Note X-10 — Chapter X · GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.

Some authors seem to associate this office with that of the pontiff, but it appears that the high-priest merely inaugurated the sacrifices on special occasions. 'Era esta vna dignidad suprema, y entre ellos tenida en mucho, la qual se heredaua como cosa de mayorazgo. El ministro que tenia oficio de matar ... era tenido y reuerenciado como supreme Sacerdote, o Pontifice.' Acosta, Hist. de las Ynd., p. 352. 'Era como decir, el Sumo Sacerdote, al qual, y no à otro, era dado este oficio de abrir los Hombres por los pechos, ... siendo comunmente los herederos, de este Patrimonio, y suerte Eclesiastica, los primogenitos.' Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 117. It is difficult to decide upon the interpretation of these sentences. The expression of his being 'held or reverenced as pontiff' certainly indicates that another priest held the office, so does the sentence, 'it was inherited by the first-born' of certain families. But the phrase, 'el Sumo Sacerdote, al qual y no à otro, era dado este oficio,' points very directly to the high-priest as the holder of the post.