LIX. Killing the God in Mexico
BY NO PEOPLE does the custom of sacrificing the human representative
of a god appear to have been observed so commonly and with so much
solemnity as by the Aztecs of ancient Mexico. With the ritual of
these remarkable sacrifices we are well acquainted, for it has been
fully described by the Spaniards who conquered Mexico in the
sixteenth century, and whose curiosity was naturally excited by the
discovery in this distant region of a barbarous and cruel religion
which presented many curious points of analogy to the doctrine and
ritual of their own church. "They took a captive," says the Jesuit
Acosta, "such as they thought good; and afore they did sacrifice him
unto their idols, they gave him the name of the idol, to whom he
should be sacrificed, and apparelled him with the same ornaments
like their idol, saying, that he did represent the same idol. And
during the time that this representation lasted, which was for a
year in some feasts, in others six months, and in others less, they
reverenced and worshipped him in the same manner as the proper idol;
and in the meantime he did eat, drink, and was merry.
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