Page:Mexican Archæology.djvu/201

Rh stain, and your father and mother Quetzalcoatl formed you even as a precious stone and as a jewel of gold of great price." In the case of a boy, miniature weapons were prepared for the ceremony, as an indication that he was born a warrior, while for a girl a small set of weaving-utensils was made, the symbols of her

future status as a housewife. Sahagun states that some ancestral name was given by the midwife, and other accounts allege that the name was first pronounced by certain small children invited for the purpose. Calendrical names, taken from the child's birthday, were very common, especially among the Mixtec, but names of animals were often conferred upon boys, of flowers upon girls. Animal names were especially common among the Tarascans. Children, no matter what their