20 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



bent upon the deed, were now juft upon the point of 

 executing their purpofe, when Huitzilopochtli was born, 

 with a fhield in his left hand, a fpear in his right, and a 

 creft of green feathers on his head; his left leg adorned 

 with feathers, and his face, arms, and thighs ftreaked 

 with blue lines. As foon as he came into the world he 

 difplayed a twifted pine, and commanded one of his fol- 

 diers called Tochancalqui, to fell with it Cojolxauhqui, 

 as the one who had been the moft guilty ; and he himfelf 

 attacked the reft with fo much fury that, in fpite of their 

 efforts, their arms, or their intreaties, he killed them all, 

 plundered their houfes, and prefented the fpoils to his 

 mother. Mankind were fo terrified by this event, that 

 from that time they called him Tetzahuitl, terror, and 

 Tetzauhteotl) terrible god. 



This was the god who, as they faid, becoming the 

 protector of the Mexicans, conducted them for fo many 

 years in their pilgrimage, and at length fettled them where 

 they afterwards founded the great city of Mexico. 

 There they raifed to him that fuperb temple fo much 

 celebrated even by the Spaniards, in which were annually 

 holden three folemn feftivals in the fifth, ninth, and fif- 

 teenth months ; befides thofe kept every four years, every 

 thirteen years, and at the beginning of every century. 

 His ftatue was of gigantic fize, in the pofture of a man 

 feated on a blue-coloured bench, from the four corners 

 of which hTued four huge fnakes. His forehead was 

 blue, but his face was covered with a golden mafk, 

 while another of the fame kind covered the back of his 

 head, Upon his head he carried a beautiful creft, ftiaped 

 like the beak of a bird ; upon his neck a collar confid- 

 ing of ten figures of the human heart; in his right hand, 

 a large, blue, twifted club; in his left, a fhield, on which 



appeared 



