| | | There is reason to believe that in consequence of their being | | surrounded by enemies and engaged in constant wars, they | | considered it necessary to propitiate the war god in the most | | terrific manner. Thus when the great Teocalli, erected for the | | worship of Huitzil-pochli, was completed, many thousands of | | victims were sacrificed as propitiatory offerings. When colonies | | of the Aztec race were advancing in the direction of Tabasco and | | Yucatan, similar sacrificial ceremonies were performed. | | | | Bernal Diaz saw, in one of the Indian towns that had been captured | | by the Spaniards, three large cages full of prisoners who were | | waiting to be sacrificed. They were fastened by collars to prevent | | their escape. They were taken out of the cages and sent back to | | their own tribes. He elsewhere observes that the Indians devoured | | human flesh after the victims had been sacrificed, in the same way | | as the Spaniards devoured oxen. It is evident that great numbers | | of the aboriginal natives must have been kept in slavery and, in | | time of war, were killed and eaten by the Aztecs. | | | | [106] Bernal Diaz, chapter xxix, and Landa, p. 12. | | | | [107] It was noticed soon after the Spanish conquest that the | | Indians died rapidly from causes of a mental character. They died | | because they did not wish to live. The conditions of slavery they | | were forced to endure had such an effect upon them that they | | gradually lost their strength. After submitting for a time to | | the hardships imposed upon them they appeared to become resigned | | to their fate. Life was a burden. They lost heart and died from | | misery. This was particularly the case in Cuba and Hispaniola. | | | | [108] The Indians in Yucatan, had a chief priest who had a general | | control over all matters relating to the priesthood. He nominated | | the priests to the villages, examined them in their sciences and | | ceremonies, provided them with books and sent them to attend in | | the service of the temples. | | | | According to Landa “they taught the sons of other priests and the | | younger sons of the chiefs that were brought to them for this | | purpose when they were children, if it was observed that they were | | inclined towards this office. The sciences which they taught were |