“Every one took their part in offering contributions, in order that slaves should be bought, and some of the more devotional would offer their little children. Great care was taken of them that they should not run away or commit any fault, and whilst they were conducted from village to village with dancing, the priests fasted. Upon the arrival of the day, they all came into the patio (court) of the temple, and if the victim had to be sacrificed by wounds from arrows he was stripped naked, his body was anointed with blue, and a cap like a mitre was placed on his head.” He was then, after certain dances made by the people in honour of the god, killed by flights of arrows. It will be remembered that a similar custom was followed by the Pawnees in North America who, upon certain occasions, chiefly in connection with offering a propitiation to the Manito who had power over the harvest, also killed the victim by a flight of arrows.[89] The coincidence of this practice is very strange. Landa, after relating the manner in which these Indians in Yucatan conducted the ceremony of inflicting death by arrows, proceeds to state what was done if the priests, for some special reasons, directed that the victim should be offered to the gods in accordance with their more appalling rites. “If it had been decided to take out the heart, he was taken to the patio with much pomp, and was accompanied by many people, and after being daubed over with blue, and his mitre placed on his head, he was carried to the round step which was the place where these sacrifices were made, and after the priest (sacerdote) and his officials had anointed this stone with blue colour, and had cast out the devil by purifying the temple; the unfortunate man that was to be sacrificed was then seized, thrown suddenly backwards upon the stone, and held there by the legs and arms kept apart from the middle. Then came the sacrificer with a stone razor, and struck with much dexterity and cruelty, a gash between the ribs of the left side below the teat; he then thrust in his hand and took hold of the heart like a furious tiger and snatched it out still palpitating, and put it upon a dish which he gave to the priest, who took it quickly and anointed the faces of the idols with the fresh blood.”[90] [Illustration: CASA DE LAS MONJAS, UXMAL.] [Illustration: AN ANGLE OF THE CASA DE LAS MONJAS.]