> To honor the spring god Xipe, Aztec priests flayed human beings and clad themselves in the tattered hides. This symbolized the new vegetation in which the earth clothes itself. > To honor the fire ...

According to tradition, the Aztec god of the sun and war, Huitzilopochtli (whose name in Náhuatl means "left-handed hummingbird" or "hummingbird of the south"), commanded the Aztecs to leave their ...