FIRE WORSHIP. 129 
through the utter carelessness and neglect of the authorities of the place. 
The same fate was shared by another astronomical erection, which was 
found on the hill of Tezcosingo, on the eastern side of the lake of Tez- 
coco. to which I shall have occasion to allude in an account of a visit I 
paid to the pyramids of St. Juan Teotihuacan. 
These are the few hasty and very imperfect sketches I have collected, 
to illustrate one branch of the art and science of these people ; and I will 
conclude them by an account of a singular superstition which is related 
by the Baron Humboldt to have existed, in regard to the termination of 
their cycle of 52 years. They firmly believed that the sun would return 
no more on his diurnal course, and that evil spirits would descend to 
destroy mankind ! 
" On the last day of the greatcycle the sacred fires were extinguished 
in all their temples and dwellings, and the people devoted themselves to 
prayer. At the approach of night no one dared to kindle a flame — their 
vessels of clay were broken, their garments rent, and whatever was pre- 
cious destroyed as useless in the approaching ruin. In this mad super- 
stition, pregnant women became the objects of peculiar horror to men ; 
they covered their faces with paper masks, they imprisoned them in their 
granaries; and believed that when the final catastrophe occurred, these 
unfortunate females, transformed into tigers, would join with the demons 
and avenge themselves for the injustice and cruelty of men. 
" As soon as it became dark on that awful evening, a grand and 
solemn procession of the "New Fire" was commenced. The priests put 
on the garments of the various idols, and followed by the sad and bewild- 
ered people, ascended a hill about six miles from the city. 
" This mournful march was called the " procession of the gods," and 
was supposed to be their final departure from their temples and altars. 
" When the solemn train had reached the top of the hill, it rested until 
the pleiades ascended to the zenith, and then commenced the sacrifice of 
a human victim, stretched on the stone of sacrifice, and covered on the 
breast with a wooden shield which the chief priest inflamed hy friction. 
" The victim received the fatal blow or wound from the usual obsidian 
knife of sacrifice, and as soon as life was extinct, the machine to create 
fire was put in motion on the board over his bosom. When the blaze had 
kindled, the body was thrown on an immense pile, the flames of which 
instantly ascended into the air, and denoted the promise of the sun's re- 
turn ! All who had been unable to join in the sacred procession of the 
departing gods, had climbed to the terraces of houses and the tops of 
Teocallis, whence they strained their eyes toward the spot where the 
hoped-for flame was to appear, and as soon as it burst upon their sight, 
hailed it with joyful shouts and acclamations, as a token of the benevolence 
of the gods and the preservation of their race for another cycle. 
" Runners, placed at regular distances from each other, held aloft 
torches of resinous pine, by which they transferred the new fire to each 
other, and carried it from village to village, throughout the Empire, de- 
