HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



97 



born for war (if his father belonged to the army), may 

 he die in it, defending the honour of the gods ; fo may he 

 enjoy in heaven the delights which are prepared for all 

 thofe who facrijice their lives in fo good a caufe. She 

 then put in his little hands the inftruments of that art 

 which he was to exercife, with a prayer addreffed to 

 the protecting god of the fame. The inftruments of 

 the military art were buried in fome fields, where, in 

 future, it was imagined the boy would fight in battle, 

 and the female inftruments were buried in the houfe it- 

 ' felf, under the (tone for grinding maize. On this fame 

 occafion, if we are to credit Boturini, they obferved the 

 ceremony of palling the boy four times through the 

 fire. 



Before they put the inflruments of any art into the 

 hands of the child, the midwife requefted the young 

 boys who had been invited, to give him a name, which 

 was generally fuch a name as had been fuggefted to 

 them by the father. The midwife then clothed him, 

 and laid him in the cozolli, or cradle, praying Joalticitl, 

 the goddefs of cradles, to warm him and guard him in 

 her bofom, and Joalteuctli, god of the night, to make 

 him fleep. 



The name which was given to boys, was generally 

 taken from the fign of the day on which they were 

 born (a rule particularly pra&ifed among the Mixtecas), 

 as Nahuixochitl, or IV Flower, Macuilcoatl, or V Ser- 

 pent, and Omccalli) or II Houfe. At other times the name 

 was taken from circumftances attending the birth ; as for 

 inftance, one of the four chiefs who governed the re- 

 public of Tlafcala, at the time of the arrival of the Spa- 

 niards, received the name of Citlalpopoca, fmoking ftar ; 

 becaufe he was born at the time of a comet's appear- 



Vol. II. N ance 



