of war savored the blood of human victims, 
Mexitli came into the world with a dart in his 
right hand, a buckler in his left, and his head 
covered with a helmet crowned with green fea- 
thers ; his first feat at his birth was to kill his 
brothers and sisters. Perhaps, under other 
climates, sanguinary rites had been offered to 
this terrible god, called also Tetzahuitl, or the 
terrific ; perhaps this worship had a respite only 
because prisoners were wanting, and consequent- 
ly victims ; while the nation, marching under 
the auspices of Mexitli, made a peaceable pro- 
gress across the mountains of Tarahumara to 
the elevated central plain of Mexico. 
The continual wars of the Aztecks, after 
they had fixed their residence! on the islets of 
the salt lake of Tezcuco, furnished them with 
so considerable a number of victims, that hu- 
man sacrifices were offered to all their divini- 
ties without exception, even to Quetzalcoatl 
who, like the Bouddha of the Hindoos, had 
preached against this execrable custom ; and 
to the goddess of the harvests, the Mexican 
Ceres, called Centeotf or Tonacajohua, she who 
feeds mankind. The Totonacks, who had adopt- 
ed the whole of the Tolteck and Azteck my- 
thology, distinguished, as of a different race, 
* Gomara, Chronica general de las Tndias, (edition of 
1553), vol. 2, fol. 134.. 
