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with the appropriate gifts so he would be accepted when he came of age.
8 Each calpolli in the city possessed its own telpochcalli;9 most of the students were commoners, but sons of nobles also attendedprobably the traditional nobility directly associated with the leadership of each calpolli rather than those more directly dependent on the king.10 |
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When the boy was still small, the hair on his head was shorn. But at the age of ten a tuft of hair was allowed to grow on the back of his head, and by the age of fifteen, it was long, signifying that he had not yet taken captives in war.11 The father relinquished responsibility to the telpochcalli to train the youth to become a warrior.12 The telpochcalli was apparently responsible for educating all the youths of their respective calpolli (an average of 419 to 559 youths between fifteen and twenty years old for each of the twenty telpochcalli in Tenochtitlan in 1519),13 but not everyone who entered became a warrior or was intended to. Youths destined for the telpochcalli entered at the age of fifteen and were dedicated to the patron god, Tezcatl-Ihpoca (also called Yaotzin or Titlacahuan).14 The parents entreated the school priests to accept the responsibility of training the child, as follows: |
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Our Lord, the Ever-present, places you [priests] here. And we have come to tell you [lit., and now you hear and understand] that our Lord has given us a child [lit., has dropped a jewel, a quetzal-plume]. A son has arrived, and here he in truth now wishes to stay [lit., He wants to become substantial]. He is a glittering jewel. But we confess we do not know how to raise him [lit., Shall we put a spindle and a weaver's reed in his hand?]. Therefore, he is yours; he is your child, your son. We place him in your charge [lit., into your laps and on your carrying devices]. You are skilled in training children to be men [lit., You have children. You raise men, you bring up men. You create eagles, you create jaguars. You bring up men for our Mother and our Father, Tlalteuctli (Earthlady) and Tonatiuh (Sun)]. |
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And now we dedicate him to the war god [lit., to Night-and-Wind, the Lord, the Youth, Honored Enemy, He-whose-slaves-we-are, Tezcatl-Ihpoca]. We hope he will have a long life [lit., Perhaps our Lord will support him for a little while]. We leave him to become a warrior [lit., a youth]. There he will live at the place that is the house of penance, the house of lamentation, the house of tears, the house for youths, where warriors [lit., the eagles and jaguars] live and become men. There people serve our lord [lit., All use their hands upon our Lord's belly and throat], and there he recognizes people, there he continually rewards [lit., continually gives things to] people, there he looks at people with compassion, and he gives power [lit., the eagle mat and the jaguar mat] to those who are worthy [lit., whose who weep and those who are sad], from there he who is our Lord sends them forth, from there our |
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