A HUMAN SACRIFICE.
When the first moment of effervescence was over, and tranquillity was
beginning to be restored, Diego made a sign that he wished to speak,
and all were silent.
"I thank," he said, "the chiefs of the Twelve Nations for the honour
which they do me, and I accept, because I believe myself worthy of
it: but the war we are about to undertake is decisive, and must only
terminate with the utter extermination of our enemies. We shall have
terrible contests to endure and extraordinary difficulties to overcome.
Now, one man, whatever his genius may be, and however great his
knowledge, cannot satisfy such claims."
"My son speaks like a sage; let him tell us what to do, and we will
approve it," Huachacuyac answered.
"We must continue," Diego went on, "in the track which has been
followed up to this day; a man must remain among the Spaniards, as
in the past, in order to know the secret of their operations. Let me
remain this man, and I will transmit to the chiefs whom you select
to take my place the orders they will have to carry out, and the
information which I may think useful for them, up to the time when I
resume the command of the great army."
Universal assent was testified by the great assembly, and Diego
continued--
"Perhaps I shall return among you soon, if circumstances decree it, but
I propose for the present to attach to myself three chiefs renowned for
their wisdom."
"Speak," the Indians replied, "for you are our sole master."
"In that case appoint as my assistants our venerable Sayotkatta,
Vitzetpulzli, and Huachacuyac, if the choice suit my brothers."
"Matai," said the Indians, "Tahi-Mari is a great chief."
Then Diego turned to Leon and invited him to rise, and the latter
obeyed, without knowing what his friend wanted of him. Diego, or rather
Tahi-Mari, laid his hand on the young man's head and addressed the
Indians, who gazed at him curiously.
"Chiefs," he said, "I have still one request to make to you; this is
my brother; he has saved my life and his heart belongs to me. He is a
Frenchman, and his nation has frequently fought against our enemies. I
ask that he may be regarded as a son of the Twelve Molucho Nations, and
beloved by you as I love him."
The chiefs bowed to Leon, whose heart beat violently: then Huachacuyac
taking him by the hand, said to him in a voice full of gentleness and
gravity, after kissing him on both cheeks:
"My brother, thou art no longer a stranger among us. I adopt thee as my
son."
Then, addressing the Indians:
"Molucho warriors! let this man be for ever sacred to you, for he is
the son of the Twelve Nations."
And taking off the gold necklace he wore, he threw it over the young
man's shoulders, adding:
"Here is my turbo, do you consent to receive the adoption of the
Moluchos and march with them?"
"I do, brother," Leon answered, with some emotion.
"Be it so, then, and may Guatechu protect thee!" Then each of the
Indians came to kiss the young man on the face, make him the present
of adoption, and change with him a portion of their weapons. Diego
followed with interest the details of this scene, which profoundly
affected Leon, who was sensible of the new mark of friendship which the
half-breed gave him: and when his turn came to give him the embrace, a
tear of joy sparkled in his black eye. This ceremony terminated, the
Sayotkatta advanced into the centre of the assembly.
"Ikarri is in the middle of his course," he exclaimed, "the piaies
are waiting; let us make the war sacrifice in order to keep the evil
spirits at bay and appease them, so that Guatechu may grant us the
victory."
All the Indians present seemed to be anxiously awaiting these words:
hence, so soon as they were pronounced they hastened from the hut, and
proceeded to a much larger spot, in the centre of which was a pedestal,
a colossal statue of the sun, called in Indian Areskoui, and which was
supported by a tortoise.
In front of this statue was a sort of stone table sustained by four
blocks of rock. The table, slightly hollowed in the centre, was
provided with a trough intended for the blood to flow into; and a
few paces from it was a figure, formed of resinous wood. Six piaies
surrounded the table: they were dressed in long white robes, and
all wore a golden fillet resembling the one which surrounded the
Sayotkatta's head, but of smaller dimensions. The hut was also guarded
by forty armed Indians, who preserved a religious silence. During the
short walk from the council hut to the one we have just described,
Diego took aside Leon, and said as he pressed his hand fiercely:
"Brother, in the name of all that you hold dearest in the world, shut
up in your heart any trace of emotion: I should have liked to spare you
the horrible spectacle you are about to witness, but it was impossible:
not a word, not a gesture of disapprobation, or you will destroy us
both."
