CHAPTER 13

OF THE SPLENDID TEMPLES OF MEXICO

But the Mexicans' superstition was incomparably greater, in their ceremonies as well as the great size of their temples, which the Spaniards used to call cu; and this must have been a word taken from the islanders of Santo Domingo or Cuba, like many others in use that are not words from Spain or any other language employed in the Indies today, such as maíz, chicha, vaquiano, chapetón, and other similar words. There was, then, in Mexico the cu, the famous temple of Huitzilopochtli, whose very large enclosure formed a beautiful courtyard inside; it was all built of great hewn stones carved to resemble snakes, each joined to another, and that is why this enclosure had the name of coatepantli, which means "precinct of snakes." Above the chambers and chapels where the idols were there was a very handsome parapet made of small stones as black as jet, carefully and harmoniously arranged, and with the whole area plastered in red and white, which looked very fine from below. Above this parapet were handsome battlements made in spiral shape; the buttresses were finished off with two stone Indians in a sitting position, with candelabra in their hands, and from these emerged something like the hangings of a cross, with rich yellow and green feathers at their ends and long pennons of the same. Within the precinct of this courtyard were many apartments for religious, and others higher up for priests and papas, which was what they called the high priests who served the idol. This courtyard was so large and spacious that, although it seems incredible, eight or ten thousand men could assemble there to dance in a circle, as was the custom in that realm. It had four gates or entrances, east and west, north and south; each of these entrances marked the beginning of a very beautiful causeway two or three leagues long; and hence, in the middle of the lake, where the city of Mexico was founded, there were four very broad causeways in the form of a cross which made the city very attractive. In these entrances were four gods or idols,-each with its face turned toward one of the causeways. Opposite the door of this temple of Huitzilopochtli were thirty steps 180 feet long, divided by a street that ran between them and the courtyard wall. At the top of the steps was a broad walls 30 feet wide, all whitewashed; in the middle of this walk was a carefully constructed palisade made from tall trees placed in a row and 6 feet apart. These trunks were very thick and were all bored with small holes. From bottom to top, completely filling the palisade, were thin wands placed through the holes in the timbers, on which many human skulls were strung by the temples; each wand bore twenty heads. These rows of skulls reached from the bottom to the top of the tree trunks and filled the palisade from end to end, and so many and so densely packed were the skulls that they caused amazement and horror. These were the skulls of the men they had sacrificed, for after they had killed and eaten them they would bring the skulls and deliver them to the priests of the temple, and they would string them up there until they fell to pieces; and they took care to replace with others those that fell. At the summit of the temple were two chambers resembling chapels, and in them the two aforesaid idols, Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc. These chapels were made with carved figures, and they were so lofty that a staircase of 120 stone steps led up to them. Before these apartments was a courtyard 40 feet square, in the middle of which was a green stone shaped like a sharp pointed pyramid five handbreadths high, which was placed there for the human sacrifices that they performed; for when a man was thrown onto it face up his body was made to bend backward, and then they opened him and tore out his heart, as will be described later.

In the City of Mexico there were eight or nine other temples like this one I have described, adjoining each other within a large enclosure, with their own staircases and their courtyards with apartments and sleeping rooms. Some of them had their entrances on the west, others on the east, others on the south, others on the north, all very well built and possessing towers with different kinds of battlements and paintings and many stone figures and reinforced with large and broad buttresses. These were dedicated to different gods, but second to the temple of Huitzilopochtli was that of the idol Tezcatlipoca, who was the god of penitence and punishment, and it was very tall and beautifully built. There were 80 steps leading up to it, at the top of which was an open space 120 feet wide and next to it a room completely hung with curtains of different colors and workmanship; the door was low and broad and always covered with a veil, and only the priests could enter it. The whole temple was decorated very elaborately, with a number of effigies and carvings, for these two temples were like cathedral churches, and the rest in comparison to them were like parish churches and hermitages. And they were so spacious, and had so many chambers, that there were ministers in them, and colleges and schools and priests' houses, which will be described later. What I have said will suffice to make us understand the devil's arrogance, and the misfortune of the wretched folk who, at so much cost to their goods and labor and lives, served their own enemy, who wanted nothing more from them than to destroy their souls and consume their bodies; and yet they were happy, falsely believing that they had great and powerful gods to whom they did such service.