The myths dealing with the origin of the sun and the several epochs in which he reappeared under different forms have already been given in the chapter on Cosmogony, and in the précis of the opening chapters of the Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas. The myths relating to his paradise have also been dealt with in that chapter. The interpreter of the Codex Vaticanus A says: “It was Tonatiuh they affirm who conducted to heaven the souls of those alone who died in war; and on this account they paint him with these arms in his hands. He sits as a conqueror, exactly opposite to the other who is near him, who is god of hell. They allege that the cause of winter being so disagreeable is the absence of the sun, and that summer is delightful on account of its presence; and that the return of the sun from our zenith is nothing more than the approach of their god to confer his favours on them.” FESTIVALS Nauollin.—One of the feasts of the Sun-god was held at the ceremony known as nauollin (the “four motions,” alluding to the quivering appearance of the sun’s rays) in the Quauhquauhtinchan (House of the Eagles), an armoury set apart for the military order of that name. The warriors gathered in this hall for the purpose of dispatching a messenger to their lord the sun. High up on the wall of the principal court was a great symbolic representation of the orb, painted upon a brightly coloured cotton hanging. Before this copal and other fragrant gums and spices were burned four times a day. The victim, a war-captive, was placed at the foot of a long staircase leading up to the stone on which he was to be sacrificed. He was clothed in red striped with white and wore white plumes in his hair—colours symbolical of the sun—while he bore a staff decorated with feathers and a shield covered with tufts of cotton. He also carried a bundle of eagle’s feathers and some paint on his shoulders, to enable the sun, to whom he was the emissary, to paint his face. He was then addressed by the officiating priest in the following terms: “Sir, we pray you go to our god the sun, and greet him on our behalf; tell him that his sons and warriors and chiefs and those who remain here beg of him to remember them and to favour them from that place where he is, and to receive this small offering which we send him. Give him the staff to help him on his journey, and this shield for his defence, and all the rest that you have in this bundle.” The victim, having undertaken to carry the message to the Sun-god, was then dispatched upon his long journey. Ome acatl or Toxiuhilpilia.—This great solar festival was celebrated once in fifty-two years only, and signified the “binding of the years,” the end of the solar cycle, when, it was believed, the “old” sun died and a new luminary would take its place, or the world would be plunged into darkness. Says Clavigero: