The Pipiles had two idols, one in the figure of a man, called Quetzalcoatl, the other in the shape of a woman, called Itzqueye. Certain days of their calendar were specially set apart for each of the deities, and on these the sacrifices were made. Two very solemn sacrifices were held in each year, one at the commencement of summer, the other at the beginning of winter. At these, Herrera says, only the lords were present.[1038] The sacrifice was made in the interior of the temple, and the victims were boys between the ages of six and twelve years, bastards, born among themselves. For a day and a night previous to the sacrifice, drums and trumpets were sounded and on the day following the people assembled. Four priests then came out from the temple, each bearing a small brazier with burning incense; together they turned in the direction of the sun, and kneeling down offered up incense and prayers; they then did the same toward the four cardinal points.[1039] Their prayers finished, they retired within four small chapels built at the four corners of the temple, and there rested. They next went to the house of the high-priest, and took thence the boy who was to be sacrificed and conducted him four times round the court of the temple, dancing and singing. When this ceremony was finished, the high-priest came out of his house, with the diviner and guardian of the sanctuary, and ascended the steps of the temple, with the cacique and principal men, who, however, remained at the door of the sanctuary. The four priests now seized the boy by the arms and legs, and the guardian of the temple coming out with little bells on his wrists and ankles, opened the left breast of the victim, tore out the heart, and handed it to the high-priest, who placed it in a small embroidered purse which he carried. The four priests received the blood of the victim in four jicaras, or bowls, made from the shell of a certain fruit, and descending one after the other to the courtyard, sprinkled the blood with their right hands in the direction of the cardinal points. If any blood remained over they returned it to the high-priest, who placed it with the purse containing the heart in the body of the victim through the wound that had been made, and the body was interred in the temple. This was the ceremony of sacrifice at the beginning of each of the two seasons.
PIPILE FEAST OF VICTORY.
When information was received from their war chief that he had gained a victory, the diviner ascertained to which of the gods sacrifice was to be made. If to Quetzalcoatl, the ceremony lasted fifteen days; if to Itzqueye, five days; and upon each day they sacrificed a prisoner. These sacrifices were made as follows: All those who had been in the battle returned home in procession, singing and dancing, bringing with them the captives who were to be sacrificed, their wrists and ankles decorated with feathers and chalchiuites, and their necks with strings of cacao-nibs. The high-priests and other ministers went out at the head of the populace to meet them with music and dancing, and the caciques and captains delivered over those who were to be sacrificed to the high-priest. Then they all went together to the courtyard of their teupa, or temple, where they continued dancing day and night during the time the sacrifices lasted. In the middle of the court was a stone bench on which the victim was stretched, four priests holding him by the feet and hands. The sacrificing priest then came forward, adorned with many feathers and loaded with little bells, holding in his hand a flint knife, with which he opened the breast of the victim, tore out the heart, brandished it toward the cardinal points, and finally threw it into the air with sufficient force to cause it to fall directly in the middle of the court, saying: "Receive, Oh God, this thank-offering for the victory."[1040] This sacrifice was public and beheld by all the people. The men drew blood from their private parts, and the women from their ears, tongue, and other parts of the body; as the blood flowed it was taken up with cotton and offered by the men to Quetzalcoatl, by the women to Itzqueye.
When the Pipiles were about to undertake any hunting or fishing expedition, they first made an offering to their gods. For this purpose they took a living deer,[1041] and leading it to the temple yard, they there strangled and afterwards flayed it, saving the blood in a vessel. The liver, lungs, and stomach were chopped in small pieces, which were afterwards laid aside with the heart, head, and feet. The remainder of the deer was cooked by itself, and the blood likewise, and while this was being done the people danced. The high-priest with his assistant next took the head by the ears, and each of the four priests one of the feet, while the guardian of the sanctuary put the heart into a brazier and burnt it with copal and ulli to the god who was the protector of hunting. After the dance, the head and feet were scorched in the fire before the idol and given to the high-priest to be eaten. The flesh and blood were eaten by the other ministers of the temple before the idol, and the same was done with other animals sacrificed. The entrails of fish were burned before the idol.[1042]
SACRIFICES IN NICARAGUA.
Among the civilized nations of Nicaragua, it would appear there were eighteen distinct festivals, corresponding with the eighteen months in their calendar.[1043] These were proclaimed by the priest, holding the instrument of sacrifice in his hand, from the steps leading to the sacrificial altar in the court of the temple. He made known who and how many were to be sacrificed, and whether they were to be prisoners taken in battle or individuals reared among themselves for the purpose.[1044] When the victim was stretched upon the stone, the officiating priest walked three times round him, singing in a doleful tone; he then opened the victim's breast, plucked out his heart, and daubed his face with the blood. He next dismembered the body and gave the heart to the high-priest, the feet and hands to the king, the thighs to him who had captured him, the entrails to the trumpeters, and the remainder to the people, that all might eat.[1045] The heads of those sacrificed were set as trophies on trees appointed for the purpose.[1046] If the person sacrificed had been bought, they buried the entrails, hands, and feet, in a gourd, and burned the heart and all the rest.[1047] As it was lawful for a father to sell his own children, and each person himself, they therefore did not eat the flesh of such sacrifices because they were their own countrymen and relations. When they ate the flesh of foreigners sacrificed, they held exciting dances, and passed the days in drunken revels and smoking, but had no sexual intercourse with their wives while the festival lasted.[1048] At certain feasts they offered blood drawn from their own bodies, with which they rubbed the beard and lips of the idol.
The priests wore white cotton cloaks, some short and small, others hung from the shoulders to the heels, with bands having bags attached, in which they carried sharp stone knives, papers, ground charcoal, and certain herbs. The lay brothers bore in their hands little flags with the idol they held most in veneration painted thereon, and small purses containing powder and awls; the youths had bows and arrows, darts and shields. The idol, in form and appearance very frightful, was set upon a spear and carried by the eldest priest. The ascetics marched in file, singing, to the place of worship. They spread mantles and strewed roses and flowers, that the standards might not touch the ground. The procession halted; the singing ceased; they fell to prayer. The prelate clapped his hand; some drew blood from the tongue, others from the ears, from the privy member, or from whatever part their devotion led them. They took the blood on paper or on their fingers and smeared the idol's face. In the meantime the youths danced, leaped about, and shook their weapons. Those who had gashed themselves, cured their wounds by an application of powdered charcoal and herbs that they carried for the purpose. In these observances they sprinkled maize with the blood from their privy parts, and it was distributed and eaten as blessed bread.[1049]
BANQUETS OF THE PEOPLE.