etimes wore a crown made of
featherwork, with a bird's head of gold above his forehead. His emblem was
the sun, the orb of day, and he presided over its cult which had developed
itself simultaneously with the cult of the Above, a feature of which was
the offering of "birds, butterflies and flowers." Sometimes he wore,
"attached to his sandals, small wings, named tzi-coyolli, resembling the
wing of a bird. These produced a sound like that of tiny gold bells when
he walked" (Tezozomoc, Cronica, p. 594).

It must be admitted, on reading the foregoing descriptions gleaned from
Sahagun's Historia, that it would be impossible to carry out, more
perfectly and completely, the idea that Montezuma was the earthly
representative of the Upper regions, the blue heaven. By pushing symbolism
so far that he actually wore wings on his feet and avoided contact with
the ground, it is not surprising that Montezuma's adversaries, amongst
neighboring tribes, should accuse him of exacting divine honors for his
own person. At the same time there is no doubt that his own subjects
revered him merely as a temporary representative and mouth-piece of the
impersonal dual divinity. This idea is clearly conveyed by some native
harangues, to which I refer the reader, and from which I extract the
following passages:

After his election, the ruler is solemnly addressed by one of the chief
lords who says to him: "Oh! our humane, pious and beloved lord, who
deserves to be more highly esteemed than all precious stones and feathers,
you are here present because our sovereign god has placed thee [above us]
as our lord.... You possess the seat and throne which was given [to your
predecessors] by our lord god" ... "you are the image of our lord god and
represent his person. He reposes in you and he employs you like a flute
through which he speaks and he hears with your ears.... Oh, lord king! God
sees what the persons do who rule over his domains and when they err in
their office he laughs at them, but in silence, for he is god, and is
omnipotent and can mock at whom he will. For he holds all of us in the
palm of his hand and rocks us about, and we are like balls or round globes
in his hands and we go rolling from one side to the other and make him
laugh, and he serves himself of us as we go moving about on the palm of
his hand!"

"Although thou art our neighbour and friend and son and brother, we are no
more thy equals, nor do we consider you as a man, for n