Page:Young Folks History Of Mexico.pdf/168

162 in Cholula it was Quetzalcoatl; among the Totonacs, Centeotl; and among the Otomies it was Mixcoatl.

They were made of clay, and of stone, often of gold, and sometimes of gems. One of the first Spanish missionaries to the Miztecs found one cut from a precious emerald, which, refusing all offers for it, he ground to powder Many thousands were destroyed by the monks and priests, after the Spanish invasion, but many were preserved and may be seen to-day. In the famous Mexican museum, in the capital of Mexico, you may find the images



of Huitzilopochtli, of Tezcatlipoca, Mictlanteuctli, and a host of minor deities, in a good state of preservation. Cast down from his high position at the destruction of the teocalli, Huitzilopochtli lay buried for many years, but was finally exhumed, in the year 1790, and set up in a court of the museum, no longer an object of worship, but of curiosity.

The Mexicans prayed upon their knees, with their faces toward the east, and performed fasts, penances, and sacrifices like other superstitious nations. We have already mentioned how it was that the Mexicans had so many gods—because they adopted those of the people they conquered; but besides the temples they erected to them they also had a great, cage-like prison, where they confined the idols of many conquered nations!