"What is going to happen?" Leon asked, in terror.
"Something frightful, brother; but take courage, remain by my side, and
whatever may happen, be calm."
"I will try," said Leon.
"You must," Diego repeated; "swear to me to check your emotion."
"I swear it," the smuggler repeated, more and more surprised.
"It is well: now we can enter;" and both went into the hut and mingled
with the crowd of spectators. One of those awful dramas which seem
impossible in the nineteenth century, and which unfortunately are still
in vogue in remote regions, was about to begin. The Sayotkatta, with
his head bowed on his chest, was standing at the base of the Statue of
the sun, with six piaies on the right, and six on the left. Two young
Indians held a torch, whose red and flickering glare cast light and
shadow with sinister reflections. The Sayotkatta at length spoke:
"The hatchet is dug up, the toqui has just been proclaimed, and the
hour has arrived to stain the hatchet. Ikarri demands blood."
"Let us give blood to Ikarri," the Indians shouted, "so that he may
give us victory."
The Sayotkatta made a sign, and two piaies left the hut; then all
present fell on their knees, and began a chorus to a slow and
monotonous rhythm. A moment after the piaies returned, bringing a man
between them. The Indians rose, and there was a deep silence, during
which every man waited with feverish impatience.
The individual whom the piaies brought into the hut wore the uniform of
the Chilian lanceros. He was a young man of twenty-four or twenty-six
years of age, with an open face and elegant and bold features. All
about him revealed the mocking carelessness peculiar to soldiers of
every country.
"Asses!" he said, laughing at his guardians, who pushed him on before
them, "could you not wait till tomorrow to perform all your mummeries?
Caray! I was so sound asleep! the devil take you!"
The piaies contented themselves with shaking him rather roughly.
"Miserable bandits," he added, "if I had my sabre, I would show you
certain cuts which would make you sink six feet into the ground. But
all right; what I cannot do, my comrades will do, and you will lose
nothing by waiting."
"The papagay is a chattering bird, that speaks without knowing what it
says," a piaie interrupted in a hollow voice: "the eagle of the Andes
is dumb in the hour of danger."
"In truth," the lancero continued, with a laugh, "this old rogue is
right; let us show these Indian brutes how a Spanish hidalgo dies.
Hum!" he added, taking a curious look around him, "these fellows are
very ugly, and I should almost thank them for killing me, for they
will do me a real service by freeing me from their villainous society."
After this last sally, the soldier haughtily raised his head and
remained silent and calm in the presence of the danger which he had
before his eyes. Leon had not lost one of the words uttered by the
young man; and he felt moved with compassion, and thinking of the
sorrowful fate which was reserved for the hapless prisoner. Leaning
against one of the walls of the hut, he admired with a sort of
irresistible fascination the bright glance of the soldier, so haughty
and careless, and asked himself with tears to what punishment he was
going to be condemned.
He had not long to wait; the Sayotkatta gave a signal, and two piaies
began stripping off the lancero's uniform; after which they removed his
shirt, and only left him his trousers. The young man did not attempt to
make any resistance, and the muscles of his face remained motionless;
but when one of his assassins tried to remove the scapulary, which,
like all Spaniards, he wore round his neck suspended from a black
ribbon, he frowned, his eyes sparkled, and he cried in so terrible a
voice that the Indian recoiled in terror--
"Brigand! leave me my scapulary!"
The Indian hesitated for a moment, and then returned to his victim.
"Nonsense, no weakness!" the prisoner added, and held his tongue.
The Indian seized the string, and without taking the trouble to remove
it from his neck, pulled so violently that a red mark was produced on
the soldier's skin. Suddenly a sudden pallor discoloured the prisoner's
cheeks; the Sayotkatta advanced upon him, holding up in his hand a
long-bladed, thin, and sharp knife. Then came a moment of indescribable
agony for Leon, who felt his hair bathed in a cold perspiration, while
his temples were contracted by pain. He saw the man with the knife
attentively seeking on the victim's chest the position of the heart,
and a smile of satisfaction passed over his lips when he had found it;
then pressing very lightly the sharp point of the knife on the flesh,
he drove it inch by inch, and as slowly as was possible, into the
soldier's chest.
