The superstitious devotion to fire was general among the Mexicans at the period of the Conquest. In a book entitled, Inie Calotle in Ilhuicac, or Way to Heaven, printed in 1607 and 1612, we see that each one of the eighteen months of the Mexican year was consecrated to a particular divinity, honored by festivals more or less solemn, and almost always by human sacrifices.
The first month, which begun on the second of February, was consecrated to Altachuala, god of the detention o f waters; the second, to the destroying god o f nations; the third, to the god o f the waters; the fourth, to the god o f maize; the fifth, falling about Easter, to the god Tezcatlipoca, which was the Jupiter of the Romans; the ninth was consecrated to the god o f war.
The tenth month, called Xocolh-huetzi, began on the 4th of August. Then took place the great feast of the god of fire, or Xuchten-hetli, with numerous human sacrifices. They thrust living men into the flames. When these were half-burnt, but still alive, they tore out the heart, in presence
of the image of the god. Then they planted in the middle of the court of the temple a lofty tree, round which they performed a thousand ceremonies and sacrifices worthy of the founder of this feast. It lasted longer than the others.
In the eleventh month falls the festival of Toci, mother of the gods; on the twelfth, that of the Coming o f the gods; on the thirteenth, the Feasts upon the mountains; the fifteenth month was reserved to the god of war, and the seventeenth to the god of the rains.
The lath of January commenced, with the eighteenth month, called It,zcali, another feast of fire. Two days previous (the loth), in the middle of the night, they kindled the new fire before the idol of the god, elegantly ornamented. With this fire they lighted a grand pile. The hunters brought all that they had killed or fished from the waters, and presented it to the priest, who cast it into the furnace. Then all the assistants were obliged to eat very hot the tamalillos, that is to say, little loaves of corn-meal