O our Lord, most clement, liberal giver and lord of verdure and coolness, lord of the terrestrial paradise, odorous and flowery, and lord of the incense of copal, woe are we that the gods of water, thy subjects, have hid themselves away in their retreat, who are wont to serve us with the things we need and who are themselves served with ulli and auchtli and copal. They have left concealed all the things that sustain our lives, and carried away with them their sister the goddess of the necessaries of life, and carried away also the goddess of pepper. O our Lord, take pity on us that live; our food goes to destruction, is lost, is dried up; for lack of water, it is as if turned to dust and mixed with spiders' webs. Woe for the miserable laborers and for the common people; they are wasted with hunger, they go about unrecognizable and disfigured every one. They are blue under the eyes as with death; their mouths are dry as sedge; all the bones of their bodies may be counted as in a skeleton. The children are disfigured and yellow as earth; not only those that begin to walk, but even those in the cradle. There is no one to whom this torment of hunger does not come; the very animals and birds suffer hard want, by the drought that is. It is pitiful to see the birds, some dragging themselves along with drooping wings, others falling down utterly and unable to walk, and others still with their mouths open through this hunger and thirst. The animals, O our Lord, it is a grievous sight to see them stumbling and falling, licking the earth for hunger, and panting with open mouth and hanging tongue. The people lose their senses and die for thirst; they perish, none is like to remain. It is woeful, O our Lord, to see all the face of the earth dry, so that it cannot produce the herbs nor the trees, nor anything to sustain us—the earth that used to be as a father and mother to us, giving us milk and all nourishment, herbs and fruits that therein grew. Now is all dry, all lost; it is evident that the Tlaloc gods have carried all away with them, and hid in their retreat, which is the terrestrial paradise. The things, O Lord, that thou wert graciously wont to give us, upon which we lived and were joyful, which are the life and joy of all the world, and precious as emeralds or sapphires—all these things are departed from us. O our Lord, god of nourishment and giver thereof, most humane and most compassionate, what thing hast thou determined to do with us? Hast thou, peradventure altogether forsaken us? Thy wrath and indignation shall it not be appeased? Hast thou determined on the perdition of all thy servants and vassals, and that thy city and kingdom shall be left desolate and uninhabited? Peradventure, this has been determined, and settled in heaven and hades. O our Lord, concede at least this, that the innocent children, who cannot so much as walk, who are still in the cradle, may have something to eat, so that they may live, and not die in this so great famine. What have they done that they should be tormented and should die of hunger? No iniquity have they committed, neither know they what thing it is to sin; they have neither offended the god of heaven nor the god of hell. We, if we have offended in many things, if our sins have reached heaven and hades, and the stink thereof gone out to the ends of the earth, just it is that we be destroyed and made an end of; we have nothing to say thereto, nor to excuse ourselves withal, nor to resist what is determined against us in heaven and in hades. Let it be done; destroy us all, and that swiftly, that we may not suffer from this long weariness which is worse than if we burned in fire. Certainly it is a horrible thing to suffer this hunger; it is like a snake lacking food, it gulps down its saliva, it hisses, it cries out for something to devour. It is a fearful thing to see the anguish of it demanding somewhat to eat; this hunger is intense as burning fire, flinging out sparks. Lord, let the thing happen that many years ago we have heard said by the old men and women that have passed away from us, let the heavens fall on us and the demons of the air come down, the Izitzimites, who are to come to destroy the earth with all that dwell on it; let darkness and obscurity cover the whole world, and the habitation of men be nowhere found therein. This thing was known to the ancients, and they divulged it, and from mouth to mouth it has come down to us, all this that has to happen when the world ends and the earth is weary of producing creatures. Our Lord, such present end would be now dear to us as riches or pleasures once were—miserable that we are! See good, O Lord, that there fall some pestilence to end us quickly. Such plague usually comes from the god of hades; and if it came there would peradventure be provided some allowance of food, so that the dead should not travel to hades without any provision for the way. O that this tribulation were of war, which is originated by the sun, and which breaks from sleep like a strong and valiant one—for then would the soldiers and the brave, the stout and warlike men, take pleasure therein. In it many die, and much blood is spilt, and the battle-field is filled with dead bodies and with the bones and skulls of the vanquished; strewn also is the face of the earth with the hairs of the head of warriors that rot; but this they fear not, for they know that their souls go to the house of the sun. And there they honor the sun with joyful voices, and suck the various flowers with great delight; there all the stout and valiant ones that died in war are glorified and extolled; there also the little and tender children that die in war are presented to the Sun, very clean and well adorned and shining like precious stones. Thy sister, the goddess of food, provides for those that go thither, supplying them with provision for the way; and this provision of necessary things is the strength and the soul and the staff of all the people of the world, and without it there is no life. But this hunger with which we are afflicted, O our most humane Lord, is so sore and intolerable that the miserable common people are not able to suffer nor support it; being still alive they die many deaths; and not the people alone suffer but also all the animals. O our most compassionate Lord, lord of green things and gums, of herbs odorous and virtuous, I beseech thee to look with eyes of pity on the people of this thy city and kingdom; for the whole world down to the very beasts is in peril of destruction, and disappearance, and irremediable end. Since this is so, I entreat thee to see good to send back to us the food-giving gods, gods of the rain and storm, of the herbs and of the trees; so that they perform again their office here with us on the earth. Scatter the riches and the prosperity of thy treasures, let the timbrels of joy be shaken that are the staves of the gods of water, let them take their sandals of india-rubber that they may walk with swiftness. Give succor, O Lord, to our lord, the god of the earth, at least with one shower of water, for when he has water he creates and sustains us. See good, O Lord, to invigorate the corn, and the other foods, much wished for and much needed, now sown and planted; for the ridges of the earth suffer sore need and anguish from lack of water. See good, O Lord, that the people receive this favor and mercy at thine hand, let them see and enjoy of the verdure and coolness that are as precious stones; see good that the fruit and the substance of the Tlalocs be given, which are the clouds that these gods carry with them and that sow the rain about us. See good, O Lord, that the animals and herbs be made glad, and that the fowls and birds of precious feather, such as the quechotl and the caguan, fly and sing and suck the herbs and flowers. And let not this come about with thunderings and lightnings, symbols of thy wrath; for if our lords the Tlalocs come with thunder and lightning the whole people, being lean and very weak with hunger, would be terrified. If indeed some are already marked out to go to the earthly paradise by the stroke of the thunderbolt, let this death be restricted to them, and let no injury befall any of the other people in mountain or cabin; neither let hurt come near the magueys or the other trees and plants of the earth; for these things are necessary to the life and sustenance of the people, poor, forsaken, and cast-away, who can with difficulty get food enough to live, going about through hunger with the bowels empty and sticking to the ribs. O our Lord, most compassionate, most generous, giver of all nourishment, be pleased to bless the earth and all the things that live on the face thereof. With deep sighing and with anguish of heart I cry upon all those that are gods of water, that are in the four quarters of the world, east and west, north and south, and upon those that dwell in the hollow of the earth, or in the air, or in the high mountains, or in the deep caves, I beseech them to come and console this poor people and to water the earth; for the eyes of all that inhabit the earth, animals as well as men, are turned toward you, and their hope is set upon your persons. O our Lord, be pleased to come.[VIII-19]
VENGEANCE OF TLALOC.
This is a prayer to Tlaloc. But it was not with prayers alone that they deprecated his wrath and implored his assistance; here as elsewhere in the Mexican religion sacrifices played an important part. When the rain failed and the land was parched by drought, great processions were made in which a number of hairless dogs, common to the country, and good to eat, were carried on decorated litters to a place devoted to this use. There they were sacrificed to the god of water by cutting out their hearts. Afterwards the carcasses were eaten amid great festivities. All these things the Tlascaltec historian, Camargo, had seen with his own eyes thirty years before writing his book. The sacrifices of men, which were added to these in the days of greatness of the old religion, he describes as he was informed by priests who had officiated thereat. Two festivals in the year were celebrated to Tlaloc, the greater feast and the less. Each of these was terminated by human sacrifices. The side of the victim was opened with a sharp knife; the high priest tore out the heart, and turning toward the east offered it with lifted hands to the sun, crushing it at the same time with all his strength. He repeated this, turning in succession towards the remaining three cardinal points; the other tlamacaxques, or priests, not ceasing the while to darken with clouds of incense the faces of the idols. The heart was lastly burned and the body flung down the steps of the temple. A priest, who had afterwards been converted to Christianity, told Camargo that when he tore out the heart of a victim and flung it down, it used to palpitate with such force as to clear itself of the ground several times till it grew cold. Tlaloc was held in exceeding respect and the priests alone had the right to enter his temple. Whoever dared to blaspheme against him was supposed to die suddenly or to be stricken of thunder; the thunderbolt, instrument of his vengeance, flashed from the sky even at the moment it was clearest. The sacrifices offered to him in times of drought were never without answer and result; for, as Camargo craftily insinuates, the priests took good care never to undertake them till they saw indications of coming rain; besides, he adds—introducing, in defiance of nec deus intersit, a surely unneeded personage, if we suppose his last statement true—the devil, to confirm these people in their errors, was always sure to send rain.[VIII-20]
Children were also sacrificed to Tlaloc. Says Motolinia, when four years came together in which there was no rain, and there remained as a consequence hardly any green thing in the fields, the people waited till the maize grew as high as the knee, and then made a general subscription with which four slave children, of five or six years of age, were purchased. These they sacrificed in a cruel manner by closing them up in a cave, which was never opened except on these occasions.[VIII-21]
According to Mendieta, again, children were sometimes offered to this god by drowning. The children were put into a canoe which was carried to a certain part of the lake of Mexico where was a whirlpool, which is no longer visible. Here the boat was sunk with its living cargo. These gods had, according to the same author, altars in the neighborhood of pools especially near springs; which altars were furnished with some kind of roof, and at the principal fountains were four in number set over against each other in the shape of a cross—the cross of the rain god.[VIII-22]
The Vatican Codex says that in April a boy was sacrificed to Tlaloc and his dead body put into the maize granaries or maize fields—it is not clearly apparent which—to preserve the food of the people from spoiling.[VIII-23] It is to Sahagun, however, that we must turn for the most complete and authentic account of the festivals of Tlaloc with their attendant sacrifices.
