Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/167

 Thus arranged, the body of the captive lay arched over the rounded stone, with the breast and stomach stretched and raised.

The Topiltzin, or Sacrificer, then approached with a sharp knife of obsidian.



He made an incision in the victim's breast; tore out his heart with his hand; offered it to the sun, and then threw it palpitating at the feet of the god.

If the idol was large and hollow, it was usual to insert the heart in its mouth with a golden spoon; and at other times it "was taken up from the ground again, offered to the idol, burned, and the ashes preserved with the greatest veneration."

"After these ceremonies," says Dr. McCulloh, "the body was thrown from the top of the temple, whence it was taken by the person who had offered the sacrifice, and carried to his house, where it was eaten by himself and friends. The remainder was burned, or carried to the royal menageries to feed the wild beasts!" At times they offered only flowers, fruits, oblations of bread, cooked meats, (like the Chinese,) copal and gums, quails, falcons, and rabbits; but, at the feasts of some of the deities, especially every fourth year, among the Quauhtitlans, the rites were dreadfully inhuman.

Six trees were then planted in the area of the temple, and two slaves were sacrificed, from whose bodies the skin was stripped, and the thigh-bones withdrawn. On the following day, "clad in the bloody skins the thigh-bones in their hands," two of the chief priests slowly descended the steps of the temple; with dismal howlings, while the multitude assembled below shouted, "Behold our gods!"

At the base of the temple they danced to the sound of music, while the people sacrificed several thousand quails. When the oblation was terminated, the priests fastened to the tops of the trees six prisoners, who were immediately pierced with arrows. They then cut the bodies from the trees and threw them to the earth, where their breasts were torn open, and the hearts wrenched out according to the usual custom. This bloody and cruel festival was ended by a banquet, in which the priests and nobles of the city feasted on the quails and the human flesh!