Those who had captives to sacrifice came decorated for dancing, the body painted yellow (the colour of the god), and the face vermilion. They wore the red plumes of the parrot arranged to resemble a butterfly, and carried shields [[274]]covered with white feathers. Each danced side by side with his captive. These had the body painted white, and the face vermilion, save the cheeks, which were black. They were adorned with papers, 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 permitted to sleep. About midnight every owner shaved away part of the hair from the scalp of the head of his captive, which, 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 the house, that everyone might see that he was a valiant man and had taken a captive. The knife with which this shaving was accomplished was known as the claw of the sparrow-hawk. At daybreak the captives were arranged in order in front of the tzompantli, where the skulls of the sacrificed were spitted in rows. A priest walked along the row of captives, taking from them certain little banners that they carried and all their raiment or adornment, which he burnt in a fire. While they stood naked and waiting for death, another priest, carrying in his arms the image of the god Paynal and his ornaments, ran up with this idol to the top of the teocalli known as Tlacacouhcan, where the victims were to die. He descended, then returned to the summit, and as he went up for the second time, the owners took their slaves by the hair and led them to the place called Apetlac, where they left them. The priests who were to perform the sacrifice then descended from the teocalli bearing bags of a narcotic incense called yauhtli (absinthe, wormwood, or mugwort), which they threw by handfuls into the faces of the victims to mitigate their death-agonies. Each captive was then bound hand and foot and carried up to the top of the teocalli. On the summit a great fire burned. Upon this the priests cast the captives, who, when half-roasted, were dragged out with the aid of grappling-hooks and sacrificed by having their hearts torn out. The statue of Paynal was then carried away to its own temple and all returned home. The young men and boys with the women began at midday to dance and to [[275]]sing in the courtyard of Xiuhtecutli. Suddenly they made in a body for the place where the tree already described had been raised. At a given signal all might attempt to scale the pole to reach the dough image at the top. The first youth at the top seized the idol of dough, took the shield and the arrows, the darts and the tamalis from the head of the statue, then threw the crumbs with the plumes of the image down into the crowd, who fought and scrambled for them. When the successful youth descended from the pole with the weapons of the god, he was received with acclamations and carried up to the teocalli Tlacacouhcan, to receive jewels and a rich mantle which no one else might wear, and the honour of being carried to his house by the priests, amid the music of horns and shells. Then the people seized the ropes fastened to the tree and dragged it down.

Izcalli.—The following is a digest of Sahagun’s description of this festival[7]:

Another feast of the god of fire was held in the month yzcalli, the eighteenth month; it was called motlaxquiantota, that is to say, “our father the fire roasts his food.” An image of the god of fire was made, by tying a frame of hoops and sticks together and covering them with his ornaments. On the head of the image was placed a mask of turquoise mosaic, banded across with rows of green chalchihuitls. Upon the mask was put a crown fitting to the head below, wide above, and covered with rich plumage. A wig of reddish hair was attached to this crown so that the locks flowed from below it, behind and around the mask. A robe of feathers covered the front of the image and fell over the ground before the feet. The back of the image was probably left unadorned and was concealed by a throne covered with a jaguar-skin. Before this statue new fire was made at midnight with the fire-stick. The spark obtained was put on the hearth and a fire lit. At break of day boys and youths came with game and fish that they had captured on the previous day. Walking round the fire, they gave it to certain old men that stood there, who, taking it, threw it into the [[276]]flames before the god, giving the youths in return certain tamalis made for this purpose by the women. To eat these tamalis it was necessary to strip off the maize-leaves in which they had been wrapped and cooked; these leaves were not thrown into the fire, but were all put together and thrown into water. After this all the old men of the quarter in which the fire was drank octli and sang before the image of Xiuhtecutli till night. This was the tenth day of the month, and completed that part of the feast which was called vauquitamal­qualiztli.

On the twentieth and last day of the month was made another statue of the Fire-god, on a frame of sticks and hoops. They placed on the head a mask with a ground of mosaic with small pieces of the shell called tapaztli, composed below the mouth of black stones, banded across the nostrils with black stones of another sort, and the cheeks made of a still different stone called tezcapuchtli. As in the previous case, there was a crown on this mask, and over all and over the body of the image costly and beautiful decorations of feather-work. Before the throne on which this statue sat there was a fire, and the youths offered game to and received cakes from the old men with various ceremonies, the day closing with the drinking of octli by the old people, though not to the point of intoxication.

XIUHTECUTLI. (From Codex Magliabecchiano.) XIUHTECUTLI. (From Codex Borbonicus, sheet 23.) CHANTICO. (From Sahagun MS.)
(See p. 280.)

The festivals of this month were usually without human sacrifices, but every fourth year was an exception to this. In such a year, on the twentieth and last day of the month, men and women were slain as images of the god of fire. The women who had to die carried all their apparel and ornaments on their shoulders, and the men did the same. They were decorated to resemble the god of fire; they ascended the teocalli, walked round the sacrificial stone, and then descended and returned to the place where they were to be kept for the night. Each man had a rope tied round the middle of his body, which was held by his guards. At midnight the hair of the crown of the head of each was shaven off before the fire and kept for a relic, and the head itself was covered with a mixture of resin and hen’s feathers. After this the [[277]]victims burned their clothing, or gave it away to their keepers, and as the morning broke they were decorated with papers and led to the place of sacrifice with singing and dancing. These festivities went on till midday, when a priest of the temple, arrayed in the ornaments of the god Paynal, came down, passed before the victims, and then went up again. They were led up after him in the order in which they had to die. There was then a grand dance of the nobles, led by the king himself, each dancer wearing a high-crowned paper coronet, a kind of false nose of blue paper, earrings of turquoise mosaic, or of wood wrought with flowers, a blue, flowered jacket, and a mantle. Suspended from the neck of each was the figure of a dog made of paper and painted with flowers. In the right hand was carried a stick shaped like a chopping-knife, the lower half of which was painted red and the upper half white. In the left hand was carried a little paper bag of copal. The dance was begun on the top of the teocalli, and finished by the dancers descending and going four times round the courtyard of the temple, after which all entered the palace with the king. This dance took place only once in four years, and none but the king and his lords could take part in it. On this day the ears of all children born during the three preceding years were pierced with a bone awl, and the children themselves passed near or through the flames of a fire. There was a further ceremony of taking the children by the head and lifting them up, “to make them grow,” and from this the month took its name, yzcalli, meaning “growth.”

Ce itzcuintli.—Of this movable feast Sahagun says[8]:

“They said that the sign ce itzcuintli was the sign of fire, and on it they made a great feast to Xiuhtecutli, god of fire, to whom they offered copal incense and numbers of quails. They decked his image with paper of different kinds and many rich ornaments. Then the great made high celebration of the event in their houses. It was under this sign that they made election of the king and the consuls, which was celebrated in the fourteenth temple by banquets, dances, [[278]]and great liberality. It was at those feasts that war upon enemies was proclaimed.”

IXCOÇAUHQUI.