Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 2.djvu/186

162 of successive Aztec kings, it at length became the richest and most extensive building in ancient America. It occupied the centre of the city and was surrounded by a vast high wall of great thickness built of stone, in the form of a square, and wrought on the outside with knots of serpents intertwisted. The four sides of the square had as many gates, opening to the four quarters of the heavens; over each gate was a stone figure with outstretched arms: these were threshold gods, for the adoration of devotees on their entrance. Above each gate was, also, a building supplied with warlike implements, where the troops of the city retired on emergency; and on the inside of the walls were the habitations of the priests and attendants on the temple.

Near one of the gates was an initiatory chapel of stone, with thirty steps leading up to a flat roof; round this building rows of trees were planted, through holes in which were thrust bars, forming a continuous line, which were perpetually strung with the heads of victims sacrificed. The priests carefully kept an account of these ghastly trophies, and renewed them from time to time, as they fell