CACTUS GROWTHS NEAR THE HILL OF ESTRELLA.
Our young friends kept a sharp watch for the Hill of Estrella, and there was a good-natured rivalry between them as to who should be the first to discover it. Frank was the fortunate one in this instance, for he caught a glimpse of the conical peak while Fred was looking in the wrong direction. It is of porphyritic sandstone, and about 500 feet in height; the sides are steep in some places, and here and there it is possible to discover some of the old masonry which converted the hill into a huge teocalli like the Pyramid of Cheops.
ROCK INSCRIPTIONS MADE BY ANCIENT AZTECS.
The modern village is at the base of the hill, and there the youths landed and engaged horses to carry them to the summit. The view is quite extensive, and shows a wide area of lakes and valley, and the mountains that engirdle them. But they would hardly have made the ascent of Estrella for the view alone; it was rather because the place has an ancient fame, and was at one time the most sacred in Mexico.
"We have mentioned elsewhere," said Frank, "that the Mexicans had ages, or cycles, of fifty-two years, and at the end of each cycle they had an unusual ceremony, the Festival of Fire, which was not repeated till the end of another cycle. Well, this hill was the scene of the ceremony, which was held on the evening that the constellation of the Pleiades approached the zenith. According to Prescott's history of the conquest of Mexico, a procession of priests on that evening led a noble victim, a captive of the highest rank, to be sacrificed on the hill of Estrella. For five days previous the people had extinguished all their fires in their temples and dwellings, broken their idols, and given themselves up to despair, as they were taught that the world was coming to an end.
"After the Pleiades had passed the zenith the victim was slaughtered, and a new fire was kindled by the friction of sticks in his wounded breast. Then couriers stood ready with torches, which were lighted at the new fire, and from the hill of Estrella it was carried all through the kingdom. For thirteen days following this event there was general festivity everywhere; and the Festival of Fire may be considered the national carnival of the Aztecs."