Page:The Annals of the Cakchiquels.djvu/51

Rh the spines of the gourd tree and maguey, and elsewhere (Sec, 37) refers to the sacrifice of infants at a certain festival. The word for the sacrificial letting of blood was ꜯohb, which, by some of the missionaries, was claimed as the root of the word ꜭabuil, deity.

Human sacrifice was undoubtedly frequent, although the reverse has been asserted by various historians. Father Varea gives some curious particulars. The victim was immolated by fire, the proper word being ꜭatoh, to burn, and then cut in pieces and eaten. When it was, as usual, a male captive, the genital organs were given to one of the old women who were prophetesses, to be eaten by her, as a reward for her supplications for their future success in battle. The cutting in pieces of Tolꜭom, in the narrative of Xahila, has reference to such a festival.

Sanchez y Leon states that the most usual sacrifice was a child. The heart was taken out, and the blood was sprinkled toward the four cardinal points as an act of adoration to the four winds, copal being burned at the same time, as an incense.

A leading feature in their ceremonial worship was the sacred dance, or, as the Spanish writers call it, el baile. The native name for it is xahoh, and it is repeatedly referred to in the Annals. The legendary origin of some of these dances,