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deprived the sun of life, and some such 

 catastrophe was apprehended at the end of 

 every "sheaf" of fifty-two years. The old 

 suns were dead, and the current sun was no 

 more immortal than they. At the end of 

 one of the " slieaves " he. too. would suc- 

 cumb. 



Hence the sun must be fed and strengtli- 

 ened with human blood. 



HUMAN SACRIFICES. 



How the warriors of Mexico and Tlas- 

 cala used to obtain the necessary victim.'^ 

 for their sacrifices to the gods is related 

 by Mr. Spence in an interesting para 

 graph : 



Once a year they met on a pre-arranged 

 battle-ground and engaged in combat, not 

 with the intention of killing one another, 

 but with the object of takinr; prisoners for 

 sacrifice on the altars of their respective 

 war-gods. The warrior seized liis opponent 

 and attempte<l to bear him off, the various 

 groups pulling and tugging desperately at 

 each other. . . Onc<. securea. the Tlas- 



caltec warrior was brought to Mexico in a 

 cage, and first pliced upon a stone slab. t<i 

 which one of his feet was secured bv a 

 chain or thong. He was then given light 

 weapons, more like jjlaythings than war- 

 riors' gear, and confronted by one of the 

 most celebrated Mexican warriors. Should 

 he succeed in defeating six of these for- 

 midable antagonists, he was set free. Rut 

 no sooner was he woundtnl than ho was 

 hurrietl to the altar of sacrifice. 



So far we have confined ourselves to 

 the Mexican chapters of the book. It 



should be remembered, however, that the 

 Maya of Yucatan, who are the subject 

 of two later chapters, were the most 

 highly civilised of all the native races of 

 America, while, perhaps, the most fas- 

 cinating feature of American civilisa- 

 tion was the so-called " State Socialism " 

 of Peru. Mr. Spence justly points out 

 that the bureaucracy of the Incas was 

 absolutely unlike anything that modern 

 men understand b\- Socialism : 



Every man, woman, and child was num- 

 bered, branded and under surveillance as 

 much as were the llamas in the royal herds. 

 Individual effort or enterprise was unheard 

 of. Some writers have stated that a system 

 of State socialism obtained in Peru. If so. 

 then State surveillance in Central Russia 

 might also be branded as socialism. A 

 man's life was plannc^l for him by the 

 authorities from the age of five years, and 

 even the woman whom he was to marry was 

 selectetl for him by the Government officials. 

 Coloured ribbons worn round the 

 head indic.ited the i)l)ce of a person's birth 

 or the province to which he belonged. 



Though " Myths of Mexico and Peru " 

 is chiefly a book about civilisation, it is 

 by no means neglectful of the myths 

 of which its title boasts. Four of the 

 seven chapters of the volume, indeed, 

 are directly concerned with mythology. 

 The book, as a whole, is both instructive 

 and interesting, and is the work of one 

 who is an acknowledged master of his 

 subject. 



WAR AGAINST WAR. 



Essays Toiranls I'rac. With an In- 

 troduction l)v Hvpatia Hradlaugh Bonner. 

 (Watts, 9d. iiet.)' 



Here are grouped together under the 

 auspices of the Rationalist Peace Societ)- 

 four essays by writers of proved autho- 

 rity. Mrs. Bradlaugh Bonner, in her 

 Introduction, points out that Chris 

 tianity, in spite of its creed of 

 peace and goodwill, cart hardly claim 

 to have stood strongly in the past 

 for pacific policy, a statement which 

 is supported by Professor Wester- 

 marck's essay, abridged from his work 

 on "The Origin and Developrhent of 

 Moral Ideas." Professor Westermarck 

 shows that Christianity gave up its atti- 

 tude of disapproval of war as soon as it 

 became a State religion, instead of a 

 heretical sect, and that the later associa- 

 tion between Chivalry and Religion gave 

 a kind of divine sanction to warfare. 



Mr. Norman Angell writes of "War as 

 the Failure of Reason," and argues ably 

 that the process that shall free us from 

 the burden of militarism must be intel- 

 lectual, not emotional, and that clearer 

 thinking is the first duty. Mr. J. M. 

 Robertson declares that " scientifically 

 speaking it would be as justifiable to say 

 that there will always be cannibalism as 

 to say there will always be war," and tears 

 to pieces the assertion of the militarist 

 that war improves a nation's quality. 

 Mr. S. H. Swinny's essay on " Rational- 

 ism and International Righteousness" 

 rounds off the argument for a better 

 understanding between nations. All 

 four essays are models of conciseness 

 and clearness, and they present the in- 

 dictment of militarism with an unemo- 

 tional reasonableness which drives the 

 point deep. 



