The National Geographic Magazine, Volume 30

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National Geographic Society, 1916 - Geography
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Page 15 - ... a volcanic substance hard as flint,— and, inserting his hand in the wound, tore out the palpitating heart. The minister of death, first holding this up towards the sun, an object of worship throughout Anahuac, cast it at the feet of the deity to whom the temple was devoted, while the multitudes below prostrated themselves in humble adoration. The tragic story of this prisoner was expounded by the priests as the type of human destiny, which, brilliant in its commencement, too often closes in...
Page 15 - The great staple of the country, as, indeed, of the American continent, was maize, or Indian corn, which grew freely along the valleys, and up the steep sides of the Cordilleras to the high level of the table-land. The Aztecs were as curious in its preparation, and as well instructed in its manifold uses, as the most expert New England housewife.
Page 5 - After a period of four centuries, the Toltecs, who had extended their sway over the remotest borders of Anahuac, having been greatly reduced, it is said, by famine, pestilence, and unsuccessful wars, disappeared from the land as silently and mysteriously as they had entered it.
Page 6 - They there beheld, perched on the stem of a prickly pear, which shot out from the crevice of a rock that was washed by the waves, a royal eagle of extraordinary size and beauty, with a serpent in his talons, and his broad wings opened to the rising sun.
Page 15 - The most loathsome part of the story — the manner in which the body of the sacrificed captive was disposed of — remains yet to be told. It was delivered to the warrior who had taken him in battle, and by him, after being dressed, was served up in an entertainment of his friends. This...
Page 15 - At length the fatal day of sacrifice arrived. The term of his short-lived glories was at an end. He was stripped of his gaudy apparel, and bade adieu to the fair partners of his revelries. One of the royal barges transported him across the lake to a temple which rose on its margin, about a league from the city. Hither the inhabitants of th* capital flocked, to witness the consummation of the ceremony.
Page 30 - ... provided with drugs, roots, and different medicinal preparations. In other places, again, blank books or maps for the hieroglyphical picture-writing were to be seen, folded together like fans, and made of cotton, skins, or more commonly the fibres of the agave, the Aztec papyrus.
Page 3 - The latter writer tells us, that his account of the general agreement of these, however, the Toltecs were well instructed in agriculture, and many of the most useful mechanic arts; were nice workers of metals; invented the complex arrangement of time adopted by the Aztecs; and, in short, were the true fountains of the civilization which distinguished this part of the continent in later times.13 They established their capital at Tula...
Page 1 - Mexico; and this equally whether we consider the variety of its soil and climate; the inexhaustible stores of its mineral wealth; its scenery grand and picturesque beyond example; the character of its inhabitants...
Page 13 - A vast army was maintained ; the dress of the warriors being picturesque and often magnificent. Their bodies were covered with a close vest of quilted cotton^ so thick as to be impenetrable to the light missiles of Indian warfare.

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