Being thus clad and deckt,
they did set it in an azured chair and in a litter to carry it on
their shoulders. The morning of this feast being come, an hour
before day all the maidens came forth attired in white, with new
ornaments, the which that day were called the Sisters of their god
Vitzilipuztli, they came crowned with garlands of maize roasted and
parched, being like unto azahar or the flower of orange; and about
their necks they had great chains of the same, which went
bauldrick-wise under their left arm. Their cheeks were dyed with
vermilion, their arms from the elbow to the wrist were covered with
red parrots' feathers." Young men, dressed in red robes and crowned
like the virgins with maize, then carried the idol in its litter to
the foot of the great pyramid-shaped temple, up the steep and narrow
steps of which it was drawn to the music of flutes, trumpets,
cornets, and drums. "While they mounted up the idol all the people
stood in the court with much reverence and fear. Being mounted to
the top, and that they had placed it in a little lodge of roses
which they held ready, presently came the young men, which strewed
many flowers of sundry kinds, wherewith they filled the temple both
within and without.
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