girls to the temple, and after having been offered to the goddess, were returned to the granaries, that they might preserve the rest from decay.
The fifth month was nearly wholly given up to festivals, but the principal one was that in honor of Tezcatlipoca. Ten days previous to its arrival, a priest wandered through the streets, sounding a clay flute. "Upon hearing the sound of this flute, all kneeled down; criminals were thrown into the utmost terror and consternation, and with tears implored the god to grant a pardon to their transgressions, and hinder them from being discovered and detected; warriors prayed to him for courage and strength, successful victories, and a multitude of prisoners for sacrifices;" and all the people, using the same ceremony of taking up and eating the dust, supplicated with fervor the clemency of the gods. The idol was newly decorated and adorned, and as the day arrived, a procession was formed, moving towards the temple; young men and girls carried wreaths of maize leaves, and bound them about the head of the idol, while the youths and virgins of the temple, as well as the nobles, carried similar wreaths. After doing penance, by lashing their backs with knotted cords, they made bountiful offerings of gold, gems, flowers, animals, and provisions, all of which finally found their way into the habitations of the priests. Then came the sacrifice of the victim. This god, Tezcatlipoca, did not require a multitude of prisoners to be killed in honor of him; only one. But the circumstances attending the murder of this one were so heartlessly cruel as to cause our sympathies to go out to him as they could not to a thousand others who were killed in a body. He was selected a year before the festival, the finest and bravest of all their prisoners. In company with another young man, selected as the victim to the god of war, he roamed the city at pleasure, but always
