82 MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS RITES. 
introduction to it. At last, when the hour of his execution drew nigh, he 
was brought to the temple with a numerous guard around him, to prevent 
every attempt to escape. On the threshold a priest awaited his arrival, 
with an ugly little idol in his arms, made of corn meal and honey, the eyes 
being green stones, and the teeth kernels of corn. As soon as the prisoner 
approached, the priest descended hastily, and seating himself upon a little 
platform, held his little monster towards the victim, and exclaimed: 
“ Behold! your god.” The prisoner was then undressed and his bonds 
removed, and in the company of six priests conducted to the roof of the 
temple, where they kept the sacrificial stone. This was a slab of green 
jasper, five feet long, and a little raised in the centre. Upon it he was 
stretched out, while four of the priests held his hands and feet, and a fifth 
threw around his neck a wooden collar made in the shape of a coiled ser- 
pent, by which he kept his head upon the stone. 
The high priest (Tolpetzin) then came forward, and held aloft the idol to 
which the prisoner was about to be sacrificed, outs he called upon the 
spectators to worship it. This having been domes he approached the altar, 
armed with the terrible sacrificial stone-knife, and made a deep incision in 
the breast of his victim, from which he tore the bleeding and still palpitat- 
ing heart. At first he held it up towards the sun, and then threw it at the 
feet of the idol, where he left it only for a second or two, when he picked 
it up again, and either put it in the mouth of the statue or rubbed its lips 
with it. After this it was burnt, and the ashes scattered in the air. 
If the victim was a prisoner of war, they cut off his head, and then threw the 
body down among the people, where the officer or soldier who had captured 
him stood ready to receive it, and to feast his friends upon the horrid dishes 
prepared of the flesh. The head was then placed by the priests in a build- 
ing set aside as a receptacle for the heads of all victims slain at this altar. 
The largest building of the kind was called Huctzomban, and was a huge 
truneated pyramid of earth, on whose top were seventy large trees, with 
bars passing from one to another, upon which the skulls were exposed. 
These savage sacrifices were very common among the different nations of 
Anahuac, who had gradually adopted the religion and customs of the power- 
ful Azteks. 
But the Azteks, who were more warlike than the other nations, had also 
a custom peculiar to themselves. During certain festivals, they permitted 
the bravest or most noble of their prisoners to fight in single combat for 
their lives. Ifthe prisoner accepted this offer, one of his feet was fastened 
to a large stone, and he was furnished with sword and shield; he had then 
to defend himself against the antagonist who had offered to slay him as a 
sacrifice. But only the same arms were permitted to this champion, and 
the combat had to take place before the assembled multitude. If the 
prisoner became the victor he escaped not only a horrid death, but was 
also honored with the titles and dignities which the laws of the land 
bestowed upon the most renowned warriors, and was permitted to return to 
his country laden with arms and booty. But the conquered man had to 
take his place on the bloody altar, for the priests were unwilling to set a 
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