Many Chieftains and people came out to receive it, and they burned incense to them [the images] and decapitated many quails before them. Thence they went directly to a place named Popotla, which is near to Tacuba, where now the church of S. Esteban stands, and they gave it another reception like that mentioned above. They carried in front of the procession all the way a banner made of paper like a fly-whisk, all full of holes, and in the holes bunches of feathers, in the same way as a cross is carried in front of a procession. Thence they came direct to the Cu of Vitzilopuchtli, and with the banner they performed another ceremony as above stated in this festival. Account of the Buildings of the Great Temple of Mexico. The court of this Temple was very large, almost two hundred fathoms square; it was all paved, and had within it many buildings and towers. Some of these were more lofty than others, and each one of them was dedicated to a God. The principal tower of all was in the middle and was higher than the others, and was dedicated to the God Vitzilopuchtli Tlacavepancuexcotzin. This tower was divided in the upper part, so that it looked like two, and had two chapels or altars on the top, each one covered by its dome (chapitel) and each one of them had on the summit its particular badges or devices. In the principal one of them was the statue of Vitzilopuchtli, also called Ilhuicatlxoxouhqui, and in the other the image of the God Tlaloc. Before each one of these was a round stone like a chopping-block, which they call Texcatl, where they killed those whom they sacrificed in honour of that God, and from the stone towards the ground below was a pool of blood from those killed on it; and so it was on all the other towers; _these faced the West_, and one ascended by very narrow straight steps to all these towers. (Sahagun mentions seventy-eight edifices in connection with the Great Temple, but it is almost certain that these were not all within the Temple enclosure.) SAHAGUN, Hist. de la Conquista, Book 12, Ch. XXII. They [the Mexicans] ascended a Cu, the one that was nearest to the royal houses [_i. e._ of Axayacatl], and they carried up there two stout beams so as to hurl them from that place on to the royal houses and beat them down so as to force an entry. When the Spaniards observed this they promptly ascended the Cu in regular formation, carrying their muskets and crossbows, and they began the ascent very slowly, and shot with their crossbows and muskets at those above them, a musketeer accompanying each file and then a soldier with sword and shield, and then a halberdier: in this order they continued to ascend the Cu, and those above hurled the timbers down the steps, but they did no damage to the Spaniards, who reached the summit of the Cu and began to wound and kill those who were stationed on the top, and many of them flung themselves down from the Cu: finally, all those [Mexicans] who had ascended the Cu perished.