64 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



ration, the chief, attended by all thofe who had courage 

 to attempt this penitential duty, the number of whom 

 ufed to exceed two hundred, afcended the very lofty 

 mountain Matlalcueje, on the top of which was a fanc- 

 tuary, confecrated to the goddefs of water. The Arch- 

 cauhtli mounted to the top to make his oblation of gems, 

 precious feathers, and copal, while the others waited in 

 the middle of the afcent, praying their goddefs to give 

 them ftrength and courage to go through their penance. 

 They afterwards defcended from the mountain, and 

 caufed a number of little knives of itztli, and a great 

 quantity of fmall rods of different thickneffes to be 

 made. The labourers upon thofe inftruments fafted 

 five days before they began their work, and if any little 

 knife or rod happened to break, it was accounted a bad 

 omen, and the workman was confidered to have broke 

 the faft. The Tlamacazqui then began their fan 1 , which 

 did not laft lefs than one hundred and fixty days. The 

 firft day they bored holes in their tongues, through 

 which they drew the little rods, and notwithstanding the 

 exceffive pain and lofs of blood which they fufFered, 

 they were obliged all the while to fmg aloud fongs to 

 their god, and every twenty days this cruel operation 

 was repeated. When the firft eighty days of the faft 

 of the priefts were elapfed, a general faft, from which 

 even the heads of the republic were not exempted, be- 

 gan with the people, and continued an equally long time. 

 During this period, no perfon was allowed to bathe, 

 nor to eat pepper, which was the ufual feafoning of all 

 their diflies. ^To fuch exceffes and crueltv did fanati- 

 cifm carry thofe nations. 



All that we have hitherto related does not fo much 

 make known the religion of the Mexicans, and the ex- 

 travagance 



