150 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 102 



for further supplies of men, arms, and munitions suitable for such 

 an undertaking. 



422. First came portentous omens, as the histories tell us, viz : 

 the idol of Cholula announced to Motezuma that a people from abroad 

 would take his kingdom from him; the King of Texcoco, who was 

 a great wizard, predicted hardships and misfortunes for him, and so 

 did all the wizards and soothsayers of his kingdom. So the King 

 ordered a huge rock to be brought, for solemn sacrifices to be offered 

 upon it, to appease his gods; and when a large force had gone to get 

 it, a voice was heard — which was not the will of the Most High — to 

 the effect that they should sacrifice upon it ; and when he had ordered 

 them to do so in that spot, the same voice was heard again, saying 

 that as a sign that this was its will, it would allow itself to be carried 

 away, and that later they would not be able to move it. It did allow 

 itself to be taken to the environs of the city, and there it dropped into 

 a canal and they never saw it again, except in its original location. 

 There appeared in the sky a great flame like a pyramid, at midnight, 

 and it lasted till the morning at sunrise and it kept going till noon, and 

 that lasted a year. A comet came into view at midday and sailed 

 across from W. to E., leaving a trail of great sparks. The great Lake 

 of Mexico boiled up and many houses collapsed though there was 

 neither earthquake nor wind. On the lake fishermen found a bird as 

 large as a stork, which they brought to the King; it had on its head 

 a sort of mirror in which could be seen at noon the sky and the stars 

 and men warring against the Mexican kingdom ; and when they had 

 summoned the soothsayers to interpret the mystery, it disappeared. 

 An eagle seized a farmer in its talons and carried him off to a cave 

 and showed him King Motezuma asleep and told him to touch him ; 

 but as they held him in such reverence, he did not dare to ; but the 

 voice told him to go up to him without fear ; that it was now time 

 for him to pay for his tyrannical acts and for having himself wor- 

 shiped as a god. The voice commanded him to take the King's 

 incense-rod (pebete) which he was holding in his hand and burn his 

 thigh with it ; that he would not feel it ; and so it happened. Then 

 the voice bade the farmer tell the King about this ; and when he had 

 done so, the King discovered that he had a burn on his thigh (as he 

 had been told) without having felt it, and he was much disturbed by 

 it. And many other omens came to pass, which may be seen in the 

 history of that kingdom written by Father Joseph de Acosta of the 

 Company of Jesus, on folio 514, and in other historians. 



