26 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



as allies, friends, and neighbours, conformed almoft en- 

 tirely with the Mexicans. 



The number of the images by which thofe falfe gods 

 were reprefented, and worfhipped in the temples, the 

 houfes, the ftreets, and the woods, were infinite. Zu- 

 marraga, ftrfl bifhop of Mexico, affirms, that the Fran- 

 cifcans had, in the courfe of eight years, broken more 

 than twenty thoufand idols ; but that number is trifling 

 compared to thofe of the capital only. They were ge- 

 nerally made of clay, and certain kinds of ftone and 

 wood ; but fometimes too of gold and other metals : and 

 there were fome of gems. In a high mountain of 

 Achiauhtla, in Mizteca, Benedict Fernandez, a cele- 

 brated Dominican miflionary, found a little idol called 

 by the Miztecas the heart of the people. It was a very 

 precious emerald, four inches long and two inches broad, 

 upon which 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 zealous miflionary be- 

 fore all the people, and with great folemnity reduced it 

 to powder. The moft extraordinary idol of the Mexi- 

 cans was that of Huitzilopochtli, which was made of 

 certain feeds pafted together with human blood. Al- 

 moft all their idols were coarfe and hideous from the 

 fantaftical parts of which they were compofed in order 

 to reprefent their attributes and employments. 



The divinity of thofe falfe gods was acknowledged 

 by prayers, kneeling and proftrations, with vows, fafts, 

 and other aufterities, with facrifices and offerings, and 

 various rites, fome common to other nations, and others 

 peculiar to the Mexican religion alone. They prayed 

 generally upon their knees, with their faces turned to- 

 wards the eaft, and therefore made their fan&uaries with 



the 



