“The foreigners with whom Motecuhzoma was at war came to assist secretly at the spectacle. These were the men of Uexotzinco, Tlaxcallan and Nonoualco, Cempoallan, and many other places. The Mexicans pretended not to see them, and they were thus able to behold the fate reserved for captives in Mexico. When all was over, everyone ate a tortilla called uilocpalli, or pigeon-seat, a kind of little paté made with uncooked maize. Next day everyone assisted at an areyto of great solemnity, which was commenced in the royal palace. All were dressed in their best and carried tamallis and tortillas of roasted maize, called momochtli, which they wore instead of collars and garlands. They carried also red feathers and stalks of maize. The areyto ceased at midday, and the nobles ranged themselves three and three in the royal palaces. The king appeared, having upon his right the King of Tezcuco and on his left the Lord of Tacuba. A solemn dance then took place, which lasted until the sun went down, after which they commenced another dance, in which everyone took hands and danced in a serpentine figure. The old soldiers and recruits came to this dance, bringing with them female partners and even public women. This lasted also on the place where the captives had been slain till nearly midnight, and they continued to celebrate these feasts for nearly twenty days, until they had arrived at the kalends of the month which they called tozoztontli.” Twenty days after the festival those who wore the skins of the slain removed them, but it would seem, from what Sahagun says, that certain devotees wore these from the festival of tlacaxipeuliztli at the end of that month to the beginning of the following tlacaxipeuliztli. Persons afflicted with skin diseases or weak sight frequently made a vow to be present at this ceremony. The devotees then performed ceremonial ablutions in a bath in the temple, in which water was mixed with maize flour, or, more strictly speaking, they were bathed by others. They then shampooed their heads and did penance for the death of the captive. After this the captor erected a tripod in the court of his house, on the top of which was a petlatl, or mat rolled into a ball, on which he placed all the paper ornaments which the captive had worn at his sacrifice. “He then chose a courageous young man who wore those papers, and who took a shield in one hand and a cudgel in the other, and went through the streets as if looking for an evil-doer. Everyone was afraid, and cried, ‘Behold the telzompac (noble one) comes!’ If he caught anyone he took his mantle, and all the spoil he took he brought back to the captor. The captor then placed in the middle of the court of his house a joist in the form of a column, which indicated that he had made captives in war, and which was the blazon of his honour. Then he took the thigh-bone of the captive, ornamented it with the papers, and attached it to the top of the column in his courtyard. He then