The Uei tecuilhuitl.—The festival to Xilonen was the uei tecuilhuitl, or “great festival of the chiefs,” which lasted eight days and was celebrated when the maize-plant had almost reached maturity. Our chief authorities for its events are Sahagun [238] and Torquemada. [239] The former states that at this period of the year (June–July) the women wore their hair unbound, in order that the maize might be prompted to grow in equal luxuriance. During the days of the festival such persons as visited the temple were permitted to drink abundantly of chian pinolli (a beverage manufactured from the seed of the chian tree, mingled with maize-flour and aloe honey) and as much maize-porridge as could be grasped in the hand, to symbolize the plenty which would follow the ripening of the grain. The food thus supplied was the gift of the chiefs, from which circumstance the festival took its name. Dancing commenced each night at sunset, and was accompanied by singing, the scene being illuminated by the glare from burning pine-torches. The dancer around whom interest chiefly centred was the xalaquia (“she who is clothed with the soil”), a slave girl who represented the goddess, wearing her red face-paint, large square headdress and variegated raiment. She was constantly guarded by three old women called her “mothers,” and was sedulously instructed in the dancing-school for the part she had to play. In all likelihood she was kept in complete ignorance of her impending fate. Day after day she danced, surrounded by the women of the community, who shook their long hair, and it was believed that the maize-crop would be vigorous or the reverse as her terpsichorean exertions were spirited or listless. On the last day of the rites, the priestesses of the Maize-goddess, attired in her insignia, gathered together in the teopan, or temple-precinct, and accompanied the victim in a performance which lasted throughout the night. When day broke, the chief nobles and warriors of Mexico joined the women and danced a solemn areyto, the men dancing in front and the women behind them. In this manner they danced to the foot of the teocalli of the goddess, which they ascended, the victim being carried on the back of one of the priests, after the manner of a bride being borne to her husband’s house. Arrived at the summit, she was decapitated and her heart offered to the goddess. Until she was sacrificed no one might eat of the new maize, lest it should fail to ripen. PRIESTHOOD The Cinteotzin (Lord of Maize), says Sahagun, had charge of affairs at the festival of Xilonen (see Cinteotl). NATURE AND STATUS