Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/204

168 figures of human faces made of gold, and hearts of silver set with many precious blue stones. In front of the image stood several incense pans in which the hearts of three Indians, who had that day been sacrificed, were burning with copal as a burnt-offering. The walls of the chapel and the whole floor were so encrusted with human blood that they were black, and the stench of the place was unendurable.

On the left hand stood another figure of the same size as that of Huitzilopochtli. Its face was very like that of a bear, and its shining eyes were made of the looking glass of their country. This idol, like the other, for they say they are brothers, was plastered with precious stones. It was Tezcatlipoca, god of hell, and in charge of the souls of the Mexicans. His body was encircled by little devils with snakes' tails. The walls and floor round this idol, too, were saturated with blood so that the place smelled as vilely as a slaughter house in Spain. Five human hearts were that day's sacrifice to him.

At the very top of this temple rose another chapel, the woodwork richly carved, and in it was another image, half man and half lizard, covered with precious stones, and half of the body spread with a mantle. They said the half-covered body held seeds of every plant of the earth, for this image represented the god of seed time and harvest. I have forgotten its name but not that here, also, everything was