Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 1.djvu/128

114 about eight feet from the wall. The captive was bound to this stone by one foot, and was armed with a sword or maquahuitl and shield. In this position, and thus accoutred, he was attacked by a Mexican soldier or officer, who was better prepared with weapons for the deadly encounter. If the prisoner was conquered he was immediately borne to the altar of common sacrifice. If he overcame six assailants he was rewarded with life and liberty, and permitted once more to return to his native land with the spoils that had been taken from him in war. Clavigero supposes that for many years, twenty thousand victims were offered on the Mexican teocallis, in the "common sacrifice;" and in the consecration of the great temple, sixty thousand persons were slain in order to baptise the pyramid with their blood.



An excellent idea of the sacrificial stone, will be obtained from the plates which are annexed. Neat and graceful ornaments, are raised in relief on the surface, and in the centre is a deep bowl, whence, a canal or gutter leads to the edge of the cylinder. It is a mass of basaltic rock nine feet in diameter and three in height, and was found in the great square in 1790, near the site of the large teocalli or pyramid. On its sides are repeated, all round the