Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/174

 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 Tezcoco, 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 in his diurnal course, and that evil spirits would descend to destroy mankind!

"On the last day of the great cycle 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 precious destroyed as useless in the approaching ruin. In this mad superstition, 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 "" was commenced. The priests put on the garments of the various idols, and followed by the sad and bewildered 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 by 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 return! 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,