A rite, analogous in some aspects to the Christian communion, was observed on certain occasions. Thus, in the fifteenth month, a dough statue of Huitzilopochtli was broken up and distributed among the men; this ceremony was called teoqualo, meaning 'the god is eaten.' At other times, sacred cakes of amaranth-seeds and honey, were stuck upon maguey-thorns and distributed. Mendieta states that tobacco was eaten in honor of Cihuacoatl. The Totonacs made a dough of first-fruits from the temple garden, ulli, and the blood of three infants sacrificed at a certain festival; of this the men above twenty-five years of age, and the women above sixteen, partook every six months; as the dough became stale, it was moistened with the heart's blood of ordinary victims.[X-30] The rite of confession has been already described.[X-31]
FASTS AND PENANCE.
Fasting was observed as an atonement for sin, as well as a preparation for solemn festivals. An ordinary fast consisted in abstaining from meat for a period of from one to ten days, and taking but one meal a day, at noon; at no other hour might so much as a drop of water be touched. In the 'divine year' a fast of eighty days was observed. Some of the fasts held by the priests lasted one hundred and sixty days, and, owing to the insufficient food allowed and terrible mutilations practiced, these long feasts not unfrequently resulted fatally to the devotees. The high-priest sometimes set a shining example to his subordinates by going into the mountains and there passing several months, in perfect solitude, praying, burning incense, drawing blood from his body, and supporting life upon uncooked maize.[X-32]
In Teotihuacan, four priests undertook a four years' penance, which, if strictly observed, entitled them to be regarded as saints forever after. A thin mantle and a breech-clout were all the dress allowed them, no matter what the weather might be; the bare ground was their only bed, a stone their softest pillow; their noonday and only meal was a two-ounce cake, and a small bowl of porridge made of meal and honey, except on the first of each month, when they were allowed to take part in the general banquets. Two of them watched every alternate night, drawing blood and praying. Every twentieth day they passed twenty sticks through the upper part of the ear; and these, Gomara solemnly assures us, were allowed to accumulate from month to month, so that at the end of the four years, the ear held four thousand three hundred and twenty sticks, which were burned in honor of the gods at the expiration of the time of penance.[X-33]
Blood-drawing was the favorite and most common mode of expiating sin and showing devotion. Chaves says that the people of Meztitlan drew blood every five days, staining pieces of paper with it, and offering them to the god.[X-34] The instruments used in ordinary scarification were maguey-thorns, which were offered to the idol, and afterwards burned, but for more severe discipline iztli knives were used, and cords or sticks were passed through the tongue, ears, or genitals.
HUMAN SACRIFICES.
The offering most acceptable to the Nahua divinities was human life, and without this no festival of any importance was complete. The origin of the rite of human sacrifice, as connected with sun-worship at least, dates back to the earliest times. It is mentioned in the story of the first appearance of the sun to the Mexicans, which relates how that luminary refused to proceed upon its daily circuit until appeased by the sacrifice of certain heroes who had offended it.[X-35] Some affirm that human sacrifice was first introduced by Tezcatlipoca; others again say that it was practiced before Quetzalcoatl's time, which is likely enough, if, as we are told, that prophet not only preached against it as an abomination, but shut his ears with both hands when it was even mentioned. Written, or painted, records show its existence in 1091, though some native writers assert that it was not practiced until after this date. The nations that encompass the Aztecs ascribe the introduction of human sacrifice to the latter people; a statement accepted by most of the early historians, who relate that the first human victims were four Xochimilcos, with whose blood the newly erected altar of Huitzilopochtli was consecrated.[X-36]
The number of human victims sacrificed annually in Mexico is not exactly known. Las Casas, the champion of the natives, places it at an insignificantly low figure, while Zumárraga states that twenty thousand were sacrificed in the capital alone every year. That the number was immense we can readily believe, when we read in Torquemada, Ixtlilxochitl, Boturini, and Acosta, that from seventy to eighty thousand human beings were slaughtered at the inauguration of the temple of Huitzilopochtli, and a proportionately large number at the other celebrations of the kind.[X-37]
The victims were mostly captives of war, and for the sole purpose of obtaining these wars were often made; a large proportion of the sacrificed, however, were of slaves and children, either bought or presented for the purpose, and condemned criminals. Moreover, instances are not wanting of devout people offering themselves voluntarily for the good of the people and the honor of the god.[X-38] The greater part of the victims died under the knife, in the manner so often described;[X-39] some, however, were, as we have seen in the preceding volume, burned alive; children were often buried, or immured alive, or drowned; in some cases criminals were crushed between stones. The Tlascaltecs frequently bound the doomed one to a pole and made his body a target for their spears and arrows.
It is difficult to determine what religious ideas were connected with the almost universal practice of anthropophagy. We have seen that several of the savage tribes ate portions of slain heroes, thinking thereby to inherit a portion of the dead man's good qualities; the same reason might be assigned for the cannibalism of the Aztecs, were it not for the fact that they ate the flesh of sacrificed slaves and children as well as that of warriors and notable persons. Whatever may have been the original significance of the rite, it is most probable that finally the body, the essence of which served to regale the god, was regarded merely as the remains of a divine feast, and, therefore, as sacred food. It is quite possible, however, that religious anthropophagy gradually degenerated into an unnatural appetite for human flesh and nothing more.