[1038] Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iv., lib. viii., cap. x.
[1039] 'Ivanse derechos todos quatro juntos á do sale el sol, i se hincavan de rodillas ante el, i le zaumavan diciendo palabras é invocaciones, i esto fecho se dividian hacia quatro partes, lest, oest, norte, sur, i predicavan sus rictos i ceremonias.' Palacio, Carta, p. 68.
[1040] 'Yua el sacristan y sacauale con la nauaja el coraçon, y arrojauale al dios, o a la diosa, y dezia, Toma el fruto desta vitoria.' Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iv., lib. viii., cap. x.
[1041] Brasseur de Bourbourg says: 'cerf blanc.' Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 557.
[1042] 'Le sacrifice du cerf blanc, d'abord un des plus augustes, devint, plus tard, l'offrande commune et exclusive des chasseurs qui désiraient se rendre favorables les dieux protecteurs de la chasse et des forêts.' Id., p. 557; Palacio, Carta, pp. 74-6.
[1043] 'Echauan las fiestas que eran diez y ocho, como los meses subidos en el gradario, o sacrificadero que tenian los patios de los templos.' Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. iv., cap. vii. In the evidence taken by Fray Françisco de Bobadilla the number of festivals is given as twenty-one and eleven; I must therefore leave the reader to decide for himself which is correct. 'Y.—En un año tenemos veynte é un dias de fiestas (é no juntos estos dias).... F.—En el tiempo de aquellas onçe fiestas, que deçis que teneys cada año.' Oviedo, Hist. Gen., tom. iv., pp. 47, 52.
[1044] 'For there are two kindes of humane sacrifices with them: the one, of enemies taken in the warres, the other of such as are brought vp and maintained at home.' Peter Martyr, dec. vi., lib. vi.
[1045] 'And whosoeuer should haue no parte nor portion of the sacrificed enemie, would thinke he shoulde bee ill accepted that yeere.' Ib.
[1046] 'Euery King nourisheth his appointed trees in a fielde neere vnto him, obseruing the names of euery hostile country, where they hange the heads of their sacrificed enemies taken in the warres.' Ib.
[1047] Herrera gives a similar account of the disposal of the body, but adds: 'Saluo que ponian la cabeça en los arboles.' Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. iv., cap. vii. I think it improbable that the heads were treated in the same manner as those of their enemies. Peter Martyr says nothing distinctly of the disposal of the head, but, speaking of the sacrifice, says 'they reuerence all parts thereof, and partly bury them beefore the dores of their temples, as the feete, handes, and bowels, which they cast together into a gourde, the rest (together with the hartes, making a great fire within the view of those hostile trees, with shril hyms, and applauses of the Priestes) they burne among the ashes of the former sacrifices, neuer thence remooued, lying in that fielde.' Dec. vi., tom. vi.