CHAPTER XXXV
THE LAST SACRIFICE OF THE WOMEN OF THE OTOMIE
Here in the courtyard of the teocalli, by the light of burning houses,for as they advanced the Spaniards fired the town, we mustered our arrayto find that there were left to us in all some four hundred fightingmen, together with a crowd of nearly two thousand women and manychildren. Now although this teocalli was not quite so lofty as that ofthe great temple of Mexico, its sides were steeper and everywhere facedwith dressed stone, and the open space upon its summit was almost asgreat, measuring indeed more than a hundred paces every way. This areawas paved with blocks of marble, and in its centre stood the temple ofthe war-god, where his statue still sat, although no worship had beenoffered to him for many years; the stone of sacrifice, the altar offire, and the storehouses of the priests. Moreover in front of thetemple, and between it and the stone of sacrifice, was a deep cementedhole the size of a large room, which once had been used as a place forthe safe keeping of grain in times of famine. This pit I had caused tobe filled with water borne with great toil to the top of the pyramid,and in the temple itself I stored a great quantity of food, so that wehad no cause to fear present death from thirst or famine.
But now we were face to face with a new trouble. Large as was the summitof the pyramid, it would not give shelter to a half of our numbers, andif we desired to defend it some of the multitude herded round its basemust seek refuge elsewhere. Calling the leaders of the people together,I put the matter before them in few words, leaving them to decide whatmust be done. They in turn consulted among themselves, and at lengthgave me this answer: that it was agreed that all the wounded and agedthere, together with most of the children, and with them any others whowished to go, should leave the teocalli that night, to find their wayout of the city if they could, or if not, to trust to the mercy of theSpaniards.
I said that it was well, for death was on every side, and it matteredlittle which way men turned to meet it. So they were sorted out, fifteenhundred or more of them, and at midnight the gates of the courtyard werethrown open, and they left. Oh! it was dreadful to see the farewellsthat took place in that hour. Here a daughter clung to the neck of heraged father, here husbands and wives bade each other a last farewell,here mothers kissed their little children, and on every side rose up thesounds of bitter agony, the agony of those who parted for ever. I buriedmy face in my hands, wondering as I had often wondered before, how a Godwhose name is Mercy can bear to look upon sights that break the heartsof sinful men to witness.
Presently I raised my eyes and spoke to Otomie, who was at my side,asking her if she would not send our son away with the others, passinghim off as the child of common people.
'Nay, husband,' she answered, 'it is better for him to die with us, thanto live as a slave of the Spaniards.'
At length it was over and the gates had shut behind the last of them.Soon we heard the distant challenge of the Spanish sentries as theyperceived them, and the sounds of some shots followed by cries.
'Doubtless the Tlascalans are massacring them,' I said. But it was notso. When a few had been killed the leaders of the Spaniards found thatthey waged war upon an unarmed mob, made up for the most part of agedpeople, women and children, and their commander, Bernal Diaz, a mercifulman if a rough one, ordered that the onslaught should cease. Indeed hedid more, for when all the able-bodied men, together with such childrenas were sufficiently strong to bear the fatigues of travel, had beensorted out to be sold as slaves, he suffered the rest of that melancholycompany to depart whither they would. And so they went, though whatbecame of them I do not know.
That night we spent in the courtyard of the teocalli, but before it waslight I caused the women and children who remained with us, perhaps somesix hundred in all, for very few of the former who were unmarried, orwho being married were still young and comely, had chosen to desert ourrefuge, to ascend the pyramid, guessing that the Spaniards would attackus at dawn. I stayed, however, with the three hundred fighting men thatwere left to me, a hundred or more having thrown themselves upon themercy of the Spaniards, with the refugees, to await the Spanish onsetunder shelter of the walls of the courtyard. At dawn it began, and bymidday, do what we could to stay it, the wall was stormed, and leavingnearly a hundred dead and wounded behind me, I was driven to the windingway that led to the summit of the pyramid. Here they assaulted us again,but the road was steep and narrow, and their numbers gave them no greatadvantage on it, so that the end of it was that we beat them back withloss, and there was no more fighting that day.
The night which followed we spent upon the summit of the pyramid, andfor my part I was so weary that after I had eaten I never slept moresoundly. Next morning the struggle began anew; and this time with bettersuccess to the Spaniards. Inch by inch under cover of the heavy firefrom their arquebusses and pieces, they forced us upward and backward.All day long the fight continued upon the narrow road that wound fromstage to stage of the pyramid. At length, as the sun sank, a company ofour foes, their advance guard, with shouts of victory, emerged upon theflat summit, and rushed towards the temple in its centre. All this whilethe women had been watching, but now one of them sprang up, crying witha loud voice:
'Seize them; they are but few.'
Then with a fearful scream of rage, the mob of women cast themselvesupon the weary Spaniards and Tlascalans, bearing them down by the weightof their numbers. Many of them were slain indeed, but in the end thewomen conquered, ay, and made their victims captive, fastening themwith cords to the rings of copper that were let into the stones of thepavement, to which in former days those doomed to sacrifice had beensecured, when their numbers were so great that the priests fearedlest they should escape. I and the soldiers with me watched this sightwondering, then I cried out:
'What! men of the Otomie, shall it be said that our women outdid us incourage?' and without further ado, followed by a hundred or more of mycompanions, I rushed desperately down the steep and narrow path.
At the first corner we met the main array of Spaniards and their allies,coming up slowly, for now they were sure of victory, and so great wasthe shock of our encounter that many of them were hurled over the edgeof the path, to roll down the steep sides of the pyramid. Seeing thefate of their comrades, those behind them halted, then began to retreat.Presently the weight of our rush struck them also, and they in turnpushed upon those below, till at length panic seized them, and with agreat crying the long line of men that wound round and round the pyramidfrom its base almost to its summit, sought their safety in flight. Butsome of them found none, for the rush of those above pressing with everincreasing force upon their friends below, drove many to their death,since here on the pyramid there was nothing to cling to, and if oncea man lost his foothold on the path, his fall was broken only when hisbody reached the court beneath. Thus in fifteen short minutes all thatthe Spaniards had won this day was lost again, for except the prisonersat its summit, none of them remained alive upon the teocalli; indeed sogreat a terror took them, that bearing with them their dead and wounded,they retreated under cover of the night to their camp without the wallsof the courtyard.
Now, weary but triumphant, we wended back towards the crest of thepyramid, but as I turned the corner of the second angle that was perhapsnearly one hundred feet above the level of the ground, a thought struckme and I set those with me at a task. Loosening the blocks of stone thatformed the edge of the roadway, we rolled them down the sides of thepyramid, and so laboured on removing layer upon layer of stones andof the earth beneath, till where the path had been, was nothing but ayawning gap thirty feet or more in width.
'Now,' I said, surveying our handiwork by the light of the rising moon,'that Spaniard who would win our nest must find wings to fly with.'
'Ay, Teule,' answered one at my side, 'but say what wings shall WEfind?'
'The wings of Death,' I said grimly, and went on my upward way.
It was near midnight when I reached the temple, for the labour oflevelling the road took many
hours and food had been sent to us fromabove. As I drew nigh I was amazed to hear the sound of solemn chanting,and still more was I amazed when I saw that the doors of the temple ofHuitzel were open, and that the sacred fire which had not shone therefor many years once more flared fiercely upon his altar. I stood stilllistening. Did my ears trick me, or did I hear the dreadful song ofsacrifice? Nay, again its wild refrain rang out upon the silence:
To Thee we sacrifice! Save us, O Huitzel, Huitzel, lord god!
I rushed forward, and turning the angle of the temple I found myselfface to face with the past, for there as in bygone years were thepabas clad in their black robes, their long hair hanging about theirshoulders, the dreadful knife of glass fixed in their girdles; there tothe right of the stone of sacrifice were those destined to the god, andthere being led towards it was the first victim, a Tlascalan prisoner,his limbs held by men clad in the dress of priests. Near him, arrayedin the scarlet robe of sacrifice, stood one of my own captains, who Iremembered had once served as a priest of Tezcat before idolatry wasforbidden in the City of Pines, and around were a wide circle of womenthat watched, and from whose lips swelled the awful chant.
