Far
and wide over the dusky crowds beamed the blaze like a star of promise.
Myriads of upturned faces greeted it from hills, mountains, temples,
terraces, teocallis, house-tops, and city walls; and the prostrate
multitudes hailed the emblem of light, life, and fruition, as a blessed
omen of the restored favor of their gods, and the preservation of their
race for another cycle. At regular intervals, Indian couriers held aloft
brands of resinous wood, by which they transmitted the "New Fire" from
hand to hand, from village to village, and town to town, throughout the
Aztec empire. Light was radiated from the imperial or ecclesiastical
center of the realm. In every temple and dwelling it was rekindled from
the sacred source; and when the sun rose again on the following morning,
the solemn procession of priests, princes, and subjects, which had taken
up its march from the capital on the preceding night with solemn steps,
returned once more to the abandoned capital, and, restoring the gods to
their altars, abandoned themselves to joy and festivity, in token of
gratitude and relief from impending doom.
* * * * *
=_Albert James Pickett,[41] 1858-._= (Manual, p. 490.)
From "The History of Alabama.
Pages:
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291