Sahagun (c. xxii, bk. iv) describes the insignia employed at the god’s festival of ce tecpatl. These were the quetzalquemitl, or mantle of green quetzal-feathers, the tozquemitl, the mantle made of the yellow feathers of the toztli, a bird of the parrot species, the Uitzitzilquemitl, or mantle of humming-bird’s feathers, “and others less rich.” FESTIVALS The first festival of Uitzilopochtli was the tlaxochimaco, of which Sahagun says: “The ninth month was styled tlaxochimaco. A festival was held on the first day of this month in honour of Huitzilopochtli, god of war, when he was offered the first flowers of the year. The night before this festival everybody killed chickens and dogs with which to make tamalli and other things good to eat. Very soon after the first glimmerings of dawn on the day of the festival, the attendants of the idols adorned the statue of Huitzilopochtli with flowers. The images of the other gods were decked with garlands and wreaths of flowers, and the same was done to all the other idols of the calpulli [81] and telpochcalli. [82] The calpixque, [83] the principal people, and the macehualli [84] covered the statues in their houses with flowers. These preparations being completed, the viands prepared during the previous night were partaken of, and shortly after this repast a dance was engaged in, in which the nobles mingled with the women, taking them by the hand, and even going the length of embracing them by placing their arms round their necks. The usual movements of the areyto [85] were not performed, the dancers moving step by step, to the strains of the musicians and singers, who stood, some distance away, at the foot of a round altar called momoztli. They sang thus until night, not only in the courts of the temples, but also in the houses of people of rank and of the macehualli, while the aged of both sexes indulged deeply in pulque; but young people were not permitted to touch it, and anyone allowing them to drink it was severely punished.” Toxcatl.—For this festival see under Tezcatlipocâ, to whom it was also and more especially sacred. Panquetzalitztli.—The following account of this festival is summarized from Sahagun’s pages: For twenty-four days prior to the incidence of the festival the priests did penitence. They hung branches upon the oratories and shrines of the gods of the mountains, and green reeds and leaves of the maguey-plant. At the end of the quecholli festival everyone took to dancing and singing, especially to the song or hymn of Uitzilopochtli. Nine days before the sacrifice those doomed to die bathed in the fountain called Uitzilotl (humming-bird water) in the village of Uitzilopochco. The old men went to seek nine bunches of the leaves of the tree called aueuetl (“old one of the waters”—the Cupressus distica). The faces of the doomed ones were painted in the colours of the god, yellow and blue in transverse bands, and adorned with his insignia.