Now I understood it all. In their last despair, maddened by the loss offathers, husbands, and children, by their cruel fate, and standing faceto face with certain death, the fire of the old faith had burnt up intheir savage hearts. There was the temple, there were the stone andimplements of sacrifice, and there to their hands were the victims takenin war. They would glut a last revenge, they would sacrifice to theirfathers' gods as their fathers had done before them, and the victimsshould be taken from their own victorious foes. Ay, they must die, butat the least they would seek the Mansions of the Sun made holy by theblood of the accursed Teule.
I have said that it was the women who sang this chant and glared sofiercely upon the victims, but I have not yet told all the horror ofwhat I saw, for in the fore-front of their circle, clad in white robes,the necklet of great emeralds, Guatemoc's gift, flashing upon herbreast, the plumes of royal green set in her hair, giving the time ofthe death chant with a little wand, stood Montezuma's daughter, Otomiemy wife. Never had I seen her look so beautiful or so dreadful. It wasnot Otomie whom I saw, for where was the tender smile and where thegentle eyes? Here before me was a living Vengeance wearing the shape ofwoman. In an instant I guessed the truth, though I did not know it all.Otomie, who although she was not of it, had ever favoured the Christianfaith, Otomie, who for years had never spoken of these dreadful ritesexcept with anger, whose every act was love and whose every word waskindness, was still in her soul an idolater and a savage. She had hiddenthis side of her heart from me well through all these years, perchanceshe herself had scarcely known its secret, for but twice had I seenanything of the buried fierceness of her blood. The first time was whenMarina had brought her a certain robe in which she might escape fromthe camp of Cortes, and she had spoken to Marina of that robe; and thesecond when on this same day she had played her part to the Tlascalan,and had struck him down with her own hand as he bent over me.
All this and much more passed through my mind in that brief moment,while Otomie marked the time of the death chant, and the pabas draggedthe Tlascalan to his doom.
The next I was at her side.
'What passes here?' I asked sternly.
Otomie looked on me with a cold wonder, and empty eyes as though she didnot know me.
'Go back, white man,' she answered; 'it is not lawful for strangers tomingle in our rites.'
I stood bewildered, not knowing what to do, while the flame burned andthe chant went up before the effigy of Huitzel, of the demon Huitzelawakened after many years of sleep.
Again and yet again the solemn chant arose, Otomie beating time with herlittle rod of ebony, and again and yet again the cry of triumph rose tothe silent stars.
Now I awoke from my dream, for as an evil dream it seemed to me, anddrawing my sword I rushed towards the priest at the altar to cut himdown. But though the men stood still the women were too quick for me.Before I could lift the sword, before I could even speak a word, theyhad sprung upon me like the jaguars of their own forests, and likejaguars they hissed and growled into my ear:
'Get you gone, Teule,' they said, 'lest we stretch you on the stone withyour brethren.' And still hissing they pushed me thence.
I drew back and thought for a while in the shadow of the temple. My eyefell upon the long line of victims awaiting their turn of sacrifice.There were thirty and one of them still alive, and of these five wereSpaniards. I noted that the Spaniards were chained the last of all theline. It seemed that the murderers would keep them till the end of thefeast, indeed I discovered that they were to be offered up at the risingof the sun. How could I save them, I wondered. My power was gone. Thewomen could not be moved from their work of vengeance; they were madwith their sufferings. As well might a man try to snatch her prey from apuma robbed of her whelps, as to turn them from their purpose. With themen it was otherwise, however. Some of them mingled in the orgie indeed,but more stood aloof watching with a fearful joy the spectacle inwhich they did not share. Near me was a man, a noble of the Otomie, ofsomething more than my own age. He had always been my friend, and afterme he commanded the warriors of the tribe. I went to him and said,'Friend, for the sake of the honour of your people, help me to endthis.'
'I cannot, Teule,' he answered, 'and beware how you meddle in the play,for none will stand by you. Now the women have power, and you see theyuse it. They are about to die, but before they die they will do as theirfathers did, for their strait is sore, and though they have been putaside, the old customs are not forgotten.'
'At the least can we not save these Teules?' I answered.
'Why should you wish to save the Teules? Will they save us some few dayshence, when WE are in their power?'
