A note on the position and extent of the great temple enclosure of Tenochtitlan, / and the position, structure and orientation of the Teocolli of Huitzilopochtli.

by Alfred Percival Maudslay

Some of them had their fronts and steps towards others[^[13]], others to the East, again others to the South, but none of them had more than one altar with its chapel, and each one had its halls and apartments where the Tlamacazques or Ministers dwelt, who were numerous, and those who were employed to bring water and firewood, for in front of each altar there were braziers which burnt all night long, and in the halls also there were fires. All these Teocallis were very white, burnished and clean, and in some of them [the temple enclosures] were small gardens with trees and flowers.

There was in almost all these large courts another temple, which, after its square foundation had been raised and the altar built, was enclosed with a high circular wall and covered with its dome. This was [the temple] of the God of the Air, who was said to have his principal seat in Cholula, and in all this province there were many of them.

This God of the Air they called in their language Quetzalcoatl, and they said that he was the son of that God of the great statue and a native of Tollan [Tula], and thence he had gone out to instruct certain provinces whence he disappeared, and they still hoped that he would return. When the ships of the Marqués del Valle, Don Hernando Cortés (who conquered this New Spain), appeared, when they saw them approaching from afar off under sail, they said that at last their God was coming, and on account of the tall white sails they said that he was bringing Teocallis across the sea. However, when they [the Spaniards] afterwards disembarked, they said it was not their God, but that they were many Gods.

The Devil was not contented with the Teocallis already described, but in every town and in each suburb, at a quarter of a league apart, they had other small courts where there were three or four small Teocallis, in some of them more, and in others only one, and on every rock or hillock one or two, and along the roads and among the maize fields there were many other small ones, and all of them were covered with plaster and white, so that they showed up and bulked large, and in the thickly peopled country it appeared as though it was all full of houses, especially of the Courts of the Devil, which were wonderful to behold, and there was much to be seen when one entered into them, and the most important, above all others, were those of Texcoco and Mexico.

Sahagun, Fr. Bernadino de (Bustmamante Edition), p. 194. Report of the Mexicans about their God Vitzilopuchtli. [Huitzilopochtli, Huichilobos.]

The Mexicans celebrate three festivals to Vitzilopuchtli every year, the first of them in the month named Panquetzaliztli. During this festival [dedicated] to him and others, named Tlacavepancuexcotzin, they ascend to the top of the Cue, and they make life-size images out of tzoalli: when these are completed, all the youths of Telpuchcalli carry them on their hands to the top of the Cue. They make a statue of Vitzilopuchtli in the district [barrio] named Itepeioc[A]. The statue of Tlacavepancuexcotzin was made in that of Vitznaoao[^[14]]. They first prepare the dough and afterwards pass all the night in making the statues of it.

After making the images of the dough, they worshipped them as soon as it was dawn and made offerings to them during the greater part of the day, and towards evening they began ceremonies and dances with which they carried them to the Cue, and at sunset they ascended to the top of it.

After the images were placed in position, they all came down again at once, except the guardians [named] Yiopuch.

As soon as dawn came the God named Paynal, who was the Vicar of Vitzilopuchtli, came down from the lofty Cu, and one of the priests, clad in the rich vestments of Quetzalcoatl, carried this God (Vitzilopuchtli) in his hands, as in a procession, and the image of Paynal (which was carved in wood and, as has already been stated, was richly adorned) was also brought down.

In this latter festival there went in front of [the image] a mace-bearer, who carried on his shoulder a sceptre in the shape of a huge snake, covered all over with a mosaic of turquoise.