a later stage of Quiché history, as the Popol Vuh also demonstrates. It is possible that the practice was, to speak generally, foreign to the original Maya, but was introduced in later times from Mexico. It seems to have been found among the Kakchiquel, accompanied on certain occasions by cannibalism, and we learn that at a certain festival children were killed with arrows, a ceremony recalling the Mexican festival of Tlacaxipeualiztli. An even closer correspondence with the ritual observed at this festival was found in Yucatan, where the victim was on certain occasions flayed and the priest assumed the skin. Here too the shooting sacrifice was practised; the victim was tied to a tree, with a white mark painted over his heart; the worshippers passed rapidly in front and each discharged arrows at the mark. Cogolludo speaks of many bloody arrows being found in a shrine at Campeche, which had probably been used in this rite. At Chichen Itza human sacrifice was made to the sacred _cenote_ (natural well), which was supposed to be a place of great sanctity. The victim was cast into the water with other offerings and was believed to emerge alive after three days had elapsed. The usual method of sacrifice however in Yucatan was the tearing out of the victim’s heart by the Nacon, who anointed the image with the blood. Here the custom had become very prevalent at the discovery, as the fate of Valdivia’s crew in 1511 shows. Prisoners of war, slaves and even children constituted the usual victims, and the last were carefully guarded and paraded from village to village until the fatal day arrived. But even at this date human sacrifices were not made on the same scale as in Mexico, and the principal offerings consisted of incense, animals, and the worshippers’ own blood. To obtain the latter, the tongue, ears or limbs were pierced, and a cord was frequently passed through the wound. Scenes showing the practice of this penitential rite are not uncommon on the early monuments, as can be seen from the slab from Menché (Pl. XXII; p. 294), where the worshipper is passing through his tongue a cord furnished with thorns, while a basket containing the implements for piercing lies on the ground beside him. But the ritual of the later Maya will appear best from a short description of the ceremonies observed at the commencement of the year and during the various months. [Illustration: FIG. 58.--The ceremonies at the commencement and end of an _akbal_-year. (_Dresden MS._)] [Illustration: FIG. 59.--The new-year ceremonies at the commencement of a _muluc_-year. (_Troano-Cortesianus MS._) (_After Seler_)]