'Perhaps not,' I said, 'but if we must die, let us die clean from thisshame.'
'What then do you wish me to do, Teule?'
'This: I would have you find some three or four men who are not falleninto this madness, and with them aid me to loose the Teules, for wecannot save the others. If this may be done, surely we can lower themwith ropes from that point where the road is broken away, down to thepath beneath, and thus they may escape to their own people.'
'I will try,' he answered, shrugging his shoulders, 'not from anytenderness towards the accursed Teules, whom I could well bear to seestretched upon the stone, but because it is your wish, and for the sakeof the friendship between us.'
Then he went, and presently I saw several men place themselves, asthough by chance, between the spot where the last of the line of Indianprisoners, and the first of the Spaniards were made fast, in such afashion as to hide them from the sight of the maddened women, engrossedas they were in their orgies.
Now I crept up to the Spaniards. They were squatted upon the ground,bound by their hands and feet to the copper rings in the pavement. Therethey sat silently awaiting the dreadful doom, their faces grey withterror, and their eyes starting from their sockets.
'Hist!' I whispered in Spanish into the ear of the first, an old manwhom I knew as one who had taken part in the wars of Cortes. 'Would yoube saved?'
He looked up quickly, and said in a hoarse voice:
'Who are you that talk of saving us? Who can save us from these shedevils?'
'I am Teule, a man of white blood and a Christian, and alas that I mustsay it, the captain of this savage people. With the aid of some few menwho are faithful to me, I purpose to cut your bonds, and afterwards youshall see. Know, Spaniard, that I do this at great risk, for if we arecaught, it is a chance but that I myself shall have to suffer thosethings from which I hope to rescue you.'
'Be assured, Teule,' answered the Spaniard, 'that if we should get safeaway, we shall not forget this service. Save our lives now, and thetime may come when we shall pay you back with yours. But even if we areloosed, how can we cross the open space in this moonlight and escape theeyes of those furies?'
; 'We must trust to chance for that,' I answered, and as I spoke, fortunehelped us strangely, for by now the Spaniards in their camp below hadperceived what was going forward on the crest of the teocalli. A yell ofhorror rose from them and instantly they opened fire upon us with theirpieces and arquebusses, though, because of the shape of the pyramid andof their position beneath it, the storm of shot swept over us, doingus little or no hurt. Also a great company of them poured across thecourtyard, hoping to storm the temple, for they did not know that theroad had been broken away.
Now, though the rites of sacrifice never ceased, what with the roar ofcannon, the shouts of rage and terror from the Spaniards, the hiss ofmusket balls, and the crackling of flames from houses which they hadfired to give them more light, and the sound of chanting, the turmoiland confusion grew so great as to render the carrying out of my purposeeasier than I had hoped. By this time my friend, the captain of theOtomie, was at my side, and with him several men whom he could trust.Stooping down, with a few swift blows of a knife I cut the ropes whichbound the Spaniards. Then we gathered ourselves into a knot, twelve ofus or more, and in the centre of the knot we set the five Spaniards.This done, I drew my sword and cried:
'The Teules storm the temple!' which was true, for already their longline was rushing up the winding path. 'The Teules storm the temple, I goto stop them,' and straightway we sped across the open space.
None saw us, or if they saw us, none hindered us, for all the companywere intent upon the consummation of a fresh sacrifice; moreover, thetumult was such, as I afterwards discovered, that we were scarcelynoticed. Two minutes passed, and our feet were set upon the winding way,and now I breathed again, for we were beyond the sight of the women.On we rushed swiftly as the cramped limbs of the Spaniards would carrythem, till presently we reached that angle in the path where the breachbegan. The attacking Spaniards had already come to the further side ofthe gap, for though we could not see them, we could hear their criesof rage and despair as they halted helplessly and understood that theircomrades were beyond their aid.
'Now we are sped,' said the Spaniard with whom I had spoken; 'the roadis gone, and it must be certain death to try the side of the pyramid.'
'Not so,' I answered; 'some fifty feet below the path still runs, andone by one we will lower you to it with this rope.'
Then we set to work. Making the cord fast beneath the arms of a soldierwe let him down gently, till he came to the path, and was received thereby his comrades as a man returned from the dead. The last to be loweredwas that Spaniard with whom I had spoken.
