Page:Life in Mexico vol 1.djvu/112

92 burnt scorpions and spiders; their chiefs were the sons of kings.

It is remarkable, by the way, that their god of war Mejitli, was said to have been born of a woman, a Holy Virgin, who was in the service of the temple, and that when the priests having knowledge of her disgrace, would have stoned her, a voice was heard, saying: "Fear not, mother; for I shall save thy honor and my glory;" upon which, the god was born, with a shield in his left hand, an arrow in his right, a plume of green feathers on his head; his face painted blue, and his left leg adorned with feathers! Thus was his gigantic statue represented.

There were gods of the Water, of the Earth, of Night, Fire and Hell; goddesses of Flowers and of Corn; there were oblations offered of bread and flowers and jewels, but we are assured that from twenty to fifty thousand human victims were sacrificed annually in Mexico alone! That these accounts are exaggerated, even though a Bishop is among the narrators, we can scarcely doubt, but if the tenth part be the truth, let the memory of Cortes be sacred, who, with the cross stopped the shedding of innocent blood, founded the cathedral on the ruins of the temple, which had so often resounded with human groans, and in the place of these blood-smeared idols enshrined the mild form of the Virgin.

Meanwhile we entered the Christian edifice, which covers an immense space of ground, is of the gothic form, with two lofty ornamented towers, and is still immensely rich in gold, silver and jewels. A balustrade running through it, which was brought from