Quaitl eloa.—The first annual festival to the Tlaloquê was the quaitl eloa, of which Sahagun says: “In the first days of the first month of the year, which month was called in some parts of Mexico quavitleloa, but generally atlacahualco, and begins on the second of our February, a great feast was made in honour of the Tlalocs, gods of rain and water. For this occasion many children at the breast were purchased from their mothers; those being chosen that had two whorls in their hair, and that had been born under a good sign; it being said that such were the most agreeable sacrifices to the storm-gods, and most likely to induce them to send rain in due season. Some of these infants were butchered for this divine holiday on certain mountains, and some were drowned in the Lake of Mexico. With the beginning of the festival, in every house, from the hut to the palace, certain poles were set up, and to these were attached strips of the paper of the country, daubed over with indiarubber gum, these strips being called amateteuitl; this was considered an honour to the water-gods. And the first place where children were killed was Quauhtepetl, [256] a high mountain in the neighbourhood of Tlatelulco; all infants, boys or girls, sacrificed there were called by the name of the place, Quauhtepetl, and were decorated with strips of paper, dyed red. The second place where children were killed was Yoaltecatl, [257] a high mountain near Guadalupe. The victims were decorated with pieces of black paper with red lines on it, and were named after the place, Yoaltecatl. The third death-halt was made at Tepetzingo, a well-known hillock that rose up from the waters of the lake opposite Tlatelulco; there they killed a little girl, decking her with blue paper, and calling her Quezalxoch, [258] for so was this hillock called by another name. Poiauhtla, [259] on the boundary of Tlascala, was the fourth hill of sacrifice. Here they killed children, named as usual after the locality, and decorated with paper, on which were lines of indiarubber oil. The fifth place of sacrifice was the whirlpool or sink of the Lake of Mexico, Pantitlan. [260] Those drowned here were called Epcoatl, [261] and their adornment epuepaniuhqui. [262] The sixth hill of death was Cocotl, [263] near Chalcoatenco; the infant victims were named after it and decorated with strips of paper, of which half the number were red and half a tawny colour. The mount Yiauhqueme, [264] near Atlacuioaia, was the seventh station; the victims being named after the place and adorned with a paper of tawny colour.