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Show ' H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. towards all. He had two temples in Me i o, where a fefl:ival was held in the th irteenth month. Omac. tl was the god of mi rth. Upon occarion of any public re-joicing, or any gre, t ka~ o~· the ~exic~:~ lords, the~ imagi11e.cl they would certainly mtct w1th Lome dtfdl:er d· they neglec c~ to b111g the imarre of this pod from the temple aud fet it up at the feal1:. Tonantzin (our mother) I take to be the fame with the goddefs Centeotl, whom we have mentioned before. She had a temple upon a mountain, about three miles from Mexico towards the north, whither the nations came in crowds to worlhip her, with a wonderful number of [.1crifices. At the foot of that hill is now the moil: £'lmous fanctuary in the new world, dedicated to the true God; where people from the moil: remote countries affcmble to worlhip the celebrated and truly miraculous image of the mol1: Holy Lady of Guada/oupe ; thus converting a place of abomination into a mercy-feat, where religion has diftributed its favours, for the benefit of thofe nations, in the place that has been 11:ained with the blood of fo many of their ancefi:ors. Teteoinan was the mother of the gods, which the word itfelf lignifies. As the Mexicans called themfelves the children of the gods, they gave to this goddefs the name likewife of 'I'ocitzin, that is, our grand-mother. I have already fpoken of the origin and deification of this pretended mother of the gods in the fecond book, where I gave an account of the tragical death of the princefs of Colhuacan. 1 his goddefs had a temple in Mexico, where a moft folemn fcafl: was held in the eleventh month. She was particularly adored by the Tlafcalans ; and midwives worfhipped her as their protechefs. Almoft all the Spanilh writers confound her with Tonantzin, but they are cer-tainly different. Ilamateuali, for whom the Mexicans had a feaft upon the third day of the feve~eenth month, feems to have been the goddefs of age. Her name means nothing more than Old Lady. Tepitoton (little ones), was the name given by the Mexicans to their penates, or hou{hold gods, and the images that reprefented them. Of thefe little images, the kings and great lords had always fix in their houfes, the nobles four, and the lower people two. They were to be feen every where in the public O:reets. Befides H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. Befitlcs thefe gods which were the moll: confidcrable, and fome others which we omit, that we may not tire the reader, there were two hundreti an~ fixty, to which as many days were confecrated. Thofe days - ~akc their names from them, and are thofc we find in the firft thirteen months of their calendar. ' The Mexican gods were generally the L'lme with thofe of the other nations of Anahuac; differing only in their greater or lefs cclebrtt . r. f 1 . . y, 111 10me o t 1ct.r ntes, and fometimes in their names. The god the moft celebrated m Mexico was }luitzilopodJt/i; in Cholula and H uexotzinco, ff<.!fetzakoat/; among the Totonacas, Ct:nteot/; and among th~ Otomies, lvlt:xcoatl. The Tlafcalans, although the cr.:1fl:ant enemies of the Mex1cans, adored the fame gods ; and even their mofl: f.tvoured deity was the very Huitilopochtli of the Mexicans but under th~ name of Camaxtle. The people of Tezcuco, as allies, 'friends, and nc1ghbours, conformed almoft entirely with the Mexicans. The number of .the in~ages by which thofe falfe gods were reprefented, and worOupped m the temples, the houfes, the fl:reets, and the woods, were infinite. Zumarraga, firll: bifhop of Mexico aHirms that the 1· rancifcans had, in the courfe of eight years, broken ~ore tba1~ twenty thouf..tnd idols; but that number is t~·ifling compared to thofe o~ the capital only. They were generally made of clay, and certain kmds of ftone and wood; but fometimes too of gold and other metals : an~ there were ~ome of gems. In a high mountain of Achiauhtla, in M1~teca,. BenedH.:t Fernandez, a celebrated Dominican miilionary, found a httle 1d~l called by the Miztecas the IJeart of t!Je people. It was a v~ry precious emerald, four inches long and two inches broad, upon whtch was engraved the figure of a bird, and round it that of a little fnake. The Spaniards offered fifteen hundred fequins for it; but the z"'alon~ mi01on:u·y before all the people, and with great folemnity reduced 1t to powder. The moft extraordinary idol of the Mexicans was that of -:ruitzilopochtli, which was made of certain feeds pafi:ed together With human blood. Almofi: all their idols were coarfe and hideous from the .f:mtafi:icul parts of which they were compofcd in order to reprefcnt theil' attributes and employments. Tl~c divinity of thofc falie gods were acknowl edg~d by pmyers, kneelmg and proftrations, ·with vmvs, f.'\{ts, and other aufl:erities. L 1 2 with 25~ B.._O__O_K_. _V__I , SecT. VIIT. Their idols a11d the m:tn. ncr of worihip ping their got!s. |