the arrow-sacrifice is mentioned elsewhere at a very early stage of the Nahua migration, in connection with the earth-goddesses. Once introduced into the valley of Mexico, the practice of making human offerings became more and more prevalent, until we find the number of individuals slain during the four-day ceremonies at the dedication of the great temple to Uitzilopochtli by Auitzotl given in two manuscripts as twenty thousand (see Fig.12; p.87). The Tezcocan ruler Nezahualcoyotl is said to have forbidden it, and later to have limited it to prisoners of war, but at the time of the conquest it showed no signs of abatement, and Bernal Diaz is constantly referring to the sacrifices which he and his companions were compelled to witness. Spaniards taken prisoner in the hostilities with the Mexicans were invariably devoted to death, and the same chronicler relates the grisly discovery in a temple at Pueblo Morisco of the remains of two of his compatriots, where Sandoval found two "faces which had been flayed, and the skin tanned like skin for gloves, the beards left on, and they had been placed as offerings on one of the altars." The hides of four horses were found at the same place. But terrible as such rites may seem to us, it may be taken as certain that they were regarded almost with equanimity by the Mexicans. Death by sacrifice was considered the normal death of a fighting man, and ensured entrance to the paradise of the Sun. Instances occur where men have deliberately demanded death on the sacrificial stone, notably the king Chimamalpopoca is said to have made arrangements for his own immolation, clad in the insignia of Uitzilopochtli. Or again, the Tlaxcalan general Tlahuicol, captured by the Mexicans, who refused his freedom at the hands of Montecuzoma, and subsequently even the rank of general in the Mexican army, and was so persistent in his demands for death on the gladiatorial stone that it was at length granted him. G
