death, which, however

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