s neck over a sort
of apron of shining green feathers; and feathers of a like sort rose
above the heads of the serpents in a thick plume; and over every part of
the figure were scattered glittering objects--emeralds, and disks of
gold, and scraps of mother-o'-pearl, and fragments of obsidian--whence
shone through the heavy shadows faint, shimmering points of light. In
one of its out-stretched hands the figure held a bow, and in the other a
bunch of arrows; but even without these unmistakable attributes I should
have known from the skull and from the serpents' heads that this fierce
and hideous idol represented the god Huitzilopochtli: the first
divinity, and throughout the whole time that their bloody religion
endured, the principal divinity, that the ancient Mexicans adored.
Young did not venture to speak aloud again, but he turned to me with a
long sigh and whispered, earnestly, "That certainly is, Professor, the
very d----dest thing I ever saw!"

As I knew, it was in keeping with the Aztec customs that prisoners taken
in war thus should be brought first of all before the god
Huitzilopochtli, that they and their captors together might do him
reverence; therefore, I was not surprised when a priest came forth from
behind the altar and bade us prostrate ourselves in adoration of the
idol. As this order was given, all the Aztlanecas with us bowed
themselves to the floor; but Young, who did not understand the order,
and I, who felt my gorge rising at the thought of thus humbling myself,
remained erect. However, we did not continue through many seconds in
that position; for a couple of soldiers instantly laid hands upon each
of us, and by shoving our shoulders sharply forward, and at the same
moment kicking our legs from under us, they summarily laid us face
downward at full length upon the floor. As for Rayburn, they seemed to
be satisfied with his recumbent position upon the stretcher; at any
rate, they suffered him to remain as he was.

While I lay prone, quivering with rage at the double indignity of being
thus roughly handled, and of being compelled even in form to worship a
disgusting idol, I heard an odd little pattering upon the stone floor,
and then something cold and clammy was thrust against my hand, and at
the same instant I heard close beside me a curious snuffling noise; and
while a glad doubt, that I scarce ventured to give way to, was rising
within me, the clammy thing was taken away from my hand, and there