Hilton Ranch, the Koshare, at Alamo, never once

essfully carried on, and, in due time, the fortnightly club conven

icle returns on its track

he 'Gradgrind' historian-the charming melodramatic details of that romantic monarch's life and times afforded by the popular Munchausen-like dat

quary, "was an elective monarchy, the cho

(as in the case of the last Montezuma) he was a member of the priesthood, the roya

r asserted that when they led him to the palace to proclaim him king, he demurred, declaring himself unworthy the honor conferred on him. It is a humiliating proof of the weakness of human nature in face of temptation, to find that, la

victims for the bloody rites which Aztec superstition demanded to grace his inauguration, that-amidst

as resembling a mitre in form, and curious

sty, lived in a barbaric Oriental pomp, of which Montezuma w

ms to have gone to the hea

tells us that so many dishes were prepared for each meal of this lordly epicure, that they filled a large hall; and that he had a harem of a thousand women. His clothes, which were changed four times a day (like his table service), were never used a second time, but were given as rewards of merit to nobles and soldiers who had distinguished themselves in war. If it happened that he had to walk, a carpet was spread along his way, lest his sacr

rried far and wide, in the furthest province on the Gulf of Mexico, and the distant region of Nicaragua and Honduras. His expediti

, reforming the courts of justice, and carefully watching over

with the abuses in it. He liberally compensated all who served him. He displayed great munificence in public enterprise, constructing and embe

tezuma's day, thirty great caciques, or nobles, who had th

of salt.' All the same, it is clear, from the testimony of the conquerors, that the country was occupied by numerous powerful chieftains, who lived like inde

d from a comparatively refined people, open to gentle influences, while the rest breathes a spirit of unmitigated ferocity; which naturally suggests the idea of two distinct sources, and authorizes the belief that the Aztecs had inherited from their

untutored minds sought relief in a plurality of inferior deities,-ministers who executed the creator's purposes, each, in his turn, presiding over the elements, the changes of the seasons,

these; the patron deity of the nation. The forms of the Mexican idols

ornaments; his temples were the most stately and august of their public edifices,

g 'humming-bird' and 'left;' from his image hav

bright-colored feathers floating in the air. She took it and deposited it in her bosom, and, consequently, from her, the dread deity was in due time born.' He i

and 'twin.' During his beneficent residence on earth he is said to have instructed the people in civil government, in the

a man could carry; and the cotton, as it grew beneath his foste

l all the air was sweet with perfumes

, this gracious deity was finally obliged to flee the country. On his way he is said to have

promising that he and his descendants would revisit them hereafter, entered his

een tall in stature, with a white skin, long, dark hair, and a flowing beard. Undoubtedly, this cheris

and. The priestly oracles were consulted; they are said to have declared, after much deliberation, that the Spaniards, though not gods, were children of the Sun; that they derived their strength from that luminary, and were only vulnerable when his beams were wi

ound by some uncommon natural occurrences, such as the accidental swell and over

rodigies special annunciations of Heaven th

nt tutelar divinity, which, as may be seen, played into the hands of Cortez, and furthered his hostile designs upon

s excuse for the unlovely superstition, they held that the wicked were to expiate their sins everlastingly in a place of horrible darkness. It was the work of a (so-called) Christianity to add to the Aztec place of torment the torture of perpetual fire and brimstone. The Aztec heaven, like the Scandinavian Valhalla, was especially reserved for their heroes who fell in battle. To these privileged souls were added those slain in sacrifice. These fortunate elect of the Aztecs seem to hav

g,' who had but the merit of dying of certain (capriciously selected) diseases. These commonplace spirits were fabled to enjoy a negative existence of indolent contentment. 'The Aztec priests,' says Prescott, 'in this imperfect stage of

c fanaticism. The Aztec priest, unlike the Roman, was allowed to marry, and have a family of his own; and not all the religious ceremonies imposed by him were austere. Many of them were of a light and cheerful complexion, such as national songs and dances, in which women were allowed to join. There were, too,

the pagan dispensation. Scarcely any of these reporters pretend to estimate the yearly human sacrifice throughout the empire at less than twenty thousand; and some carry the number as high as fifty thousand. A good Catholic

often quoted by Prescott, turns t

at seasons of drought, at the festival of Haloc, the insatiable god of the rain, offered up, borne to their doom in open litters, dressed in festal robes, and decked with fr

s who wish to find an apology for their own atrocities;' and loosely puts the victims

ty thousand captives are declared to have perished at the shrine of this terrible deity. In view of this statement, Prescott logically observes: 'Who can believe that so numerous a body would have suffered themselves to be led unresistingly, like sheep, to the slaughter? Or how could their remains, too great for consumption in the

t of them. That in honor of the god called by the Aztecs 'the soul of the world,' and depicted as a handsome man endowed with perpetual youth, was one of their most important sacrifices. An account of this sangu

f sweet-scented flowers, of which the ancient Mexicans were as fond as are their descendants at the present day. When he went abroad he was attended by a train of the royal pages; and as he halted in the streets to play some favorite melody the crowd prostrated themselves before him, and did him homage as the representative of their good deity. In this way he le

se on its margin, about a league from the city. Hither the inhabitants flocked to witness the consummation of the ceremony. As the sad procession wound up the sides of

. On this the prisoner was stretched. Five priests secured his head and limbs, while the sixth, clad in a scarlet mantle, emblematic of his bloody office, dexterously opened the breast of the wretched victim with a sharp razor of itzli (a volcanic substance hard as flint)

oint a moral.' The immolation of this unhappy youth was expounded to the people as a type

ody disposed of. It was delivered by the priests to the warrior who had taken the

ate viands prepared with dainty art, and was attended by guests of both sexes, and conducted with all the decorum

es it was, however, that furnished the fanatical conquerors with their best apology for the subjugation of this people. One-half condones the excuses of

his empire are said to have been employed in suppressing the commotions of the other, disgust at his arrogance, and his outrageous fiscal exactions, reduced his subj

ivilized nations have held an idea so monstrous as the necessity of vicarious physical suffering of a victim to

of blood propitiated their angry god, or gods, is but the natural outcome of ignorance a

fountain fil

m Immanue

plunged bene

heir guilt

y unders

mmolating in a furnace placed at the feet of an image of Saturn the choicest infants of the nation, while a trumpeter enli

rked features of the Phoenician idolatry. In the Bible account we read that

's entertainment that it is distinguished by the charm found by 'Helen's' sa

until it has become one dreadful block of ice; and, judging by the horror depicted on these ladies' faces as

ately on his stanch little wife. He sighed, and

orthodox) wisely put by the question of vi