SACRIFICIAL STONE. 119 
conclude this branch of an interesting antiquarian subject, by referring 
all who are curious in such matters, to the very interesting volumes of 
the Abbe Clavigero, who, after a residence of near forty years in the prov- 
inces of New Spain, composed his history of Mexico. His life had been 
passed in deep study of the Indian and Spanish writers, and the results of 
his well-digested labors have, after near half a century, passed to our 
times as indisputable authority. 
But after instructing you in some degree in the history of the priest- 
hood and the temples, it would be improper for me to leave the subject 
without an account of the services to which they were both devoted. 
The chief of these were the sacrifices — and in illustration of them, I 
have placed at the commencement of this letter, a drawing of the large 
circular stone now in the University of Mexico, known by the name of 
the " Piedra de Sacrificios," or Sacrificial Stone. It is an immense mass 
of basalt, mne/eef in diameter and three in height, and was found in 1790, 
below the great square of Mexico, on the site of the Teocalli, which I 
have just described. 
When first discovered, this stone was overturned, but, upon reversing 
it, carvings in bas-relief were seen on the surface, and the sides were 
found to be beautifully sculptured, as will be observed in the opposite 
plate. 
In the centre of the upper surface there is a circular cavity, from 
which a canal, or gutter, leads to the circumference of the cylinder and 
partly down its side. This, together with the sculpture, has induced most 
writers to believe it to have been the stone on which the priests performed 
their sacrifices, and that the blood of the victims flowed from it by these 
evident conduits. Yet other authors doubt whether it was ever appropri- 
ated to this use. It is true, that in the description of the great Temple 
given by the old writers, it is alleged that in front of the tower, on the 
summit, there was a large convex stone upon which they extended the 
person who was to be sacrificed ; but it is highly probable that so huge a 
mass of rock as this,* could not have been borne up such intricate passages 
as the steps of the Teocalli, to the height of 120 feet. De Gama is of opin- 
ion that these stones were also found in the square below, in the temples, 
or before the altars of other deities ; and, in the description of those iu 
the temples of Huitzilopolchtli and Tlaloc, Doctor Hernandez says they 
were '' convexas et orUculari forma" and called " Techcatl." "Ante 
has" (meusulas) " aderant lapidse orbiculari forma, quibus techcatl no- 
men, ubi servi, at in proeliis capti, in horum Deorum honorem macta- 
bantur, ^ quilus lapidibus in parimentum usque in infemum civi sanguinei 
cmspiciehantur vestigia, quod etiam videbatur in cceteris turribus." 
With these authorities, and apparent appropriateness from the cavi- 
ties already described, it is, nevertheless, the opinion of De Gama that this 
was neither a Stone of Sacrifice, nor the Gladiatorial Stone. Such, how. 
* Nine feet in diameter bj three feet hieh. 
