[218] Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 312.
[219] Dávila, Teatro Ecles., tom. i., p. 18.
[220] Hist. Ecles., p. 107.
[221] Burgoa, Geog. Descrip., tom. ii., pt ii., fol. 329.
[222] Id., fol. 395.
[223] The following are contradictory accounts of baptism. On the fourth day the child and mother took a purification bath, and the assembled guests were feasted on zamorra, a dish made from maize and the flesh of hens, deer, etc. Three days after, the mother carried the child to the adjoining ward, accompanied by six little boys, if it was a male child, otherwise six girls went with her, to carry the implements or insignia of the father's trade. Here she washed the child in a stream, and then returned home. Two years after a feast was served in the house of the most intimate neighbor, who was asked to name the child, and with him it remained and was held as a member of his family. Chaves, Rapport, in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série ii., tom. v., pp. 306-8. The infant was carried to the temple, where the priest made an oration on the miseries to be endured in this world, and placed a sword in the right hand of the child and a buckler in the left; or, if it was destined to be a mechanic, an artisan's tool; if a girl it received a distaff. The priest then took the child to the altar and drew a few drops of blood from its body with a maguey-thorn or knife, after which he threw water over it, delivering certain imprecations the while. Touron, Hist. Gén., tom. iii., pp. 12-13. The implements were placed in the hands of the child by the priest before the idol. Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., p. 374. Also Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. xvii. The child underwent three baptisms or baths. Zuazo, Carta, in Icazbalceta, Col. de Doc., tom. i., p. 364. On the seventh day the baptism took place, and a dart was placed in the hand of the child to signify that he should become a defender of his country. Motolinia, Hist. Indios, in Id., p. 37. In Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano (Vaticano), tav. xxxi., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., p. 181, it is stated that the child was sprinkled with a bunch of ficitle dipped in water, and fumigated with incense before receiving its name. Offerings were made at the temple which the priest divided among the school children. Tylor, in his Anahuac, p. 279, and Primitive Culture, vol. ii., pp. 429-36 gives short reviews of the baptismal ceremony and its moral import.
[224] Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. clxxv.; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 83-4; Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., pp. 107-8; Zuazo, Carta, in Icazbalceta, Col. de Doc., tom. i., p. 364; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., p. 35. Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 73, reviews the subject of circumcision and denies that it was ever practiced. Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série i., p. 45, tom. x., referring to Diaz' statement that all Indians of the Vera Cruz Islands are circumcised, says that he must have confounded the custom of drawing blood from the secret organs with circumcision. Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., p. 191, says circumcision was unknown to the Indians of Yucatan. Duran and Brasseur evidently consider the slight incisions made for the purpose of drawing blood from the prepuce or ear, in the eleventh month, as the act. Carbajal Espinosa, Hist. Mex., tom. i., p. 538, following Clavigero, holds the scarification of breast, stomach and arms to be the circumcision referred to by other authors. Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. ii., cap. xvii., and especially Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., p. 374, consider the incision on the prepuce and ear to have been mistaken for circumcision, and state that it was chiefly performed upon sons of great men; they do not state when the ceremony took place.
[225] Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 266; Carbajal Espinosa, Hist. Mex., tom. i., p. 538.
[226] This rite was followed by another, which usually took place in the temple of Huitzilopochtli. The priest made a slight incision on the ear of the female child, and on the ear and prepuce of the male, with a new obsidian knife handed to him by the mother, then, throwing the knife at the feet of the idol, he gave a name to the infant, at the request of the parent, after duly considering the horoscope and signs of the time. Duran, Hist. Indias, MS., tom. iii., cap. iii., quoted by Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., pp. 525-6. Duran really states that these ceremonies took place in the fourth month, but as Toci's festival occurs in the eleventh month, Brasseur alters the evident mistake. The naming of the infant may have been a mere confirmation of the name given by the midwife.
[227] Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii. p. 286.