MONTEZUMA'S GIFTS TO CORTÉS

Padre Sahagun, in his history of the Conquest, states that the first presents sent by Montezuma to Cortés were the ornaments of the Temple of Quetzalcoatl. Montezuma is reported to have said to his messengers: “Our Lord Quetzalcoatl has arrived, go and receive him and listen to what he says with great attention, see to it that you do not forget anything that he may say, you see that these jewels that you are presenting to him on my behalf, are all the priestly ornaments that belong to him.” Then follows a detailed description of the ornaments of the deity beginning with “A mask worked in a mosaic of turquoise; this mask has a double and twisted snake worked in the same stones whose fold was (on) the projection of the nose, then the tail was parted from the head and the head with part of the body went above one of the eyes so that it formed an eyebrow, and the tail with a part of the body went over the other eye to form the other eyebrow. This mask was decked with a great and lofty crown, full of rich feathers, very long and beautiful, so that on placing the crown on the head, the mask was placed over the face,” etc.