INHABITANTS OF COLOMBIA. 



171 



rocks struck by the first rays of the sun, and the body was then left to be consumed 

 by the heat of the day. 



Like the Mexican priests, the xeques proclaimed every new cycle of fifteen 

 years with a human victim, always a young man native of a village situated on the 

 eastern plains, whence Bochica had first made his appearance on the plateau. The 



Fig. 6Ô.— MuYscA Idol. 



victim represented the god, and in a public procession had to follow the same 

 route followed by Bochica. The priests, disguised as divinities, demons, and 

 animals, pierced the young man with arrows, and before his last gasp, tore out 

 heart and entrails, which were exposed to the sun. 



At the advent of the Spaniards the Muysca empire was already in a state of 

 decadence. The national life had been stifled by a system of rigid laws tmd by 



