the body was hurled down the steps of the temple to the court, where it was seized by certain priests and carried away to be dismembered. For sacrifice was sometimes accompanied by cannibalism, though it is interesting to note that at the festival just described the warrior who provided a captive for sacrifice was debarred from eating his flesh, since he was supposed to stand to the victim in the relation of father to son. At this feast, before the body was cast down the steps, the sacrificing priest inserted a tube in the cavity left after the removal of the heart, and extracted a bowlful of blood, which he gave to the victim's master. The latter with this made the round of certain temples, smearing a little of the blood on the lips of the various images.
The third month, Tozoztonthi, began on March 14th, and is signified in MSS. by the figure of a maize-goddess. It was a month of first-fruits; children were sacrificed to Tlaloc, and the first flowers were offered in Xipe's temple, after which ceremony, but not before, their perfume might be inhaled by mortals. The flower-sellers also held a festival in honour of Coatlicue, and those who had provided victims for the sacrifices during the preceding month, discarded the skins which they had worn until now.
The fourth month, Uei tozoztli, beginning on April 3rd, is also represented by the figure of a maize-god, and the presiding deities were Cinteotl and Chicome Coatl. The ceremonies observed concerned the maize-plant, which was used to decorate the altars and temples, while the selected heads destined to be used as seed were offered by young maidens to the above divinities. A peculiar offering was made to the household images of the harvest-god, consisting of baskets of produce, each surmounted by a cooked frog which bore on its back, in a miniature basket, specimens of each of the varieties of grain which composed the offering.
