Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 2.djvu/189

Rh exquisite materials and workmanship and where the tutelary idols were placed upon stones five feet high. The other two stories of these towers were used to preserve the necessary utensils for the worship of the idols; and also the ashes of the king's and principal chiefs deposited there from a feeling of superstitious devotion. The doors of all these apartments were placed towards the west; and the two towers were surmounted by beautiful wooden cupolas; elaborately carved and ornamented.

Beneath the upper platform was an altar for the "sacrifice of gladiators," or fighting men. Before the two sanctuaries were two stone vessels, about the height of a man, in which the sacred fire was constantly preserved with the utmost care; for it was believed that the greatest calamities would occur if it should ever happen to be extinguished: these vessels were seldom approached without being sprinkled with human blood. In the other temples and sacred edifices comprised within the precincts of the external wall, there were six hundred vessels of the same size and form, which at night, when the whole were kindled, presented a most attractive and brilliant spectacle.