Ht'NTINQ AMONG THE ANCIENT MEXICANS 18 



MONTEZUMA. 



CHAPTER II. 



HUNTING AMONG THE ANCIENT MEXICANS. 



VERY circumstance in the character and 

 customs and condition of the Mexicans, 

 under Montezuma and his predecessors 

 of the Aztec race, predisposed them to 

 be active hunters. .The Aztecs were a 

 cruel race and delighted in blood. Their 

 forest laws, according to Mr. Prescott,* 

 were as severe as those of the Normans 

 under Wilhain the Conqueror. They had human sacrifices. In 

 some of these bloody rites the heart of the victim was torn from 

 the living body, as an acceptable offering to their stein gods. In 

 others, which might be termed gladiatorial sacrifices, the victim 

 was bound by a chain attached to his leg and fastened to a plat* 

 folir., where he was compelled to fight a fiee antagonist, ur.til his 



* Conquest of Mexico. 



