I 



220 



of war savored the blood of human victims. 

 Mexitli came into the world with a dart in his 

 right hand, a buckler in his left, and his head 

 covered with a helmet crowned with green fea- 

 thers ; his first feat at his birth was to kill his 

 brothers and sisters. Perhaps, under other 

 climates, sanguinary rites had been offered to 

 this terrible god, called also Tetzahuitl, or the 

 terrific ; perhaps this worship had a respite only 

 because prisoners were wanting, and consequent- 

 ly victims ; while the nation, marching under 

 the auspices of Mexitli, made a peaceable pro- 

 gress across the mountains of Tarahumara to 

 the elevated central plain of Mexico. 



The continual wars of the Aztecks, after 

 they had fixed their residence on the islets of 

 the salt lake of Tezcuco, furnished them with 

 so considerable a number of victims, that hu- 

 man sacrifices were offered to all their divini- 

 ties without exception, even to Quetzalcoatl *, 

 who, like the Bouddha of the Hindoos, had 

 preached against this execrable custom ; and 

 to the goddess of the harvests, the Mexican 

 Ceres, called Centeotl, or Tonacajohua, she who 

 feeds mankind. The Totonacks, who had adopt- 

 ed the whole of the Tolteck and Azteck my- 

 thology, distinguished, as of a different race, 



* Gomara, Chronica general de las Indias, (edition of 

 1553), vol. 2, fol. 134. 



