Page:A Study of the Manuscript Troano.djvu/190

All those who had been in the battle returned home in procession, singing and dancing, bringing with them the captives who were to be sacrificed, their wrists and ankles decorated with feathers and chalchiuites and their necks with strings of cacao-nibs. The high-priests and other ministers went out at the head of the populace to meet them with music and dancing, and the caciques and captains delivered over those who were to be sacrificed to the high-priests. Then they all went together to the court-yard of their tuepa or temple, where they continued dancing day and night during the time the sacrifices lasted. In the middle of the court was a stone bench on which the victim was stretched, four priests holding him by the feet and hands. The sacrificing priest then came forward, adorned with many feathers and loaded with little bells, holding in his hand a flint knife, with which he opened the breast of his victim, tore out the heart, brandished it toward the cardinal points, and finally threw it into the air with sufficient force to cause it to fall directly in the middle of the court, saying, 'Receive, God, this thank-offering for the victory.' This sacrifice was public and beheld by all the people."