Page:Mexican Archæology.djvu/322

262 is clearly the head of the maize-god, the scene may be interpreted as representing merely an offering of grain. In the Quiché myths, the introduction of human sacrifice is associated with the "Yaqui," a name afterwards used of the Mexicans, and it is the god Tohil, whom this people received from Tulan who, by a trick, obtains the right to the hearts of the other tribes in return for the gift of fire. But the open and extensive practice of the rite belongs to a later stage of Quiché history, as the Popol Vuh also demonstrates. It is possible that the practice was, to speak generally, foreign to the original Maya, but was introduced in later times from Mexico, It seems to to have been found among the Kakchiquel, accompanied on certain occasions by cannibalism, and we learn that at a certain festival children were killed with arrows, a ceremony recalling the Mexican festival of Tlacaxipeualiztl. An even closer correspondence with the ritual observed at this festival was found in Yucatan, where the victim was on certain occasions flayed and the priest assumed the skin. Here too the shooting sacrifice was practised; the victim was tied to a tree, with a white mark painted over his heart; the worshippers passed rapidly in front and each discharged arrows at the mark. Cogolludo speaks of many bloody arrows being found in a shrine at Campeche, which had probably been used in this rite. At Chichen Itza human sacrifice was made to the sacred cenote (natural well), which was supposed to be a place of great sanctity. The victim was cast into the water with other offerings and was believed to emerge alive after three days had elapsed. The usual method of sacrifice however in Yucatan was the tearing out of the victim's heart by the Nacon, who anointed the image with the blood. Here the custom had become very prevalent at the discovery, as the fate of Valdivia's crew in 1511 shows. Prisoners of war, slaves and even children constituted the usual victims, and