{p. 229}

darkness. . . . O Lord, . . . make an end of _this smoke and fog_.
Quench also the _burning and destroying fire of thine anger_; let
serenity come and _clearness_," (light); "let the small birds of thy
people begin to sing and _approach the sun_."

There is still another Aztec prayer, addressed to the same deity,
equally able, sublime, and pathetic, which it seems to me may have
been uttered when the people had left their biding-place, when the
conflagration had passed, but while darkness still covered the earth,
before vegetation had returned, and while crops of grain as yet were
not. There are a few words in it that do not answer to this
interpretation, where it refers to those "people who have something";
but there may have been comparative differences of condition even in
the universal poverty; or these words may have been an interpolation
of later days. The prayer is as follows:

"O our Lord, protector most strong and compassionate, invisible and
impalpable, thou art the giver of life; lord of all, and lord of
battles. I present myself here before thee to say some few words
concerning the need of the poor people of none estate or
intelligence. When they lie down at night they have nothing, nor when
they rise up in the morning; the darkness and the light pass alike in
great poverty. Know, O Lord, that thy subjects and servants suffer a
sore poverty that can not be told of more than that it is a sore
poverty and desolateness. The men have no garments, nor the women, to
cover themselves with, but only certain rags rent in every part, that
allow the air and the cold to pass everywhere.