THE PAWNEE HUMAN SACRIFICE 



51 



rites. All this suggests uii historical 

 connection between the Pawnee and 

 Aztec cultures, and since the Pawnee is a 

 small group compared with the latter, 

 the probabilities favor the Mexican origin 

 of the ceremony. 



Let us now turn our attention to the 

 question on its Mexican side. The scaf- 

 fold sacrifice may have been invented by 

 Moctezuma II in 1506, or more likely, it 

 may have been taken over into iVztec 

 ritual at that time from some tribe in 

 southern Mexico. The early Spanish 

 interpreter of the Codex T ellcnano-Rc- 

 mensis, writes under the year One Rab- 

 bit (1506) : " In this year Moctezuma shot 

 with arrows a man in this fashion [refer- 

 ring to the illustration], say the old men, 

 because for two hundred years there had 

 always been hunger upon the year One 

 Rabbit." ^ The unexcelled historian of 

 the Indians, Fray Bernardino de Saha- 

 gun, refers to the same year (in which 

 Zozullan had been captured) in these 

 words: "The Mexicans killed many of 

 those from Zozullan which they took 

 in war, and placing them as a windmill's 

 wings between two poles they shot them, 

 and each year they made this fiesta." In 

 addition to the representation of this sac- 

 rifice in the historical portion of the Co- 

 dex Telleriano-Rcmcnsis (and its copy, 

 the Codex Rios), there are other represen- 

 tations in the Codex Nuttall, the Manu- 

 scrit du Cacique and the Codex Porfirio 

 Diaz. All of these are native books made 

 before or just after the coming of the 

 Spaniards. 



The scaffold sacrifice was evidently 

 associated by the Aztecs with the feast 

 of the month Tlacaxipehualiztli. This 

 feast was sacred to Xipe Totec, the Lord 

 of the Flayed, a war god whose appalling 

 cult had spread far and wide over Mex- 

 ico and Central America. The feature 



1 According to the Aztec system the year OneRabbit 

 recurs every fifty-two years. 



of Xipe worship 

 which has at- 

 tracted most at- 

 tention was the 

 wearing by war- 

 rior priests of the 

 skins of flayed 

 victims and the 

 holding of a mock 

 battle in this grue- 

 some attire. .^ lit 

 may be added 

 that the earliest 

 reference to scalp- 

 ing is in connec- 

 tion with the cult 

 of Xipe. Anoth- 

 er ceremony per- 

 formed at this 

 feast was a sort of 

 gladiatorial con- 

 test in which a 

 captive, bound by 

 a rope to the cen- 

 ter of a great 

 stone disk and 

 armed with a 

 short wooden 

 club, was com- 

 pelled to fight 

 four warriors fully 

 armed, two wear- 

 ing jaguar-hide 

 costumes and two 

 dressed to repre- 

 sent eagles. In 

 the drawing from 

 the Manuscrit du 

 Cacique the cere- 

 monial of the 

 stone disk is indi- 

 cated at the left. 

 The rope passes 

 from the victim's 

 waist to the cen- 

 ter of the stone. 

 The handicapped 



