gold burnished very brown. He had in his left hand a small target, with the figures of five pineapples made of white feathers set in a cross. And from above issued forth a crest of gold, and at his sides hee hadde foure dartes, which (the Mexicaines say) had been sent from heaven which shall be spoken of. In his right hand he had an azured staff cutte in the fashion of a waving snake. All those ornaments with the rest hee had, carried his sence as the Mexicaines doe shew.”3
Solis writes of his aspect as follows: “Opposite … sat Huitzilopochtli, on a throne supported by a blue globe. From this, supposed to represent the heavens, projected four staves with serpents’ heads, by which the priests carried the god when he was brought before the public. The image bore upon its head a bird of wrought plumes, whose beak and crest were of burnished gold. The feathers expressed horrid cruelty, and were made still more ghastly by two strips of blue, one on the brow and the other on the nose. Its right hand leaned, as on a staff, upon a crooked serpent. Upon the left arm was a buckler bearing five white plums, arranged in the form of a cross, and the hand grasped four arrows, venerated as heaven-descended.”4
Herrera says that his idol was a gigantic image of stone, covered with a lawn called nacar, beset with pearls, precious stones, and pieces of gold. It had for a girdle great snakes of gold, and a counterfeit visor with eyes of glass.5
Torquemada writes: “In his right hand a dart or long blue pole, in the left a shield, his face barred with lines of blue. His forehead was decorated with a tuft of green feathers, his left leg was lean and feathered, and