said that demons came through the air on that sign in the figures of women, such as we designate witches, who usually went to the highways, where they met in the form of a cross, and to solitary places, and that when any bad woman wished to absolve herself of her sins, she went alone by night to these places, and took off her garments and sacrificed there with her tongue (that is, drew blood from her tongue), and left the clothes which she had carried and returned naked as the sign of the confession of her sins.”
The temples or shrines of the Ciuateteô were situated at cross-roads, the centres of ill-omen throughout the world. That they had a connection with the lightning is shown by the fact that cakes in the shape of butterflies and “thunder-stones” were offered them. But they were also connected with baneful astral or astrological influences, and are several times alluded to in the Interpretative Codices in this connection. The seasons at which they were most potent for evil were those connected with the western department of the tonalamatl, the five days which compose the first column of the third quarter disposed in columns of five members, ce mazatl, ce quiauitl, ce ozomatli, ce calli, ce quauhtli.