This confession was held not to have been made to a priest, or to a man, but to God; and, inasmuch as it could only be heard once in a man's life, and, as for a relapse into sin after it there was no forgiveness, it was generally put off till old age. The absolution given by the priest was valuable in a double regard; the absolved was held shriven of every crime he had confessed, and clear of all pains and penalties, temporal or spiritual, civil or ecclesiastical, due therefor. Thus was the fiery lash of Nemesis bound up, thus were struck down alike the staff of Minos and the sword of Themis before the awful ægis of religion. It may be imagined with what reluctance this last hope, this unique life-confession was resorted to; it was the one city of refuge, the one Mexican benefit of sanctuary, the sole horn of the altar, of which a man might once take hold and live, but no more again for ever.[IX-34]
GOD OF FIRE.
The Mexican god of fire as we have already noticed was usually called Xiuhtecutli. He had, however, other names such as Ixcozauhqui, that is to say, 'yellow-faced;' and Cuecaltzin, which means 'flame of fire;' and Huehueteotl, or 'the ancient god.'[IX-35] His idol represented a naked man, the chin blackened with ulli, and wearing a lip-jewel of red stone. On his head was a parti-colored paper crown, with green plumes issuing from the top of it like flames of fire; from the sides hung tassels of feathers down to the ears. The ear-rings of the image were of turquoise wrought in mosaic. On the idol's back was a dragon's head made of yellow feathers and some little marine shells. To the ankles were attached little bells or rattles. On the left arm was a shield, almost entirely covered with a plate of gold, into which were set in the shape of a cross five chalchiuites. In the right hand the god held a round pierced plate of gold, called the 'looking-plate,' (mirador ó miradero); with this he covered his face, looking only through the hole in the golden plate. Xiuhtecutli was held by the people to be their father, and regarded with feelings of mingled love and fear; and they celebrated to him two fixed festivals every year, one in the tenth and another in the eighteenth month, together with a movable feast in which, according to Clavigero, they appointed magistrates and renewed the ceremony of the investiture of the fiefs of the kingdom. The sacrifices of the first of these festivals, the festival of the tenth month, Xocotlveti, were particularly cruel even for the Mexican religion.
FESTIVAL OF THE FIRE GOD.
The assistants began by cutting down a great tree of five and twenty fathoms long and dressing off the branches, removing all it would seem but a few round the top. This tree was then dragged by ropes into the city, on rollers apparently, with great precaution against bruising or spoiling it; and the women met the entering procession giving those that dragged cacao to drink. The tree, which was called xocotl, was received into the court of a cu with shouts; and there set up in a hole in the ground and allowed to remain for twenty days. On the eve of the festival Xocotlvetzi, they let this large tree or pole down gently to the ground, by means of ropes and trestles, or rests, made of beams tied two and two, probably in an X shape; and carpenters dressed it perfectly smooth and straight, and, where the branches had been left, near the top, they fastened with ropes a kind of yard or cross-beam of five fathoms long. Then was prepared, to be set on the very top of the pole or tree, a statue of the god Xiuhtecutli, made like a man out of the dough of wild amaranth seeds, and covered and decorated with innumerable white papers. Into the head of the image were stuck strips of paper instead of hair; sashes of paper crossed the body from each shoulder; on the arms were pieces of paper like wings, painted over with figures of sparrow-hawks; a maxtli of paper covered the loins; and a kind of paper shirt or tabard covered all. Great strips of paper, half a fathom broad and ten fathoms long, floated from the feet of the dough god half way down the tree; and into his head were struck three rods with a tamale or small pie on the top of each. The tree being now prepared with all these things, ten ropes were attached to the middle of it, and by the help of the above-mentioned trestles and a large crowd pulling all together, the whole structure was reared into an upright position and there fixed, with great shouting and stamping of feet.
