Page:Young Folks History Of Mexico.pdf/87

 Rh great famine, first from the inundation and then from frost, so that the corn crop, the maize upon which they almost solely depended for food, was a failure. The two following years were likewise unfavorable, and in the year 1452 many people of Mexico died of starvation. Many others wandered into the neighboring county and sold themselves into slavery for a little corn, their needs were so great, even though the royal granaries were opened. The king published a proclamation, that no woman should sell herself as a slave for less than four hundred ears of maize, and no man for less than five hundred. As in the olden time, before Mexico was founded, the Aztecs now lived upon water-fowl, small fish and insects, which they caught in and about the lake. There is a peculiar water insect called the axayacatl, which lays its eggs on the water, among the rushes of Lake Tezcoco. Their eggs, when gathered and pressed together, form a substance like cheese, and this the inhabitants of Mexico subsisted upon, even as many of their descendants do at the present time.

[A. D. 1454.] Even the famine, which lasted nearly six years, did not interrupt the dreadful sacrifices. The priests gave out that the gods were angry, and more blood must be shed to appease them. You will perhaps hardly credit the story, but it is related that in order to gratify the priests and to cause their gods to relent, some tribes entered into a compact to regularly fight one another, that the victors might have prisoners to sacrifice to these bloodthirsty deities. Half-starved men and women might have been obtained in every town, but the gods were not satisfied with their blood, they wanted the rich life-current of brave and stalwart soldiers!

[A. D. 1455.] At last the famine ceased, and plenty once more came to the stricken land, just as a new cycle entered upon its rounds. This they attributed to their