from the rest of the nobility, amidst the loud acclaims of the people. He is next conducted to a temple called Tlacatecco, where during four days he remains alone, doing penance and eating but once a day, with the liberty, however, of choosing his own food. Twice in each twenty-four hours he bathes, once at noon and once at midnight, and after each bath he draws blood from his ears and offers it, together with some burnt copal, to Huitzilopochtli. The remainder of his time during these four days he occupies in praying the gods to endow him with the wisdom and prudence necessary to the ruler of a mighty kingdom. On the fifth day he is conducted in state to the royal palace, where the feudatory lords come to renew the investiture of their feifs. Then follow great public rejoicings, with games, feasts, dances, and illuminations.
CORONATION CEREMONY.
The coronation was, as I have stated, a ceremony distinct from the anointment. To prepare for it, it was necessary that the newly elected king should go out to war, to procure victims for the sacrifices necessary on such an occasion. They were never without enemies upon whom war might be made; either some province of the kingdom had rebelled, or Mexican merchants had been unjustly put to death, or insult had been offered to the royal ambassadors, or, if none of these excuses was at hand, the importance of the occasion alone rendered war justifiable. Of the manner in which war was waged, and of the triumphal return of the victorious army, I shall speak in another place. It appears that when a king of Mexico was crowned, the diadem was placed upon his head by the king of Tezcuco. The crown, which was called by the Mexicans copilli, was in shape like a small mitre, the fore part of which stood erect and terminated in a point, while the hinder part hung down over the neck. It was composed of different materials, according to the pleasure of the wearer; sometimes it was of thin plates of gold, sometimes it was woven of golden thread
