Huitzilopochtli, Tlaloc, Tezcatlipoca, Mexican Priests

Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec deity of war and the sun, was depicted holding a snake-shaped sceptre and mirror, his head adorned with hummingbird feathers. Picart rather faithfully adhered to this iconography. Tezcatlipoca, the deity of night and temptation, is depicted in a manner that accentuates the bloodthirsty cult of the ancient Aztecs. The practice of bloody sacrifice is also apparent in the rendering of two Mexican priests, knives in hands, standing before the bloodstained sacrificial block.