Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/203

Rh all kinds, cooked foods, honey and honey and nut pastes, every sort of earthern ware, and copper, brass and tin, furniture such as tables, benches, cradles—but why do I waste words when I can not note down the details of this great market! Before turning from these sights Cortes said to Fray Bartolome de Olmedo, "We should, perhaps, take this opportunity to ask permission to build our church here"; to which the padre answered that it would be excellent, if Montezuma would grant it, but it seemed to him overhasty to make the proposition now when probably the monarch would be little disposed to it. Cortes then asked the favor of seeing the idols and teules. After Montezuma had spoken to his chief priests, we entered a small tower in which there were two altars with richly wrought carvings. On each altar stood a figure, gigantic, very fat, and that on the right represented their god of war, Huitzilopochtli. This idol had a very broad face with terrible eyes, and was covered with precious stones, gold and pearls. Great snakes, likewise made of gold and precious stones, girdled the body of the monster, which in one hand held a bow, in the other a bunch of arrows. A small figure standing by its side they said was his page, at any rate it held the idol's short lance and shield decorated with gold and jewels. Round the neck of Huitzilopochtli were