comparatively short distance from the capital, is furnished by Bernal Diaz
(_op. cit._ p. 65). He relates that the four lords who supported Montezuma
when he walked in state to meet Cortes were the lords of Texcoco,
Iztapalapa, Tacuba and Coyoacan. These towns, which were minor centres of
government, were respectively situated at unequal distances to the
northeast, southeast, northwest and southwest of the capital.

These facts and the knowledge that "all lords, in life, represented a god"
justify the inference that, just as Montezuma represented the central
power of the Above or Heaven, the four lords who accompanied him were the
personified rulers of the four quarters, associated with the elements. In
ancient Mexico and Maya records the gods of the four quarters, also named
"the four principal and most ancient Gods" are designated as "the
sustainers of the Heaven" and it cannot be denied that, on the solemn
occasion described, the four lords actually fulfilled the symbolical
office of supporting Montezuma, the personification of the Heaven. This
striking illustration is but one of a number I could cite in proof of the
deeply ingrained mental habit of the native sages to introduce, into every
detail of their life, the symbolism of the Centre, the Above and Below and
the Four Quarters. I shall but mention here that it can be proven how, in
their respective cities the lords of the cardinal points were central
rulers who, in turn, directed the administration of the government by
means of four dignitaries. Each of these was also the embodiment of a
divine attribute or principle, "All noblemen did represent idols and
carried the name of one" (Acosta, Naturall and Morall Historie, lib. 5, p.
349).

Each wore a special kind of symbolical costume and was the ruler or
"advocate," as he is termed, of a distinct class of people. "For to each
kind or class of persons they gave a Teotl [=God or Lord] as an advocate.
When a person died and was about to be buried, they clothed him with the
diverse Insignia of the god to whom he belonged" (Mendieta lib. II, chap.
40). It being established that each of the four year-symbols, acatl,
tecpatl, calli and tochtli, ruled four minor symbols, it seems evident
that, just as the four lords of the cardinal-points would correspond to
the above symbols, each of the minor lords and the category of people they
represented would also be associated with the minor symbols. The obvious
result of this cl