CHAPTER 10

OF A STRANGE KIND OFIDOLATRY THAT WAS PRACTICED BY THE MEXICANS

Just as (we said) the Inca kings of Peru substituted certain stone statues made in their likenesses, which they called their guaioquies, or brothers, and made their subjects offer them the same veneration as to themselves, the Mexicans did the same with their gods; but these went much further, for they made gods out of living men, and in the following manner: they would take a captive, the best one they could find, and before sacrificing him to their idols they gave him the name of the very idol to whom he was to be sacrificed; and they dressed and adorned him in the same fashion as their idol, and said that he represented the idol itself. And for the whole time that this representation lasted, which in some festivities was a year and in others six months, and in others less, they venerated and worshiped him like the idol itself, and he ate and drank and took his pleasure. And when he walked through the streets the people came out to worship him, and all of them offered him many alms, and they brought children and invalids to him to cure and bless them, and let him do everything he wanted, except that ten or twelve men always accompanied him everywhere he went to prevent him from escaping. And to cause folk to do him reverence wherever he passed, from time to time he played upon a little pipe, so that the people would come and worship him. When he was in prime condition and had grown quite fat, the festival arrived, and they opened him up and killed and ate him, making a solemn sacrifice of him. It is indeed painful to see how Satan holds these people in subjection, and is still master of many of them today, performing such mischievous and fraudulent tricks at the expense of the sad souls and miserable bodies that they offer him, while he laughs at the cruel pranks he plays on these unfortunates, whose sins justify Almighty God's leaving them in the power of the enemy whom they chose as god and protector. But, as I have said enough about the idolatry of the Indians, let us continue by describing the kind of religion, or rather superstition, that they employ in their rites, and their sacrifices, temples, and ceremonies and everything connected with these.