A young Mexica man's elders greeted the news of the expected birth of a child, saying to the woman: "O my beloved granddaughter, o precious person, o precious bracelet, o precious green stone, o precious turquoise, o hair, o fingernail: now truly the god, the ruler the lord of the near, of the close, has remembered you. Within you he wanted to place a life; he wanted to provide you with a precious necklace; he wanted to provide you with a precious feather." "Perhaps you have sighed? Perhaps you have wept? Perhaps you have reached out your arms to him? Perhaps you have begged our lord, the night, the wind, in the night, at midnight? Perhaps you have kept vigil? Perhaps you have been industrious in sweeping and in offering incense?" "Perhaps for this reason it was determined above us, in the land of the dead, in the beginning, that our lord wished to place life within you? Perhaps it is true that the lord, our prince, Quetzalcoatl, Precious Twin, Precious Serpent, Green Feathered Twin, Green Feathered Serpent, the creator, the author, has permitted it? And perhaps Ome Tecuhtli, Ome Cihuatl, Two Lord, Two Lady, stated it? Perhaps their instruction was that a child be born."