'Farewell,' he said, 'and may the blessing of God be on you for this actof mercy, renegade though you are. Say, now, will you not come with me?I set my life and honour in pledge for your safety. You tell me thatyou are still a Christian man. Is that a place for Christians?' and hepointed upwards.
'No, indeed,' I answered, 'but still I cannot come, for my wife and sonare there, and I must return to die with them if need be. If you bear meany gratitude, strive in return to save their lives, since for my own Icare but little.'
'That I will,' he said, and then we let him down among his friends, whomhe reached in safety.
Now we returned to the temple, giving it out that the Spaniards were inretreat, having failed to cross the breach in the roadway. Here beforethe temple the orgie still went on. But two Indians remained alive; andthe priests of sacrifice grew weary.
'Where are the Teules?' cried a voice. 'Swift! strip them for thealtar.'
But the Teules were gone, nor, search where they would, could they findthem.
'Their God has taken them beneath His wing,' I said, speaking from theshadow and in a feigned voice. 'Huitzel cannot prevail before the God ofthe Teules.'
Then I slipped aside, so that none knew that it was I who had spoken,but the cry was caught up and echoed far and wide.
'The God of the Christians has hidden them beneath His wing. Let us makemerry with those whom He rejects,' said the cry, and the last of thecaptives were dragged away.
Now I thought that all was finished, but this was not so. I have spokenof the secret purpose which I read in the sullen eyes of the Indianwomen as they laboured at the barricades, and I was about to see itsexecution. Madness still burned in the hearts of these women; they hadaccomplished their sacrifice, but their festival was still to come. Theydrew themselves away to the further side of the pyramid, and, heedlessof the shots which now and again pierced the breast of one of them--forhere they were exposed to the Spanish fire--remained a while inpreparation. With them went the priests of sacrifice, but now, asbefore, the rest of the men stood in sullen groups, watching whatbefell, but lifting no hand or voice to hinder its hellishness.
One woman did not go with them, and that woman was Otomie my wife.
She stood by the stone of sacrifice, a piteous sight to see, for herfrenzy or rather her madness had outworn itself, and she was as she hadever been. There stood Otomie, gazing with wide and horror-strickeneyes now at the tokens of this unholy rite and now at her own hands--asthough she thought to see them red, and shuddered at the thought. Idrew near to her and touched her on the shoulder. She turned swiftly,gasping,
'Husband! husband!'
'It is I,' I answered, 'but call me husband no more.'
'Oh! what have I done?' she wailed, and fell senseless in my arms.
And here I will add what at the time I knew nothing of, for it was toldme in after years by the Rector of this parish, a very learned man,though one of narrow mind. Had I known it indeed, I should have spokenmore kindly to Otomie my wife even in that hour, and thought more gentlyof her wickedness. It seems, so said my friend the Rector, that from themost ancient times, those women who have bent the knee to demon gods,such as were the gods of Anahuac, are subject at any time to becomepossessed by them, even after they have abandoned their worship, and tobe driven in their frenzy to the working of the greatest crimes. Thus,among other instances, he told me that a Greek poet named Theocritussets out in one of his idyls how a woman called Agave, being engaged ina secret religious orgie in honour of a demon named Dionysus, perceivedher own son Pentheus watching the celebration of the mysteries, andthereon becoming possessed by the demon she fell on him and murderedhim, being aided by the other women. For this the poet, who was also aworshipper of Dionysus, gave her great honour and not reproach, seeingthat she did the deed at the behest of this god, 'a deed not to beblamed.'
Now I write of this for a reason, though it has nothing to do with me,for it seems that as Dionysus possessed Agave, driving her to unnaturalmurder, so did Huitzel possess Otomie, and indeed she said as much to meafterwards. For I am sure that if the devils whom the Greeks worshippedhad such power, a still greater strength was given to those of Anahuac,who among all fiends were the first. If this be so, as I believe, it wasnot Otomie that I saw at the rites of sacrifice, but rather the demonHuitzel whom she had once worshipped, and who had power, therefore, toenter into her body for awhile in place of her own spirit.
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