. The earth and its inhabitants ... Geography. MEXICAN CULTUEE. 71 devotees sought for still nobler subjects to propitiate them. In the Christian religion, a Son of God, God Himself, expiated the sins of the elect on the cross ; but those who crucified Him were at least unconscious of His divinity. The Mexicans, on the contrary, created gods to immolate them to still more powerful deities. During the great national ceremonies, a scion of the royal house would not have satisfied them ; they required a son of God, and the young men whom they offered up were raised by them to the divine rank. Bef
. The earth and its inhabitants ... Geography. MEXICAN CULTUEE. 71 devotees sought for still nobler subjects to propitiate them. In the Christian religion, a Son of God, God Himself, expiated the sins of the elect on the cross ; but those who crucified Him were at least unconscious of His divinity. The Mexicans, on the contrary, created gods to immolate them to still more powerful deities. During the great national ceremonies, a scion of the royal house would not have satisfied them ; they required a son of God, and the young men whom they offered up were raised by them to the divine rank. Before slaying these gods incarnate, the priests followed in the triumphal procession, falling down in worship before them. Then, after tLe sacrifice, those who tasted of the sacred flesh, and who " ate god," as indicated by the very name of the feast, assimilated the divine substance, and thought they thus became participators in the nature of the gods. Such was the hideous form that " god-eating" had assumed in Mexico. Such religious practices were naturally completed by a ferocious legislation, Fig 29.—Sacked Stone of Tizoc, in the Museum of yet the people seem to have been of an extremely kind disposition, mild and affectionate. " My dear son, my jewel, my fair feather ! " thus spoke the mother to her child. According to Ixtlixochitl, a theft exceeding in value seven maize cobs was punished with death. For whole communities, a violent seemed far more probable than a natural ending ; this alone would sufficiently explain the sense of sadness that had fallen on this unhappy nation, from which the divine favour seemed to be withdrawn in inverse ratio to the number of their victims. The emperor Nezahualcoj'otl, sovereign of Texcoco, the crowned poet, who staked his throne on a throw of dice, to show how little he cared for power, this emperor expressed the universal sentiment when he depicted " the approaching day when the gloomy fate,
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