Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/80

74 "Little Quick One," which was borne by the priest at the head of the army in time of war. When this hideous idol was first seen by Europeans, there stood before it a brazier of burning coals in which lay three hearts just torn from the bleeding breasts of human victims.

Humming-Bird had a younger brother, a favorite with the Tezcucans, who was also a war-god. His name, Hacahuepanenexcolzin, is almost as bad as his disposition, and we would not venture to write it except to give one of the curiosities of Mexican spelling. These two gods stood side by side in the old temple in Mexico, fitting representations of the dark-minded priests who made them. "The smell of this place," says Bernal Diaz, an old Spanish soldier whom we shall often quote, "was that of a charnel-house." We cannot wonder that whitewash and scrubbing-brushes were always brought into use when Cortez got possession of one of these bloodstained shrines.

Another prominent figure in Mexican mythology was Tezcaltipoca, "the Hearer of Prayer." His image was of black shining stone. An ear hung by a string from his neck, on which smoke was pictured, whose ascending wreaths represented the prayers of his distressed people. Stone seats were put in some street-corners of Mexico, in the hope that this god would rest upon them when he visited the city. On these sacred seats no one else was permitted to sit.

By far the most interesting character among these gods was that of Quetzalcohuatl, or "Feathered Serpent," the god of the air. Stripped of all the romance with which he is invested, this old hero appears as a tall, fair-faced man of a different race from any of those which