. . .nd such aid is not superfluous, for the staircases, having in all one hundred and fourteen steps, each a foot high, are so arranged that it is necessary to go completely round the building several times before reaching the top. On the summit the king is met by the high-priest and his colleagues, the people meanwhile waiting below. His first action upon reaching 145 the summit is to pay reverence to the image of the god of battles by touching the earth with his hand and then carrying it to his mouth. The high-priest now anoints the king throughout his entire body with a certain black ointment, and sprinkles him with water which has been blessed at the grand feast of Huitzilopochtli, using for this purpose branches of cedar and willow and leaves of maize;[16] at the same time he addresses a few words of counsel to him. The newly anointed monarch is next clothed with a mantle, on which are represented skulls and bones, to remind him, we are told, that even kings are mor. . . Read More