Three marble steps led to this altar, and there was a constant stream of people praying before it. They entered barefooted, and silently threw themselves on the floor before the altars. The swastika not only indicated the time, but also the unsettled condition, and they implored continually: “O Thou who art master of all motion, hold Thou the earth fast in the hollow of Thy hand! Grant that it may no longer be swayed in its orbit, but may go in peace, freed from evil influence. Hear and answer, we beseech Thee!” Rising at daybreak, the whole populace made their ablutions with scrupulous care, and dressed themselves in spotless white. They waited in vain for a glimpse of the rising sun, and then betook themselves to the housetops. Turning with infinite yearning to the north, they cried out: “Spirits of the lost ones, come quickly, since thou art expected!” This curious practice was kept up at this yearly festival until the time of the conquest of Mexico. All the native races of America believed with the Norsemen that hell was situated in the north doubtless in memory of the overwhelming destruction of the great Ice Age. Esoterically, ice is spiritual fire. Reëntering their houses, the populace took their canapas[15] which were the same as the Roman titular deities, and hastened to a great funeral pyre already smoking in front of the Temple of Saturn. Since fire was the substance of the sun, and since the sun’s ray was the medium through which Deity contacted the earth, the devotees did not venture near it without prostrating themselves, kissing the earth, and making manifestations of abasement. The worshipers made low obeisance to the four cardinal points, and threw cassia, cinnamon, sweet calamus and myrrh into the flames. Braving the heat, they held the canapas in the smoke until the figures warmed perceptibly, then wrapped them in linen scorched by the fire, and ran back to their houses. It was no longer possible to summon them to the temples by ringing the big bell on top of the Observatory, as the tower still lay in ruins; so they waited for the trumpet-call. Incense was burned on the sacrificial altars, and a pot-pourri of resinous gums was carried in the hand, in alabaster or jeweled boxes, along with palm branches, which indicated a new period of manifestation of matter. A procession issued from the western gate of the Temple of the Sun, in the center of Tlamco. First came a troop of warrior-priests with spears held upright and garlanded with roses. The next was Yermah, robed in cloth of gold, with a white linen mantle over his shoulder. His head was bared, and he had submitted to tonsure as a sacred observance. The Azes considered the human head a magnet, having a natural electrical, irregular circle, moving in the path of the sun. The os-frontis, sinciput, and os-sublime are the positive pole, while the occiput is the negative.