SACRIFICES OF CHILDREN.
In the first days of the first month of the year, which month is called in some parts of Mexico, Quavitleloa, but generally Atlcaoalo, and begins on the second of our February, a great feast was made in honor of the Tlalocs, gods of rain and water. For this occasion many children at the breast were purchased from their mothers; those being chosen that had two whirls (remolinos) in their hair, and that had been born under a good sign; it being said that such were the most agreeable sacrifice to the storm gods, and most likely to induce them to send rain in due season. Some of these infants were butchered for this divine holiday on certain mountains, and some were drowned in the lake of Mexico. With the beginning of the festival, in every house, from the hut to the palace, certain poles were set up and to these were attached strips of the paper of the country, daubed over with india-rubber gum, said strips being called amateteuitl; this was considered an honor to the water-gods. And the first place where children were killed was Quauhtepetl, a high mountain in the neighborhood of Tlatelulco; all infants, boys or girls, sacrificed there were called by the name of the place, Quauhtepetl, and were decorated with strips of paper dyed red. The second place where children were killed was Yoaltecatl, a high mountain near Guadalupe. The victims were decorated with pieces of black paper, with red lines on it, and were named after the place, Yoaltecatl. The third death-halt was made at Tepetzingo, a well-known hillock that rose up from the waters of the lake opposite Tlatelulco; there they killed a little girl, decking her with blue paper, and calling her Quetzalxoch, for so was this hillock called by another name. Poiauhtla, on the boundary of Tlascala, was the fourth hill of sacrifice. Here they killed children, named as usual after the locality, and decorated with paper on which were lines of india-rubber oil. The fifth place of sacrifice was the no longer visible whirlpool or sink of the lake of Mexico, Pantitlan. Those drowned here were called Epcoatl, and their adornment epuepaniuhqui. The sixth hill of death was Cocotl,[VIII-24] near Chalcoatenco; the infant victims were named after it and decorated with strips of paper of which half the number were red and half a tawny color. The mount Yiauhqueme, near Atlacuioaia, was the seventh station; the victims being named after the place and adorned with paper of a tawny color.
All these miserable babes before being carried to their death were bedecked with precious stones and rich feathers and with raiment and sandals wrought curiously; they put upon them paper wings (as if they were angels); they stained their faces with oil of india-rubber, and on the middle of each tiny cheek they painted a round spot of white. Not able yet to walk, the victims were carried in litters shining with jewels and awave with plumes; flutes and trumpets bellowed and shrilled round the little bedizened heads, all so unfortunate in their two whirls of hair, as they passed along; and everywhere as the litters were borne by, all the people wept. When the procession reached the temple near Tepetzinco, on the east, called Tozocan, the priests rested there all night, watching and singing songs, so that the little ones could not sleep. In the morning the march was again resumed; if the children wept copiously those around them were very glad, saying it was a sign that much rain would fall; while if they met any dropsical person on the road it was taken for a bad omen and something that would hinder the rain. If any of the temple ministers, or of the others called quaquavitli, or of the old men, broke off from the procession or turned back to their houses before they came to the place where the sacrifice was done, they were held for infamous and unworthy of any public office; thenceforward they were called mocauhque, that is to say, 'deserters.'[VIII-25]
SPOLIATION OF CÆSAR FOR THE CHURCH.