Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-12-25
ANCIENT MEXICAN FESTIVAL.
A Hun Sacrafice i'm the City OF
Mexico.

Mexican ritual was celebrated in tn
month called Tox.catl, on account OF tn
necklace of cooked corn witch youni
people used to put around the neck
the idol Meizcatllipoca, He had man.
names, as many tributes and was repre-
scented under different forms, Sometime
he was dressed in penitent's clothes,
other times he was covered with al
animals skin. As symbol of Provid nc
he wore eyeglasses which meant n
ought to provide for everything. Ihos'
spectacles are worthy of observation
they can be seen perfectly well on images
of the god. as opticians, used to make
them seventy years ago. In the museum
of the City of Mexico there is a curious
funeral urn on which they can o'
noticed The word Metzcatlipoca, mean
ing brilliant mirror, may be derived IRON
the ey glasses the god wore, thougn M
was represented with the lower part o.
mis- body covered with little metallc mir
rors. Before proceeding, l want to cal
your atte lion to the existence OF eye,
glasses in Mexico before the arrival Of
the Spanierds (l5l9).
Ten days. before the festival, one OF
the priests, dressed in the idols orna.
ments, used to go into the city carrying
in one hand bouquet of flowers, in the
other an earthern fife that gave very
sharp sound. He blew it to the four
winds in order to let the inhabitants
known that they had to celebrate it in
aworthy manner. 1t stopped, afterwards,
and taking little dust he put it on his
lips as sign of humility and alteration.
All those who happened to see him hur-
ried to follow his example, shedding
tears and addressing their prayers and
lamentations to the darkness and the
wind of the night.
Every year, on the eve of the feast,
the chiefs of the nobility used to go to
the temple to present Tetzcatlipoca with
a new set of ornaments. Then the
priests proceeded to undress the idol in
order to clothe him in his new garments
and they loaded him with jewelry and
gave him parasol to protect him from
the rays of the. sun. AS soon as the toi-
let of the god was done, they pulled the
curtain and the deity appeared in his
new apparel. Immediately the minister
who represented bin went out to play
the fife as he had done formerly.
On the day of the festival the nobility
met in the yard of the temple in order to
assist in the procession. The priests
dressed like their god, their heads COW
cred with long wigs tied with white rib.
bons and their faces painted in black,
started, carrying on their shoulders the
sacred palanquin on which the idol
was seated. The girls and the boys of
Tetzcatlipoca monasteries, richly clad
and covered with plumes as well as with
matted flowers of roasted corn, gathered
around the palanquin. They covered
the head and neck of the statue with
the aforesaid flowers, they strewed the
ground with maguey thorns and copal
leaves for the pious ones, who wished to
step on them in order to bleed and thus
accomplish devout action.
The precincts of the great Teocalli
were adorned with verdure and rich
draperies, and the ground was besprin
kled with flowers. The procession
opened with ministers oscillating grace
fully their censors, swinging them at the
idol of the sun, and asking that their
prayers should ascend to heaven like the
smoke of their incense. Thus they
turned around the plaza. Those who
could not join the ecortegeremainedi in the
center, their faces always turned toward
the god as they moved him around, and
whipping their naked flesh with not
ted cord made of maguey threads. The
priests carried their god back into the
chapel and received the flowers offered
by the people, which they piled in
shape of pyramids at the foot of the al
tar. Then they prepared Immediately for
the great sacrifice.
Religious ceremonials were generally
arranged in such manner as to afford a
type of the deity who was the object of
them. Tetzcatlipoca was depicted as
handsome man, endowed with perpetual
youth, so they chose the victim destined
to him among the most illustrious of
their captives. A year before the intend
ed sacrifice, young man, distinguished
for his personal beauty and without
q blemish on his body was selected
to represent this deity. Certain tutors
took charge of him and instructed him
how to perform his new part with be-
coming grace and dignity. He was ar
rayed in splendid cress, regaled with
incense and with profusion of sweet.
scented flowers of which the ancient
Mexicans were as fond as their descend.
ants are at the present day. When he
went abroad he was attended by train
of the royal pages, and, as he halted in
the streets to play some favorite melody,
the crowd Frustrated themselves before
him and did him homage as the repre-
sentative of their deity. In this way he
led an easy, luxurious life till within o
month of his sacrifice. Zone month was
twenty days) Four beautiful girls,
bearing the names of the principal god
desses were then given to him, and with
them he continued to live in idle dali
ance and feasted at the banquets of the
principal mobiles who paid him the hon.
ors of the god whose living image ne
was.
At length the fatal day arrived. The
form of his short.lived glory was at an
end. He was stripped of his gaudy ap.
parel and bade adieu to the fair part.
ners of his revelres. One of the royal
barges transported him acrosS the lake
to temple which rose on its margin
about league from the city, Hither the
inhabitants of the capital hocked to wit
ness the consummatlon of the ceremony
As the sad procession wound up the
sides of the pyramid the unhappy vic.
tim threw away his gay caplets OF flow
ers and broke in pieces tho musical in.
struments with which he has solaced the
hours of captivity. On the summit he
was received by six priests, whose long
and matted locks flowed disorderly over
their sable robes. severed with hierogly-
phic scrolls of mystic import. They led
him to the sacritioal stone called tech
cati, huge block of jasper, with its up
per surface somewhat convex. On this
the prisoner was stretched. Five priests
secured his head and limbs. while
the high priest, after bowling
respectfully to the wreothed man
cut his breast with sharp
razor, itztil, volcanic substance
hard as flint, and inserting his
hand in the wound. tore ont the palpi.