114 GLADIATORIAL SACRIFICE SACRIFICIAL STONE. 



about eight feet from the wall. The captive was bound to this stone 

 by one foot, and was armed with a sword or maquahuitl and shield. 

 In this position, and thus accoutred, he was attacked by a Mexican 

 soldier or officer, who was better prepared with weapons for the dead- 

 ly encounter. If the prisoner was conquered he was immediately 

 borne to the altar of common sacrifice. If he overcame six assail- 

 ants he was rewarded with life and liberty, and permitted once more 

 to return to his native land with the spoils that had been taken from 

 him in war. Clavigero supposes that for many years, twenty thou- 

 sand victims were offered on the Mexican teocallis, in the "common 

 sacrifice and in the consecration of the great temple, sixty thousand 

 persons were slain in order to baptise the pyramid with their blood. 



SACRIFICIAL S'J 



An excellent idea of the sacrificial stone, will be obtained from 

 the plates which are annexed. Neat and graceful ornaments, are 

 raised in relief on the surface, and in the centre is a deep bowl, 

 whence a canal or gutter leads to the edge of the cylinder. It is 

 a mass of basaltic rock nine feet in diameter and three in height, 

 and was found in the great square in 1790, near the site of the 

 large teocalli or pyramid. On its sides are repeated, all round the 



