Then having twined me
round with wreaths of flowers till I thought of the maypole on Bungay
Common, they rested from their labours, filled with admiration at their
handiwork.
Now the music sounded again and they gave me two lutes, one of which
I must hold in either hand, and conducted me to the great hall of the
palace. Here a number of people of rank were gathered, all dressed in
festal attire, and here also on a dais to which I was led, stood my four
wives clad in the rich dresses of the four goddesses Xochi, Xilo, Atla,
and Clixto, after whom they were named for the days of their wifehood,
Atla being the princess Otomie. When I had taken my place upon the dais,
my wives came forward one by one, and kissing me on the brow, offered
me sweetmeats and meal cakes in golden platters, and cocoa and mescal
in golden cups. Of the mescal I drank, for it is a spirit and I
needed inward comfort, but the other dainties I could not touch. These
ceremonies being finished, there was silence for a while, till presently
a band of filthy priests entered at the far end of the chamber, clad
in their scarlet sacrificial robes. Blood was on them everywhere, their
long locks were matted with it, their hands were red with it, even their
fierce eyes seemed full of it. They advanced up the chamber till they
stood before the dais, then suddenly the head priest lifted up his
hands, crying aloud:
'Adore the immortal god, ye people,' and all those gathered there
prostrated themselves shouting:
'We adore the god.
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