asting fire out of his mouth."

HERRARA describes HUITZILOPOCHTLI and TEZCATLIPOCA[TN-8] together, and
says they were "beset with pieces of gold wrought like birds, beasts,
and _fishes_." "For collars, they had ten hearts of men," "and in their
necks Death painted."

TORQUEMADA derives the _name_ of the war god in two ways. According to
some it is composed of two words, one signifying "a humming bird" and
the other "a sorcerer that spits fire." Others say that the last word
means "the left hand," so that the whole name would mean "the shining
feathered left hand." "This god it was that led out the Mexicans from
their own land and brought them into Anahuac." Besides his regular
statue, set up in Mexico, "there was another renewed every year, made of
different kinds of grains and seeds, moistened with the blood of
children." This was in allusion to the nature-side of the god, as fully
explained by MUeLLER (_Americanische Urreligionen_).

No description will give a better idea of the general features of this
god than the following cuts from BANCROFT'S _Native Races_, which are
copied from LEON Y GAMA, _Las Dos Piedras_, etc. Figs. 53 and 54 are the
war god himself; Fig. 55 is the back of the former statue on a larger
scale; Fig. 56 is the god of hell, and was engraved on the bottom of the
block.

[Illustration: FIG. 53.--HUITZILOPOCHTLI (front).]

[Illustration: FIG. 54.--HUITZILOPOCHTLI (side).]

These three were a trinity well nigh inseparable. It has been doubted
whether they were not different attributes of the same personage. In the
natural course of things the primitive idea would become differentiated
into its parts, and in process of time the most important of the parts
would each receive a separate pictorial representation.

[Illustration: FIG. 55.--Huitzilopochtli (back).[TN-9]]

[Illustration: FIG. 56.--MICLANTECUTLI.]

[Illustration: FIG. 57.--Adoratorio.]

By referring back a few pages the reader will find summarized the
principal characteristics of the Central American figure represented in
Fig. 52. He will also have noticed the remarkable agreement between the
attributes of this figure and those contained in the cuts or in the
descriptions of the Mexican gods. Thus--

I. The symbol of both was the cross.

II. Fig. 52 and Fig. 55 each have four hands.[233-*]

III. Both have birds as symbols.

It is difficult to regard the bird of Fig. 52 as a humming bird, as it
more resembles the parrot, whi