Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1893-03-09

building, the temple was not without
doors or windows on the ground floor.
{. Its stories were set successively one be-
hind the other, giving the structure
somewhat the appearance of pyramid,
each story having wide terrace or
platform completely around it, and
stone steps leading to the one above.
The second floor was reached on the
outside by graded ascent thirty feet
wide, the platform being even wider.
Within there were also ladders, as in
the other parts of the city.
s Upon the top of the temple before the
perpetual fire stood an immense ef6gy
of the sun, made of solid and virgin
!. gold, supported by heavy braces of sill
ver, facing toward the east and reflect
ing the rays of the heavenly luminaryin in
blaze of binding splendor. Thesmall
square apartment on which itrested was
built of cedar, covered externally with
alternate plates of gold and silver, the
walls within being coated with white
cement composed of gypsum and nearly
approaching plaster of paris in compost
ton. AS have said, the temple stood
toward the western, end of the court,
where the houses were lowest and near
s the canyon walls, the distance therefrom
being about sixty feet, so that for the
greater part of the day it rested in the
cool shadow of the cliffs.
At the southwest corner, close to the
altar, now stood Iklapel, holding in his
hand his pointed tiara, like that of the
modern pope, made of the skin of huge
rattlesnalle, with the head ysurmonnting
itpointed upward. The placing of the
tiara on his head was the signal for the
3 great procession to begin its march.
He had resigned all other duties to
the young and vigorous Kulcan, who
was already below, busted in arranging
the last details of the festival. In the
complicated mythology of the Atzlans
there were minor gods to be appeased by
lesser sacrifices, and these were to be
performed in the regular order of the
day, leading up to the MONDAY rite-the
sacrifice of maiden, chosen by lot, be-
fore the altar OF Kinchahan.
The people were all within the court
with the exception of few tardy strag-
glers bearing bundles of fagots from the
pinon orchards outside the city; even
. these were hurrying in order to obtain
places in the procession. The uproar
was immense-each citizen seemed Wy
ing with the other as though to drown
Z thought and snxiety-the pressure OF
feeling bringing feverish, hilarity to
the surface in a naturally grave and
serious people.
Opposite the temple, at an open door,
whose wooden Intel was scarce three
feet from it's threshold, which was
rounded and followed by centuries of
constant footwear, sat little child al
most. hidden in the mass of jasmine
like flowers that grew closely about the
narrow portal. Her beadlike black eyes
glittered with eager impotence as she
wetched the groups of people gather.
While she wove the delicate blossoms
INTO a garland to deck her black hair
for she was to walk with other children
-. he procession ever cast her eyes,
d me dark recesses of the room and
!. ~ INJURED petulantly calling now and.
I then:
.sOh, andlnother, hurryl Eliza is
waiting. / shall be left Quit"
After time slow and feeble footsteps
were heard within, and an old woman
appeared-an old woman bearing the
weight cf years so heavily that she
scarce needed to bend an inch in emerg-
ing. through the little opening. 1t was
the child s grandmother, Intzu, the Oldest
woman in the city, one of the weavers of
the cloth of which the sacred white robes
were made-a duty which deyolyed upon
the most aged and most skilled Of the
women. Her face was shriveled like an
old dried apple, so full of wrinkles that
not an eighth of an inch of skin was left
increased, yet her teeth were as white
and regular as her grand dchild's and her
eyes as bright and piercing.
She came out into the glaring light
blinking her eyes and puckering the
skin about them in concentric wrinkles
in an endeayor to see the child among
the flowers, and seated herself with
contented chuckle beside her on the sill.
"Ah-the sun is good. Hewarms old
Intzu's bones, though not as fondly as
he was wont to do in the old days. And
today is another feast-how quickly
they come now! Times are changed.
Formerly they were far apart, and. we
waited long for the sacrifice. Now they
tread each others hurrying heels"
Glow many have you seen, grand
motherg' asked the child, creeping closer.
'.Many, many. my child! Two katuns
have. I lived through, and each katun is
ffty-two years in length. And the gods
were kind! l was not chosen for the
sacrifice, though was married late IN
life, for you must know that 'tis only
the maidens who are taken, and none
is exempt but the blind or lame. Even
the wise and good Leila, your cousin,
may be chosen when the fatal dice are
thrown again. when the feast of the
katun comes, two years hence. I have
stood upon the housetop and seena COM
panion of my youth given to the gods,
and then, years after, my daughters
stood with me and beheld the same
sight until it has grown an old tale to
me. Yet we have always made merry,
for who may, mourn those who go to
dwell with the god? Some day, they
say, Quetzalcoatl, the fair god, yellow
barred like the sun, whose child he is,
will appear and claim the victim as his
bride, but we have waited in vain, my
Eliza, for many generations, and per-
haps he has forgotten us down in the
canyon. But we look for him, for when
he comes there will be no more sacri-
fees, no more famine, nomore plaques"
"Oh, I hope he will Gomez" said Eliza,
taking her grandmother's hand.
CATER the sacrifice is Finished" con-
tinued the old woman, 1.-THE people break
forth in songs of gladness and make
merry with shouts and feasting all that
day until the sun gees down, but the