Then came all those that had captives to sacrifice; they came decorated for dancing, all the body painted yellow (which is the livery color of the god), and the face vermilion. They wore a mass of the red plumage of the parrot, arranged to resemble a butterfly, and carried shields covered with white feathers and as it were the feet of tigers or eagles walking. Each one went dancing side by side with his captive. These captives had the body painted white, and the face vermilion, save the cheeks which were black; they were adorned with papers, much, apparently, as the dough image was, and they had white feathers on the head and lip-ornaments of feathers. At set of sun the dancing ceased; the captives were shut up in the calpulli, and watched by their owners, not being even allowed to sleep. About midnight every owner shaved away the hair of the top of the head of his slave, which hair, being fastened with red thread to a little tuft of feathers, he put in a small case of cane, and attached to the rafters of his house, that every one might see that he was a valiant man and had taken a captive. The knife with which this shaving was accomplished was called the claw of the sparrow-hawk. At daybreak the doomed and shorn slaves were arranged in order in front of the place called Tzompantli, where the skulls of the sacrificed were spitted in rows. Here one of the priests went along the row of captives taking from them certain little banners that they carried and all their raiment or adornment, and burning the same in a fire; for raiment or ornament these unfortunates should need no more on earth. While they were standing thus all naked and waiting for death, there came another priest, carrying in his arms the image of the god Paynal and his ornaments; he ran up with this idol to the top of the cu Tlacacouhcan where the victims were to die. Down he came, then up again, and as he went up the second time the owners took their slaves by the hair and led them to the place called Apetlac and there left them. Immediately there descended from the cu those that were to execute the sacrifice, bearing bags of a kind of stupefying incense called yiauhtli,[IX-36] which they threw by handfuls into the faces of the victims to deaden somewhat their agonies in the fearful death before them. Each captive was then bound hand and foot and so carried up to the top of the cu where smouldered a huge heap of live coal. The carriers heaved their living burdens in; and the old narrative gives minute details about the great hole made in the sparkling embers by each slave, and how the ashy dust rose in a cloud as he fell. As the dust settled the bound bodies could be seen writhing and jerking themselves about in torment on their soft dull-red bed, and their flesh could be heard crackling and roasting. Now came a part of the ceremony requiring much experience and judgment; the wild-eyed priests stood grappling-hook in hand biding their time. The victims were not to die in the fire, the instant the great blisters began to rise handsomely over their scorched skins it was enough, they were raked out. The poor blackened bodies were then flung on the 'tajon' and the agonized soul dismissed by the sacrificial breast-cut (from nipple to nipple, or a little lower); the heart was then torn out and cast at the feet of Xiuhtecutli, god of fire.
CLIMBING FOR THE GOD.
This slaughter being over, the statue of Paynal was carried away to its own cu and every man went home to eat. And the young men and boys, all those called quexpaleque,[IX-37] because they had a lock of hair at the nape of the neck, came, together with all the people, the women in order among the men, and began at mid-day to dance and to sing in the court-yard of Xiuhtecutli; the place was so crowded that there was hardly room to move. Suddenly there arose a great cry, and a rush was made out of the court toward the place where was raised the tall tree already described at some length. Let us shoulder our way forward, not without risk to our ribs, and see what we can see: there stands the tall pole with streamers of paper and the ten ropes by which it was raised dangling from it. On the top stands the dough image of the fire god, with all his ornaments and weapons, and with the three tamales sticking out so oddly above his head. Ware clubs! we press too close; shoulder to shoulder in a thick serried ring round the foot of the pole stand the 'captains of the youths' keeping the youngsters back with cudgels, till the word be given at which all may begin to climb the said pole for the great prize at the top. But the youths are wild for fame; old renowned heroes look on; the eyes of all the women of the city are fixed on the great tree where it shoots above the head of the struggling crowd; glory to him who first gains the cross-beam and the image. Stand back, then, ye captains, let us pass! There is a rush, and a trampling, and despite a rain of blows, all the pole with its hanging ropes is aswarm with climbers, thrusting each other down. The first youth at the top seizes the idol of dough; he takes the shield and the arrows and the darts and the stick atalt for throwing the darts; he takes the tamales from the head of the statue, crumbles them up, and throws the crumbs with the plumes of the image down into the crowd; the securing of which crumbs and plumes is a new occasion for shouting and scrambling and fisticuffs among the multitude. When the young hero comes down with the weapons of the god which he has secured, he is received with far-roaring applause and carried up to the cu Tlacacouhcan, there to receive the reward of his activity and endurance, praises and jewels and a rich mantle not lawful for another to wear, and the honor of being carried by the priests to his house, amid the music of horns and shells. The festivity is over now; all the people lay hold on the ropes fastened to the tree, and pull it down with a crash that breaks it to pieces, together, apparently, with all that is left of the wild-amaranth-dough image of Xiuhtecutli.[IX-38]