HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



53 



then taking it up again he offered it to the idol itfelf, 

 and afterwards burned it, preferving the aflies with the 

 utmofl veneration. If the idol was gigantic and hollow, 

 it was ufual to introduce the heart of the vi&im into its 

 mouth with a golden fpoon. It was cuftomary alfo to 

 anoint the lips of the idol and the cornices of the door 

 of, the fan&uary with the victim's blood. If he was a 

 prifoner of war 3 as foon as he was facrificed they cut off" 

 his head to preferve the ikull, and threw the body down 

 the ftairs to the lower area, where it was taken up by 

 the officer or foldier to whom the prifoner had belong- 

 ed, and carried to his houfe to be boiled and dreffed as 

 an entertainment for his friends. If he was not a pri- 

 foner of war, but a Have purchafed for a facrifice, the 

 proprietor carried off" the carcafs from the altar for the 

 fame purpofe. They eat only the legs, thighs, and 

 arms, and burned the red, or, preferved it for food to 

 the wild beafts or birds of prey which were kept in the 

 royal palaces. The Otomies, after having killed the 

 vi&im, tore the body in pieces, which they fold at mar- 

 ket. The Zapotecas facrificed men to their gods, wo- 

 men to their goddefifes, and children to fome other dimi- 

 nutive deities. 



This was the mofl common mode of facrifice, but 

 often attended with fome circumftances of ftill greater 

 cruelty, as we mall fee hereafter ; other kinds of facri- 

 fices which they ufed were much lefs frequent. At the 

 feftival of Teteoinan, the woman who reprefented this 

 goddefs was beheaded on the moulders of another wo- 

 man. At the feftival of the arrival of the gods, they 

 put the victims to death by fire. At one of the feftivals 

 made in honour of Tlaloc, they facrificed two children 

 of both fexes by drowning them in a certain place of 



the 



