SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 57 



important cause, whether civil or criminal, 

 offered incense to the four principal winds. 

 But incense-offering among the Mexicans, 

 and other nations of Anahuac, was not only 

 an act of religion towards their gods, but 

 also a piece of civil courtesey to lords and 



ambassadors." 



* * * * 



"There was no fixed place for burials: 

 many ordered their ashes to be buried near 

 to some temple or altar, some in the fields, 

 and others in those sacred places of the 

 mountains where sacrifices used to be made. 

 The ashes of the kings and lords were, for 

 the most part, deposited in the towers of the 

 temples, especially in those of the greater 

 temple. Close to Teotihuacan, where there 

 were many temples, there were also innume- 

 rable sepulchres. The tombs of those whose 

 bodies had been buried entire^ agreeably to 

 the testimony of the anonymous conqueror 



