Once more Uitzilopochtli asked to what point his enemies had advanced.
“They are now at Petlac,” Quauitlicac replied.
Quauitlicac later informed them that his brothers and sister had arrived at the middle of the mountain. At the moment they arrived Uitzilopochtli was born, attired in full war panoply. He ordered one named Tochâncalqui (inhabitant of our house) to attack his sister with the fire-snake xiuhcoatl, and with a blow he shattered Coyolxauhqui in pieces. Her head rested upon the mountain of Coatepec. The infant god then pursued his brethren four times round the mountain. Several fell into the lake and were drowned. Others he slew, only a few escaped, and these were banished to Uitzlampa in the south.19
Torquemada says of Uitzilopochtli: “Huitzilopochtli, the ancient god and guide of the Mexicans, is a name variously derived. Some say it is composed of two words: huitzilin, ‘a humming-bird,’ and tlahuipuchtli, ‘a sorcerer that spits fire.’ Others say that the second part of the name comes not from tlahuipuchtli, but from opuchtli, that is, ‘the left hand’; so that the whole name, Huitzilopochtli, would mean ‘the shining-feathered left hand.’ For this idol was decorated with rich and resplendent feathers on the left arm. And this god it was that led out the Mexicans from their own land and brought them into Anahuac.
“Some held him to be a purely spiritual being, others affirmed that he had been born of a woman, and related his history after the following fashion: Near the city of Tulla there is a mountain called Coatepec, that is to say the Mountain of the Snake, where a woman lived, named Coatlicue or Snake-petticoat. She was the mother of many sons called Centzunhuitznahua, and of a daughter whose name was Coyolxauhqui. Coatlicue was very devout and careful in the service of the