Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/97

Rh was propitiated by a human victim ground between millstones like the corn the deity was asked to bestow.

Every expedition in time of war, every trading-party which set out on its travels, the election of a head-chief, the inauguration of a new one or the dedication of a temple was marked by extraordinary sacrifices. When the great teocallis in Mexico was dedicated, in 1486, forty thousand persons are said to have been sacrificed to the terrible war-god. We would believe this to be an exaggeration but for the fact that the skulls were preserved in houses called zompantli, or "skull-place." One Spaniard, who was curious enough to count these ghastly relics arranged in order, gives the number as one hundred and thirty-six thousand.

Among the pretexts by which the victims were persuaded to yield up their lives was one common among Romanists when a young woman enters a convent. She goes to become the bride of Christ; so the Aztec girls were given to the gods. A story is told of one poor woman who was so determined to forego this honor that she fought for life. In her case it seemed that self-surrender was necessary to make the sacrifice acceptable, and after struggling with her for a while they let her go.

The most solemn of all festivals was that of "year-binding," as it was called, which marked the close of the cycle of fifty-two years. The people were taught that in the course of ages the world was to be four times destroyed and renewed, and that each of these events was to be looked for at these semi-centennial periods. As the time drew near they gave themselves up to gloom and despair. They did penances for past sins, and then faithlessly threw away their idols altogether, broke up their furniture, rent their clothes, neglected field and