vi, p.
7.] The name "Tezcatlipoca" is one of odd significance.

It means The Smoking Mirror.

This strange metaphor has received various explanations.

The mirrors in use among the Aztecs were polished plates of obsidian, trimmed to a circular form.

There was a variety of this black stone called _tezcapoctli_, smoky mirror stone, and from this his images were at times made.[1] This, however, seems too trivial an explanation.
[Footnote 1: Sahagun, _Historia_, Lib.