A note on the position and extent of the great temple enclosure of Tenochtitlan,: and the position, structure and orientation of the Teocolli of Huitzilopochtli.Maudslay, Alfred Percival
History
A note on the position and extent of the great temple enclosure of Tenochtitlan,: and the position, structure and orientation of the Teocolli of Huitzilopochtli.
Maudslay, Alfred Percival
Huitzilopochtli (Aztec deity); Indian architecture -- Mexico; Mexico City (Mexico) -- Antiquities
The Devil was not contented with the Teocallis already described, but in
every town and in each suburb, at a quarter of a league apart, they had
other small courts where there were three or four small Teocallis, in
some of them more, and in others only one, and on every rock or hillock
one or two, and along the roads and among the maize fields there were
many other small ones, and all of them were covered with plaster and
white, so that they showed up and bulked large, and in the thickly
peopled country it appeared as though it was all full of houses,
especially of the Courts of the Devil, which were wonderful to behold,
and there was much to be seen when one entered into them, and the most
important, above all others, were those of Texcoco and Mexico.
SAHAGUN, FR. BERNADINO DE (Bustmamante Edition), p. 194. Report of the
Mexicans about their God Vitzilopuchtli. [Huitzilopochtli,
Huichilobos.]
The Mexicans celebrate three festivals to Vitzilopuchtli every year, the
first of them in the month named Panquetzaliztli. During this festival
[dedicated] to him and others, named Tlacavepancuexcotzin, they ascend
to the top of the Cue, and they make life-size images out of tzoalli:
when these are completed, all the youths of Telpuchcalli carry them on
their hands to the top of the Cue. They make a statue of Vitzilopuchtli
in the district [barrio] named Itepeioc[A]. The statue of
Tlacavepancuexcotzin was made in that of Vitznaoao[14]. They first
prepare the dough and afterwards pass all the night in making the
statues of it.
After making the images of the dough, they worshipped them as soon as it
was dawn and made offerings to them during the greater part of the day,
and towards evening they began ceremonies and dances with which they
carried them to the Cue, and at sunset they ascended to the top of it.
After the images were placed in position, they all came down again at
once, except the guardians [named] Yiopuch.
As soon as dawn came the God named Paynal, who was the Vicar of
Vitzilopuchtli, came down from the lofty Cu, and one of the priests,
clad in the rich vestments of Quetzalcoatl, carried this God
(Vitzilopuchtli) in his hands, as in a procession, and the image of
Paynal (which was carved in wood and, as has already been stated, was
richly adorned) was also brought down.
In this latter festival there went in front of [the image] a
mace-bearer, who carried on his shoulder a sceptre in the shape of a
huge snake, covered all over with a mosaic of turquoise.
When the Chieftain arrived with the image at a place named Teutlachco,
which is the game of Ball [that is at the Tlachtli court], which is
inside the Temple courtyard, they killed two slaves in front of him, who
were the images [representatives] of the Gods named Amapantzitzin, and
many other captives. There the procession started and went direct to
Tlaltelulco.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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