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As I knew, it was in keeping with the Aztec customs that prisoners taken in war thus should be brought first of all before the god Huitzilopochtli, that they and their captors together might do him reverence; therefore, I was not surprised when a priest came forth from behind the altar and bade us prostrate ourselves in adoration of the idol.
Some very ancient sacred songs were referred to by Tezozomoc as peculiar to the worship of Huitzilopochtli, and, indeed, introduced by this potent divinity. From their names, cuitlaxoteyotl, and tecuilhuicuicatl, I judge that they referred to some of those pederastic rites which still prevail extensively among the natives of the pueblos of New Mexico, and which have been described by Dr.
The Mexican sacraments in honour of Huitzilopochtli were also accompanied by the sacrifice of human victims. The tradition that the founder of the sacred grove at Aricia was a man named Manius, from whom many Manii were descended, would thus be an etymological myth invented to explain the name maniae as applied to these sacramental loaves.
When the great teocalli of Huitzilopochtli was dedicated in the year 1486, no less than 70,000 prisoners were thus sacrificed, and in the whole kingdom every year the victims were never fewer than 20,000, or, as some old writers say, 50,000. The Aztec writing was not with letters and words, but consisted of little coloured pictures, each of which had some special meaning.
Bernal Diaz was there, and tells the tale how they heard from the city the great drum of Huitzilopochtli sending forth a strange and awful sound, that could be heard for miles, and with it many horns and trumpets; and how, when they had looked towards the great teocalli, they saw the Mexicans dragging up the prisoners, pushing and beating them as they went, till they had got them up to the open space at the top, "where the cursed idols stood."
Then the elders of the temple lifted it on their shoulders, and while some swung burning censers and others played on instruments or sang, they carried it in procession through the great courtyard to the hall of the god Huitzilopochtli and then back to the chamber, where stood the wooden image of the Maize Goddess, whom the girl personated.
Of course the general's first inquiry was as to the origin of the tumult, and this was the story he heard. The Aztec festival called 'The incensing of Huitzilopochtli' was about to be celebrated, in which, as it was an important one, nearly all the nobles took part.
There were altars in it, where they used to kill and burn hundreds and thousands of human sacrifices to Huitzilopochtli, and there were altars to other gods." "I can't exactly speak that name," said Ned, "but I want to know all about him and the sacrifices. I want to learn, too, just how Cortes and his men took the old city.
Teuchtlile happened to notice a partly gilt helmet on one of our soldiers, which he said resembled one which had belonged to their ancestors, and which was now placed on the head of Huitzilopochtli, their god of war, and which he wished to carry along with them to Montezuma.
Then he thought a great deal of the wonderful land of forests and mountains which lay beyond the fever-haunted lowlands, and he longed more and more for a good look at the empire which Hernando Cortes won from the old Montezumas and their bloody war-god, Huitzilopochtli. In the afternoon of the second day the sky was manifestly putting on a threatening aspect.
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