Our country in story . heSouth. Can you tell me something about them ? asked James. The Indians of Mexico, for instance, carved huge, ugly stone gods or idols. To these they offered anything that seemed valu-able just to keepthem in good hu-mor. Since humanlife seemed themost preciousthing, every In-d i a n pueblo, ortown, had its idolbefore which hu-man lives wereoffered sometimes as many as five hundred human beingswere sacrificed in one day. The ground before the idolwas always wet with human blood; human hearts laysmoldering upon an altar of stone which was often mostbeautif
Our country in story . heSouth. Can you tell me something about them ? asked James. The Indians of Mexico, for instance, carved huge, ugly stone gods or idols. To these they offered anything that seemed valu-able just to keepthem in good hu-mor. Since humanlife seemed themost preciousthing, every In-d i a n pueblo, ortown, had its idolbefore which hu-man lives wereoffered sometimes as many as five hundred human beingswere sacrificed in one day. The ground before the idolwas always wet with human blood; human hearts laysmoldering upon an altar of stone which was often mostbeautifully carved. The dead bodies of the cruellybutchered victims were devoured by the savages as apart of the religious service. Was the Aztec Calendar Stone one of these altars?asked James. I remember reading about it in one of myhistories. Yes, the Aztec Calendar Stone is a part of one of themost famous of the Indian altars. It was in use beforethe coming of Columbus, and is now preserved in theNational Museum in THE AZTEC CALENDAR STONE THE GREAT SOUTHWEST 105 What a terrible religion these Indians did have!exclaimed James. Yes, said Brother Jerome, but it did not seem so tothem. The Mexican tribes knew no better way of welcom-ing Cortez than by offering human sacrifice to him. It isneedless to say that the great conqueror of Mexico didnot accept this bloody token of esteem. I cant see how the missionaries ever succeeded ingetting the Indians to understand that their idols did notrepresent gods, and that the offering of human life waswrong. The missionaries worked tactfully. When the Indianssaw that the good Padre was not struck down when hedared speak against their idol, they were puzzled andsurprised. They were still more surprised when he eventouched the idol without being harmed. But imagine, ifyou can, their breathless terror when he finally threwdown and broke the huge stone idol. They then beganslowly to distrust and despise their cowardly god whocould be thus in
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