The body had been extended on a rounded sacrificial stone and the neck held securely by the yoke; but now it was hurled down the side of the pyramid where there were no steps, and those appointed carried the remains to the caldron whither those who had the right came for the cooked meat, the hands and feet being reserved for the officiating priest.[39] One by one the victims were offered to the idol, while the pyramid was no longer white, but crimson; and their death-shrieks were ringing in my ear, when Frank laid his hand on my shoulder and asked if I was asleep. Called back to deserted ruins and the humdrum present, I could not entirely shake off the impression of the past. On that little mound where we were sitting so peacefully, hundreds, yes, thousands, of our fellow-men had writhed in agony to satisfy the enmity of their fellows or to be an acceptable offering to the gods who were supposed to be their creators.[40] Truly there are few nations whose religious history is pleasant reading; let us turn to other matters.
The more artificial civilization becomes, the weaker is the desire for offspring; and we must relegate the Quichés, by this rule, to a very primitive state, for the burden of their prayers was “Give unto us children,” and their faith was incarnate in works. They believed, with the psalmist, that “children are an heritage of the Lord; happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.” Hence the birth of a child was a most auspicious event, to be celebrated with feasts and rejoicings, and each returning birthday was duly remembered. With the truest mercy, they put an end to all children born deformed or defective in mind or body; hence deformed or idiotic persons are exceedingly rare among their descendants.
Ideographs.
Ancient Incense-burner.
The Quichés possessed the art of writing, though in logographs or ideographs, and they were skilled in the use of colors.[41] I present some of the more common forms, traced from the copies in Kingsborough’s “Antiquities.” The first, two interlocked elbows, signifies the fourth day of the month; one of the elbows was colored red in the manuscript, while the other was green, both having an inner border of yellow. The simple hinge was of blue and red, with a yellow articulation; the hinge enclosing a dagger was yellow and green with red inner borders, and the dagger was red, yellow, and blue. The character denoting or representing a temple is readily recognized, and its usual colors are red and yellow; but it must not be supposed that these colors were always the same, they evidently depended on the taste of the scribe. A rude figure of a censer with a long handle through which the priest could blow upon the burning gum copal used as incense, always denoted a sacrifice. This art of pictorial representation could not strictly be called writing, but was a very useful substitute for it, and it was continued long after the Conquest. I have thought, after looking at some of the caricatures of the priests of the new worship which was forced upon these Indios, of the rite of baptism, and of the sacrifice of the Mass, that perhaps these unfortunate subjects had as much influence in the wanton destruction of aboriginal literature as had the alleged doctrine of devilish things with which the books were said to be imbued. The old Spanish priests ought to have felt little fear of a creature they knew so well as they knew Satan. The shaven crowns of the padres were easily represented even by less skilled draughtsmen than the Quichés, and the new doctrines gave the irreverent splendid chances for effective caricatures.
In textile work they were advanced, obtaining results with their rude hand-looms that even to-day would hold their own against the machine-made fabrics of the present day for durability and aptness of design, even as the barbaric cashmere shawl cannot be equalled by the skilled artisans of France. To-day the weavers of this region produce cloths of very attractive design and made of honest material, while their shawls or blankets are often works of art. I once watched an Indian woman weaving a girdle on a narrow loom not more than six inches wide; and without pattern before her she traced figures resembling those in the old manuscripts, though mingled with very modern-looking pictures. The country abounds in dye-stuffs, so it is not surprising that their color-sense has been well developed by use. For fibres they were limited to cotton and wool in the looms, reserving the pita and other coarser fibres for hammocks and redes.
Pottery of good shape and well baked is found among the ruins of Utatlan, and Stephens saw a figure of terra-cotta that must have required no little skill to model and bake. All the potsherds a diligent though not extended search gave us were of dark red color, hard baked, and evidently portions of spherical vessels. Not a sign of roof-tiles was seen, nor any painted fragments, although figured work was common enough.
The Quiché rivers abounded in fish, and the forests and mountains in game, while the fields produced abundant crops with little labor. No wonder the Spanish conquerors found a civilization that astonished them, a wealth which roused all their terrible cupidity, but a resistance more determined and bloody than they had found in Mexico.