122 
MEXICO, 
Thus arranged, the body of the captive lay arched over the rounded 
stone, witli the breast and stomach stretched and raised. 
The Topiltzin, or Sacrificer, then approached with a sharp knife of 
obsidian. 
SACKIFICIAL KNIFE OP OBSIDIAN. 
He made an incision in the victim's breast; tore out his heart with his 
hand ; offered it to the sun, and then threw it palpitating at the feet of the 
god. 
If the idol was large and hollow, it was usual to insert the heart in 
its mouth with a golden spoon ; and at other times it " was taken up from 
the ground again, offered to the idol, burned, and the ashes preserved with 
the greatest veneration." 
" After these ceremonies," says Dr. McCuUoh, "the body was thrown 
from the top of the temple, whence it was taken by the person who had 
offered the sacrifice, and carried to his house, where it was eaten by him- 
self and friends. The remainder was burned, or carried to the royal 
menageries to feed the wild beasts!'^ 
At times they offered only flowers, fruits, oblations of bread, cooked 
meats, (like the Chinese,) copal and gums, quails, falcons, and rabbits ; 
but, at the feasts of some of the deities, especially every fourth year, 
among the Quauhtitlans, the rites were dreadfully inhuman. 
Six trees were then planted in the area of the temple, and two slaves 
were sacrificed, from whose bodies the skin was stripped, and the thigh- 
bones withdrawn. On the following day, " clad in the bloody skins with 
the thigh-bones in their hands," two of the chief priests slowly descended 
the steps of the temple, with dismal bowlings, while the multitude assem- 
bled below shouted, " Behold our gods !" 
At the base of the temple they danced to the sound of music, while the 
people sacrificed several thousand quails. When this oblation was ter- 
minated, the priests fastened to the tops of the trees six prisoners, who 
were immediately pierced with arrows. They then cut the bodies from 
the trees and threw them to the earth, where their breasts were torn 
open, and the hearts wrenched out according to the usual custom. This 
bloody and cruel festival was ended by a banquet, in wliich the priests 
and nobles of the city feasted on the quails and the human fesh ! 
