from them certain little banners that they carried and all their raiment or adornment, which he burnt in a fire. While they stood naked and waiting for death, another priest, carrying in his arms the image of the god Paynal and his ornaments, ran up with this idol to the top of the teocalli known as Tlacacouhcan, where the victims were to die. He descended, then returned to the summit, and as he went up for the second time, the owners took their slaves by the hair and led them to the place called Apetlac, where they left them. The priests who were to perform the sacrifice then descended from the teocalli bearing bags of a narcotic incense called yauhtli (absinthe, wormwood, or mugwort), which they threw by handfuls into the faces of the victims to mitigate their death-agonies. Each captive was then bound hand and foot and carried up to the top of the teocalli. On the summit a great fire burned. Upon this the priests cast the captives, who, when half-roasted, were dragged out with the aid of grappling-hooks and sacrificed by having their hearts torn out. The statue of Paynal was then carried away to its own temple and all returned home. The young men and boys with the women began at midday to dance and to sing in the courtyard of Xiuhtecutli. Suddenly they made in a body for the place where the tree already described had been raised. At a given signal all might attempt to scale the pole to reach the dough image at the top. The first youth at the top seized the idol of dough, took the shield and the arrows, the darts and the tamalis from the head of the statue, then threw the crumbs with the plumes of the image down into the crowd, who fought and scrambled for them. When the successful youth descended from the pole with the weapons of the god, he was received with acclamations and carried up to the teocalli Tlacacouhcan, to receive jewels and a rich mantle which no one else might wear, and the honour of being carried to his house by the priests, amid the music of horns and shells. Then the people seized the ropes fastened to the tree and dragged it down.
Izcalli.—The following is a digest of Sahagun’s description of this festival7: