246 GUATEMALA. 
arches of evergreens and flowers spanned every entrance 
to this Plaza, whose floor was of the smoothest, whitest 
stucco, and heaps of fragrant flowers were piled at the 
palace-doorways and about the great altar that towered 
like a mountain of light in the midst. All around me 
were the phantom forms of the Indios, clad in garments 
of rich colors, but silent and expectant; I seemed to 
know them all and understand 
their tongue. It was the most 
sacred festival of the year; the 
rains had ceased, and the sum¬ 
mer was beginning, — and a 
summer at Utatlan was a de¬ 
light unequalled in the outer 
world. 
For many months the high 
priest and king had hidden 
himself from the sight of man, 
high in the mountains that over¬ 
look the Quiche plain. In his 
casa verde he was engaged in 
prayer and meditation, while 
his only food was fruit and un¬ 
cooked maiz. His body was 
unclothed, but stained with dismal dyes ; and twice every 
day, as the sun rose and set, he cut himself with an 
obsidian knife on his arms, legs, tongue, and genitals, 
that he might offer his choicest blood to the divinity he 
worshipped. Once only in his life must he do this; and 
scattered in the remote mountain-hermitages were many 
nobles keeping him company in the spirit. These were 
the fathers of the young men who had not yet offered 
