ers. The clothing they put upon my body and the wreath of flowers on
my head, worshipping me the while and saying, 'Tezcat who died yesterday
is come again. Be joyful, Tezcat has come again in the body of the
captive Teule.'

Then I understood that I was now a god and the greatest of gods, though
at that moment within myself I felt more of a fool than I had ever been
before.

And now men appeared, grave and reverend in appearance, bearing lutes in
their hands. I was told that these were my tutors, and with them a train
of royal pages who were to be my servants. They led me forth from the
hall making music as they went, and before me marched a herald, calling
out that this was the god Tezcat, Soul of the World, Creator of the
World, who had come again to visit his people. They led me through all
the courts and endless chambers of the palace, and wherever I went, man
woman and child bowed themselves to the earth before me, and worshipped
me, Thomas Wingfield of Ditchingham, in the county of Norfolk, till I
thought that I must be mad.

Then they placed me in a litter and carried me down the hill
Chapoltepec, and along causeways and through streets, till we came to
the great square of the temple. Before me went heralds and priests,
after me followed pages and nobles, and ever as we passed the multitudes
prostrated themselves till I began to understand how wearisome a thing
it is to be a god. Next they carried me through the wall of serpents and
up the winding paths of the mighty teocalli till we reached the summit,
where the temples and idols stood, and here a great drum beat, and the
priests sacrificed victim after victim in my honour and I grew sick with
the sight of wickedness and blood. Presently they invited me to descend
from the litter, laying rich carpets and flowers for my feet to tread
on, and I was much afraid, for I thought that they were about to
sacrifice me to myself or some other divinity. But this was not so.
They led me to the edge of the pyramid, or as near as I would go, for
I shrank back lest they should seize me suddenly and cast me over the
edge. And there the high priest called out my dignity to the thousands
who were assembled beneath, and every one of them bent the knee in
adoration of me, the priests above and the multitudes below. And so it
went on till I grew dizzy with the worship, and the shouting, and the
sounds of music, and the sights of death, and very thankful was I, when
at last they