given him by the Mexicans; and at the close of the festival in his honor the fires in the temples and dwellings were extinguished, and rekindled from the one lighted before the idol.
Centeotl, the "goddess of the Earth and Corn;" and known, also, by another word which signifies "she who supports us." This was a goddess devotedly worshipped by the Totonacos, who believed that in the course of time she would free them from the slavery of the other gods, and abolish the horrors of human sacrifice. To her only were offered doves, quails, leverets, and such harmless animals. She was a Mexican Ceres.
Mictlteuctli, "the god of Hell," and his female companion. Sacrifices were made to him at night, and his priests were clad in black during their ministrations at the altars.
Joalteuctli, "the god of Night"; was the divinity who gave sleep to children, while Joalteuctli was the goddess of cradles, and presided over their infants in the watches of the night.
The next deity was the one most honored by the Mexicans, and regarded as their chief protector—Huitzilipotchtli, or Mexitli, "the god of War," the Mexican Mars.
This was the mighty power who became, (according to their tradition,) the protector of the Mexicans; conducted them through the years of their pilgrimage, and at length, settled them on the spot where they afterward founded the great city of Mexico.
"To him they raised that superb Temple so much celebrated by the Spaniards. His statue was of gigantic size, in the posture of a man seated on a blue-colored bench, from the corners of which issued four gigantic snakes. His forehead was blue, and his face and the back of his head were covered with golden masks. He wore a crest shaped like the beak of a bird. On his neck was a collar of ten figures of the human heart. In his right hand he bore a blue club, huge and twisted—in his left a shield, on which appeared five balls of feathers disposed in the form of a cross while from the upper part of it rose a golden flag with four arrows, which the Mexicans pretend to have been sent from heaven to perform the glorious actions of his history. His body was girt with a large golden snake, and adorned with various lesser figures of animals, made of gold and silver and precious stones, each of which ornaments had a peculiar meaning."[1]
Whenever war was contemplated by the Mexicans, this god was implored for protection, and they of offered up to him a greater number of human victims than to any of the other deities. The only figure I found in Mexico upon which the antiquarians seemed agreed as to its representation of this god, (though not with all the splendor described by Clavigero,) was the following: it is in bas-relief, and is in the collection of Don Mariano Sanchez y Mora, ex-Condé del Peñasco.
- ↑ Vide Clavigero and McCulloh.
