Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 2.djvu/190

166 There were also a number of minor chapels, or temples; some devoted to the worship of gods of Fire, Air, Earth, and Water, of the Sun and Night, and of Peace and War. A temple erected to the god of the Sun was particularly splendid: the walls were adorned with golden ornaments, and in the centre of the principal compartment of the building was a golden image of the luminary, surrounded with rays. The gates of this temple were beautifully ornamented with jasper and coloured woods: separate apartments for the priests being also contained within its walls.

The religious rites associated with these temples were horrible in the extreme: the gods were represented by the priests as delighting in offerings of vengeance and blood, and the deluded multitudes were daily familiarized to the sight of the most shocking atrocities. Superstitious dread appears to have been the source of all religious feeling at this period; and even the decorations of temples and other public buildings—consisting of serpents, tigers, and hideous nondescripts—were eminently calculated to inspire terror. Human sacrifices were considered to be the most expiatory for sin, and the most acceptable to the gods: