Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/300

232 putting on the head of the little boys something white, fastened among the locks at the back part of the head; as to the little girls,-they wore hanging down from the girdle a very slender cord, to which a small shell was attached, which happened to be found placed exactly above the sexual parts. It was regarded as a great fault and a very wrong action to remove these things from the little girls before their baptism, which was always administered between three and twelve years, and they were never married before. When any one desired to have his child baptized, he went to the priest and communicated his intention to him; the priest published the baptism throughout the community, taking care always that the ceremony should not fall on an unlucky day. This done, he who had made the proposition, and who consequently took charge of the feast, chose at his fancy one of the chief men of the place, in order to aid him in all that had reference to it. After that it was the custom to choose still four others from among the oldest and most honorable, who assisted the priest in his duties on the day of the feast. This choice was always made with the consent ot the priest himself. The fathers of all the infants to be baptized had an equal part in this election, for the feast was a resort for all. To those who had been chosen to accompany the priest they gave the title of Chac. During the three days preceding the ceremony the fathers of the children, as well as these officers, abstained from intercourse with their wives.

On the day designated all assembled at the house of him who gave the feast, bringing with them the children to be baptized. They ranged them in the court or a place in the house, which had been swept and ornamented with leaves; the boys placed themselves on one side, under the charge of a man who filled the office of godfather in regard to them; and on the other side the girls, to whom they appointed a matron to take care of them, When this was completed the priest busied himself with purifying the house, dispelling the evil spirit from the place. For this purpose they placed a small bench at the four corners of the court; the four Chacs seated themselves stretching a cord from one to the other in such a manner that the children remained in some sort confined in the center, after which the fathers all together, who had observed the fast until this time, passed the cord to enter into the inclosure. In the center there was another bench, where the priest was seated, having beside a brazier with bruised maize and incense.