HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



61 



Some fafts were general and obferved by the whole 

 people ; namely, the faft of five days before the feftival 

 of Mixcoatl, which was obferved even by children ; the 

 faft of four days before the feftival of Tezcatlipoca, and 

 alfo as we fufpe£t, that which was made previous to the 

 feftival of the fun (Y). During this faft the king retired 

 into a certain place of the temple, where he watched 

 and flied blood, according to the cuftom of his nation. 

 Any other fafts bound only particular individuals, fuch 

 as that which was obferved by the proprietors of vic- 

 tims the day before a facrifice. The proprietors of pri- 

 foners which were facrificed to the god Xipe, failed 

 twenty days. The nobles as well as the king had a 

 houfe within the precin&s of the temple, containing nu- 

 merous chambers, where they occafionally retired to do 

 penance. On one of the feftivals, all thofe perfons who 

 exercifed public offices, after their daily duty was over, 

 retired there at evening for this purpofe. In the third 

 month the Tlamacazqui, or penance-doers watched every 

 night ; and in the fourth month they were attended in 

 their duty by the nobility. 



In Mixteca, where there were many monafteries, the 

 firft-born fons of lords, before they took poffeflion of 

 their eftates, were fubje&ed to a rigorous penance du- 

 ring a whole year. They conducted the heir with a nu- 

 merous attendance to a monaftery, where they ftripped 

 off his garments, and clothed him in rags daubed over 

 with olU 9 or elaftic gum, rubbed his face, belly, and back, 

 with ftinking herbs, and delivered a fmall lance of itztli 



to 



(s) The faft which was held in honour of the fun was called Netonatiuhza- 

 hualoy or Netonatiuhzahualitzli. Dr. Hernandez fays, it was held every two 

 hundred, or three hundred days. We fufpect that it was kept on the day I 

 Otin> which occurred every two hundred and fixty days. 



