Page:Here and there in Yucatan - miscellanies (IA herethereinyucat00lepl 0).djvu/108

 In the splendid Temple of the Sun at Cuzco, Peru, there were vestals who, like the young Levite girls educated in the Temple of Jerusalem, had to weave the ornaments of the temple, garments for the priests and their household, as well as for the family of the Inca. Their principal duty was to watch with untiring vigilance over the sacred fire, obtained at the feast of Raymi, from the rays of the sun, by means of a concave metallic mirror.

In Rome vestals were likewise bound to keep alive the fire obtained in the same way at the feast of Pales (goddess of the flocks). A similar obligation was imposed upon the priestess of Diana-Laphria at Patras. Any one of those maidens who unfortunately allowed the sacred fire to die out was relentlessly buried alive.

Even in the Roman Catholic Church, once every year, on the day following Good-Friday, the priests make new fire by striking together two stones. The officiating father blesses the new fire and extinguishes the old; he also burns incense on the freshly kindled coals, and a taper lit from them serves to light all the other candles, that they may burn with the new fire.

So among the Mayas, with the new fire the priests burned incense to their gods. Then one by one all