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Show Sr.C T· vr. Thr g<>o!S l.lf w.ir. II I s T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C d. J oaltici tl (nightly phyfician), goddefs of cradles; to whom.; they lil~~wifc rcconJmended their children to be taken c:~re of, part1cularly m the night time. . Huit:l ilopochtli, or Mexitli, was the god of wm-; the de1ty the. moO: honoured by the Mexicans, and their chief proteCtor (q), f th1s god fume fc1id he was a pure fpirit, others that he was born of a woman, bLlt without the afEftance of a man, and defcribed his ·birth in the fol lowing manner. There lived, faid they, in Coate~e , a place ncar to the ancient city of Tu!a, a woman called Coatltcue, moth~r of the c~utzonhut'znabuis, who was extremely devoted to the wodh1p of the go'ds. One day as {he was empl~yed, acco~din? to her. ufual cuftom, in walking in the temple, !he beheld defcen~m~ 111 the ~ur, a ~all m~de of various feathers. She feized it and kept 1t 111 her bofom, mtend1ng :1fterwards to employ the feathers in decoration of the altar; but ~vhen {]1e wanted it after her walk was at an end, {]1e could not find 1t, at whi h !he was extremely furprifed, and het· wonder was very greatly increafed when !he began to perceive from that moment that !he was pregnant. Her pregnancy advanced till it was di~ overed by her chi} .• dren, who, although they could not themfelves fufpeCt their mother's virtue, yet fearing the difgrace !he would fuffer upon her delivery, detcnnined to prevent it by putting her to death. They could not _takc their refolut ion fo fecretly as to conceal it from their mother~ who while {he wai in deep affiietion at the thoughts of dying by the ha11ds of her own children, heard an unexpected voice iffue from her womb, faying, " Be not afraid nlother, tor I lhall fave you with the greatcfl: honour to yourfelf, and glory to me." Her hard-hearted fons, guided and encouraged by their fifter Cqjolxauhqui, who had been the moll: keenly bent upon the deed, were now juft upon the point of executing their purpofe, when Huitzilopochtli was born, with a !hield in his ('}) Huitzr1o}'rhtli is a conll>OUnll of t\VO words, vi:t. Hllitzilir~, the n\cmming. bird, n~HI 'Opotbtli, left. It w:as fo called from hie image having the fc:athcrs of the: little bml uponm left foot. lloturini knowing little of the Mexican langunge, derives the nnmc from ]]Mit:f.itoll the lender of the Mexicans in their pilgrimage, <lnd take& this leader ~nd the gO<I to have been the fame pcrfon. Bdides t'hnt fuch an etymology i8 ovcr.flrained, chat pretended idcmicy is t{\>ite ti'nknuwn to the Mexicans thcmfclvcs, who when they hegim their pilgrrmage l>ndcr tho c1mdult of Huitzlton, had long before, from time imm~morial, worfhippcd the god of w~r: •he $pnniarcls being unable to pronounce the word, called him HrfitUID/HJJ. left (' HISTORY OF MEXICO left hand, a fpear in h~s right, and a cr 11: of green feathers on his head; his left leg ad8rned with feathers, and his face, arms, and thighs ftreak.ed with blue lines. As foon as he came into the world he difplayed a twifl:ed pjne, and commanded one of his foldiers called Tochancalqui, to fell with it Cojol;cauhqui, as the one who had been the moil: guilty; and he himfelf attacked the re1l: with fo much fury that, in fpite of their efforts, their arms, or their in treaties, he killed them ~11, plundered their houfcQ, and prcfcnted the fpoils to his mother. Man kind were fo terrified by this event, that from that time they callclj him 'I'etzahuitl, terror, and Tetzauhteotl, terrible god. This was the god wl~o, as they faid, becoming the proteCtor of the Mexicans, conduCted them for fo many years in their pilgrimage, an1~ at length f~ttlcd them where they afterwards founded the great city of Mexico. 'I here they raifed to him that fuperb temple fo much celebrated even by the Spaniards, in which were annually holden three folemn fefl:ivals in the fifth, ninth, and fifteenth months; befides thofe kept every four years, every thirteen years, and at the beginning of every century. His il:atlle was of gigantic fi ze, in the po1l:ure of a man feated on a blue-c0loured bench, from the four corners of which ifi'ued four huge 1i1akes. His forehead was blue, but his face was covered with a golden mafk, while another of the fame kind covered the back of his he~d . Upon .his head he carried a beautiful creft, fhaped like th~ beak of a bird; upon his neck a collar confi!l:ing of ten figures of the human heart; in his right hand, a large, blue, twit1cd club ; jn his left, a !hield, on which appeared five balls of feathers difl)o[ed in the form of a crofs, and from the upper part of the !hield rofc a golden flag with four arrowR, which the Mexicans pretended to have been fent t? them from heaven to perform thofe glorious aCtions which we have feen in their hi!l:ory. His body was girt with a hlrge golden Jnake, and adorned with various lefi'er figures of animals made of gold and p1·ecious fl:ones, which ornaments and in!ignia had each their po. culiar meaning. They never deliberated upon making war withou t imploring the protection of this god, with prayers and facrifices; and ·offered up a greater number of human victims to him than to any other of the gods. Tla<.:a- .. BOOK VI. ~ |
