216 
was represented with thunder in his hand, seat-- 
ed on a stone in the form of a cube, and hav- 
ing before him a vase in which caoutchouc and 
seeds were offered him. The Aztecks followed 
this same worship till the year 1317, when the 
war with the inhabitants of the town of Xochi- 
milco furnished them with the first idea of a 
human sacrifice. The Mexican historians, who, 
immediately after the taking of Tenochtitlan, 
wrote in their own language, but making use of 
the Spanish alphabet, have transmitted to us 
this horrible event. 
From the beginning of the fourteenth cen- 
tury the Aztecks lived under the sway of the 
King of Colhuacan, and had principally con- 
tributed to the victory, which this king had 
gained over the Xochimilcks. When the war 
was finished, they were desirous of offering a 
sacrifice to their principal god, Huitzilopochtli, 
or Mexitli, whose image in wood, placed in a 
chair of reeds, called the seat of god, teoicpalU, 
and carried on the shoulders of four priests, 
had preceded them in their migration. They 
asked their master, the King of Colhuacan, to 
bestow on them some objects of value, to give 
greater solemnity to this sacrifice. The king, 
if we may give this title to the chief of a scanty 
tribe, sent them a dead bird, wrapped in a 
coarse cloth ; and to add mockery to insult, 
he proposed to them to attend at the festival 
