last of the year. "It was the feast of
Fire, because at this season the trees became warmed and began to bud. In
it was celebrated the festival Pil-quixtia, meaning 'human life or nature
which had always escaped destruction although the world itself had been
destroyed several times.' "

"Izcalli signifies as much as liveliness, and in this 20-day period all
mothers lifted their children by their heads and holding them aloft called
out, Izcalli, Izcalli, as though they said 'aviva'=live, live.... This was
the period of production ... thanks were rendered to the nature which is
the cause of the production.... Every four years they feasted for 8 days
in memory of the three times that the world was destroyed. They name this
'four times Lord,' because this escaped destruction, although all was
destroyed. They designated the festival as that of 'renovation' and said
that when it and the fast came to an end the bodies of men became like
those of children. Therefore, in order to figure [or symbolize] this
festival, adults led certain children by the hand, in the sacred dance."

Slightly incoherent though this text may be, it furnishes a most valuable
supplement to the descriptions of the same festival by other authorities.
As this is exhaustively treated in my forthcoming text to the "Life of the
Indians " in which all available authorities are quoted and collated, I
shall confine myself here to some facts which bear a special relation to
the subject of this paper. In Mexico another name for the festival period
Izcalli, was Xilomaniztli=the birth or sprouting of the young maize.
According to Duran, izcalli signified "the creating or bringing up" and in
order to make the growth of children coincide with that of the young
maize, parents, during this period, stretched the limbs and every part of
the bodies of all infants of tender age.

Another observance which was held at this time was in anticipation of the
New Year and consisted in the raising and planting of high poles or wands
with branches, in the courtyards of the temples and in the streets. These
typified the new life; "the budding and rejoicing of the trees." Another
New Year custom was that of carrying budding branches or young shoots of
maize in the hand, on a particular day named Xiuh-Tzitzquilo, literally,
"the taking of the year in one's hands." The explanation of this metaphor
is given by Duran who states that "the natives consider that the year,
with its months a