Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 1.djvu/124

 110 spirits of women who died in child-birth, went at once to the "house of the sun" to enjoy a life of eternal pleasure. At dawn they hailed the rising orb with song and dances, and attended him to the meridian and his setting with music and festivity. The Aztecs believed that, after some years spent amid these pleasures, the beatified spirits of the departed were changed into clouds or birds of beautiful plumage, though they had power to ascend again whenever they pleased to the heaven they had left. There was another place called Tlalocan the dwelling place of Tlaloc, the deity of water, which was also an Aztec elysium. It was the spirit-home of those who were drowned or struck by lightning,—of children sacrificed in honor of Tlaloc,—and of those who died of dropsy, tumors, or similar diseases. Last of all, was Mictlan, a gloomy hell of perfect darkness, in which, incessant night, unilluminated by the twinkling of a single ray, was the only punishment, and the probable type of annihilation.

The figure which is delineated in the plate representing Teoyaomiqui, is cut from a single block of basalt, and is nine feet high and five and a half broad. It is a horrid assemblage of hideous emblems. Claws, fangs, tusks, skulls and serpents, writhe and hang in garlands around the shapeless mass. Four open hands rest, apparently without any purpose, upon the bared breasts of a female. In profile, it is not unlike a squatting toad, whose glistening eyes and broad mouth expand above the cincture of skulls and serpents. Seen in this direction it appears to have more shape and meaning than in front. On the top of the statue there is a hollow, which was probably used as the receptacle of offerings or incense during sacrifice. The bottom of this mass is also sculptured in relief, and as it will be observed in the plate, that there are projections of the body near the waist, it is supposed that this frightful idol was suspended by them aloft on pillars, so that its worshippers might pass beneath the massive stone.

In 1790, this idol was found buried in the great square of Mexico, whence it was removed to the court of the university; but as the priests feared that it might again tempt the Indians to their ancient worship, it was interred until the year 1821, since which time it has been exhibited to the public.