Note 776 — Chapter XVIII · ARCHITECTURE AND DWELLINGS OF THE NAHUAS.

Clavigero thinks that the stone was of jasper. Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 46, with cut. It is difficult to define the position of this stone; some place it before the idol within the chapel, others at the western extremity of the platform. Referring to the idols in the chapel, Sahagun says: 'Delante de cada una de estas estaba una piedra redonda á manera de tajon que llaman texcatl, donde mataban los que sacrificaban á honra de aquel dios, y desde la piedra hasta abajo un regaxal de sangre de los que mataban en él'—he describes the stone as round. Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., p. 198. And this I am inclined to accept as correct, especially as several points indicate that the stones stood inside the chapel. Their floor, we are told, were steeped in blood that must have flown from the victims; further, we know that the reeking heart was held up before or thrown at the feet of the idol, immediately after being torn out. The act of sacrifice was in itself a ceremony which could only have been performed before the idol. Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., p. 334, and Solis, Hist. Conq. Mex., tom. i., p. 397, place it in the middle of the platform. Prescott, Mex., vol. ii., p. 145, states that the stone (one only) stood near the head of the stairway, but this is most likely a hasty interpretation of Diaz' vague account. There may, however, have been a large stone at this place, which was used for the great and general sacrifices. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Conq., fol. 70; Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. cxxiv. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., pp. 660-1, manages very dexterously to place the two stones before the chapel, and at the same time near the head of the steps. Klemm, Cultur-Geschichte, tom. v., p. 98, mentions one stone with a hollow in the middle.