[121] Rel. d’un gentil’ huomo, ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 307.--Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS.--Acosta, lib. 5, cap. 13.--Gomara, Crón., cap. 80, ap. Barcia, tom. ii.--Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 1, cap. 4.--Carta del Lic. Zuazo, MS.--This last writer, who visited Mexico immediately after the Conquest, in 1521, assures us that some of the smaller temples, or pyramids, were filled with earth impregnated with odoriferous gums and gold dust; the latter sometimes in such quantities as probably to be worth a million of _castellanos_! (Ubi supra.) These were the temples of Mammon, indeed! But I find no confirmation of such golden reports. [122] [The _teocallis_ could be used as fortresses, as the Spaniards ascertained to their sorrow.] [123] Cod. Tel.-Rem., Pl. 1, and Cod. Vat., passim, ap. Antiq. of Mexico, vols. i., vi.--Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 10, cap. 10, et seq.--Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-España, lib. 2, passim.--Among the offerings, quails may be particularly noticed, for the incredible quantities of them sacrificed and consumed at many of the festivals. [124] The traditions of their origin have somewhat of a fabulous tinge. But, whether true or false, they are equally indicative of unparalleled ferocity in the people who could be the subject of them. Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. i. p. 167, et seq.; also Humboldt (who does not appear to doubt them), Vues des Cordillères, p. 95. [125] [According to Payne, New World Called America, i. p. 78, Tezcatlipoca, or _Fiery Mirror_, was so called because of the shield of polished metal which was almost always a conspicuous adjunct of the idol which represented him. Probably the correct form of his name is Tezcatlipopoca, or Fiery Smoking Mirror. He had many names: “Night Wind,”--“whose servants we are,”--“The Impatient,”--“The Provident Disposer,”--“who does what he will.” His best-known appellation was Telpochtli, or “Youthful Warrior,” because his vital force was never diminished. He was also called the “Enemy,” and the “Hungry Chief.”--He always had a living representative; when one was sacrificed another took his place, and this representative was invested with the dress, functions, and attributes of the God himself.--M.] [126] Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-España, lib. 2, cap. 2, 5, 24, et alibi.--Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. 2, cap. 16.--Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 7, cap. 19; lib. 10, cap. 14.--Rel. d’un gentil’ huomo, ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 307.--Acosta, lib. 5, cap. 9-21.--Carta del Lic. Zuazo, MS.--Relacion por el Regimiento de Vera Cruz (Julio, 1519), MS.--Few readers, probably, will sympathize with the sentence of Torquemada, who concludes his tale of woe by coolly dismissing “the soul of the victim, to sleep with those of his false gods, in hell!” Lib. 10, cap. 23.