44 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



turn it was to do fo, and the moft refpe&able officers of 

 the temple attended at it. To the fun they made daily 

 new offerings, four times during the day, and five times 

 during the night. For incenfe they generally made ufe 

 of copal, or fome other aromatic gum ; but on certain 

 feftivals they employed Chapopotli, or bitumen of Judea. 

 The cenfers were commonly made of clay ; but they had 

 alfo cenfers of gold. Every day the priefts, or at leaft 

 fome of them, dyed their whole bodies with ink made of 

 the foot of the OcotI, which is a fpecies of pine very aro- 

 matic, and over the ink they painted thcmfelves with 

 ochre or cinnabar, and every evening they bathed in 

 ponds which were within the inclofure of the temple. 



The drefs of the Mexican priefts was no way different 

 from the drefs of the common people, except a black 

 cotton mantle, which they wore in the manner of a veil 

 upon their heads ; but thofe who in their monafteries 

 profeffed a greater aufterity of life, went always clothed 

 in black, like the common priefts of other nations of the 

 empire. They never fhaved, by which means the hair 

 of many of them grew fo long as to reach to their legs. 

 It was twifted with thick cotton cords, and bedaubed 

 with ink, forming a weighty mafs not lefs inconvenient 

 to be carried about with them than difgufting and even 

 horrid to view. 



Befides the ufual unction with ink, another extraor- 

 dinary and more abominable one was pra&ifed every 

 time they went to make facrifices on the tops of the 

 mountains, or in the dark caverns of the earth. They 

 took a large quantity of poifonous infedl:|| fuch as fcor- 

 pions, fpiders, and worms, and fometimes even fmall 

 ferpents, burned them over fome ftove of the temple, 

 and beat their afhes in a mortar together with the foot 

 of the Ocotlj tobacco, the herb Qloliubqui, and fome live 



infects. 



