Women came forth with children in their arms and
presented them to him, saluting him as a god. For "he passed for our
Lord God; the people acknowledged him as the Lord." All who thus
worshipped him on his passage he saluted gravely and courteously.
Lest he should flee, he was everywhere attended by a guard of eight
pages in the royal livery, four of them with shaven crowns like the
palace-slaves, and four of them with the flowing locks of warriors;
and if he contrived to escape, the captain of the guard had to take
his place as the representative of the god and to die in his stead.
Twenty days before he was to die, his costume was changed, and four
damsels delicately nurtured and bearing the names of four
goddesses--the Goddess of Flowers, the Goddess of the Young Maize,
the Goddess "Our Mother among the Water," and the Goddess of
Salt--were given him to be his brides, and with them he consorted.
During the last five days divine honours were showered on the
destined victim. The king remained in his palace while the whole
court went after the human god.
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