The latter kept his enormously dilated eyes fixed on those of the
Sayotkatta, all whose movements he watched; ere long the pallor that
covered his features became now livid, his lips blanched, and he threw
himself back, stammering--
"Santa Maria, ora pro nobis!"
The Sayotkatta was pressing the hilt of the knife against the body, and
the Indians struck up a mournful hymn. The knife was drawn out--a jet
of blood came from the wound--a convulsion agitated the body, which the
piaies supported in their arms, and all was over. The lancero was dead!
Leon bit his poncho to prevent his crying out. A hundred times had the
captain of the smugglers' band braved death in his encounters with the
custom's officers and lanceros, and his arm had never failed him when
he was obliged to cleave a man's head with a sabre cut, or level him
by the help of his rifle, but at the sight of the cowardly and cruel
assassination being performed he stood as if petrified by disgust and
horror. He gave a start when the lancero drew his last breath; but
Diego, who was watching him, went up to him.
"Silence! or you are a dead man," he said.
Leon restrained himself, but he had not reached the end of his
amazement yet. The piaies raised the corpse, laid it on the stone
table, after removing the rest of the clothes, and the Sayotkatta
pronounced a few mysterious words, to which the Indians replied by
chanting.
Then the latter, taking his knife up again, cut the victim's chest down
the whole length, and examined with scrupulous attention the liver,
heart, and lungs, which he pulled out to lay on the prepared pyre. All
at once he turned round and addressed the spectators with an inspired
accent--
"Sons of Chemiin, Guatechu protects you. Everything is favourable, and
our cruel enemies will at length fall under our blows."
Then one of the piaies collected in a vessel the blood which dripped
from the table, and carefully placed it outside. It was not enough to
have mutilated the corpse. This horrible butchery was succeeded by an
operation which completely froze Leon's blood, and he could hardly
restrain the feeling of repulsion which the hideous spectacle aroused
in him.
One of the Indians brandished a cutlass with a gesture of furious joy
over the cold head of the assassinated lancero; and while with the
left hand he seized the pendant hair, with the other adroitly scalped
him. The sight of this despoiled head produced a lively movement of
satisfaction among all the spectators, who resumed their chanting.
At length the other four piaies seized the bleeding body, and carried
it, quivering as it was, to the centre of the camp, followed by all the
other Indians, who sang, accompanying themselves with furious gestures
and yells. As we stated, it was in the middle of the nineteenth
century that this scene--which our readers might be inclined to fancy
borrowed from the history of barbarous times, but of which we were an
eye-witness--occurred.
On the command of the Sayotkatta, the piaies stopped near a young
tree, which he stripped of its branches by the help of an axe. All the
Indians halted, and formed a sort of thick hedge several rows in depth.
Chanting sacred prayers, the piaies deposited the corpse at the foot of
the tree, from which they stripped the bark. Then the Indians who held
the vessel of human blood poured it over the stem, after which the one
who had scalped the lancero attached the scalp to it.
The strange songs recommenced with fresh energy, and ere long the
piaies, bringing piece by piece the wood employed to construct the pyre
in the hut of sacrifice, built it up again at the foot of the tree, and
laid the corpse upon it, carefully placing near it the heart, liver,
and lungs. When all these preparations were ended, the Indians formed a
circle round the tree, and the Sayotkatta ascended the pyre.
The scene then assumed a character at once savage, majestic, and
imposing. In fact, it was something striking to see on this magnificent
night, by the light of the torches which illumined with fantastic
flashes the dark foliage of the trees, all these Indians, with their
harsh and stern faces, arrayed round a pyre on which stood an old man
dressed in a long white robe, who with inspired eye and superb gestures
contemptuously trampled underfoot a blood-stained corpse.
The Sayotkatta took a scrutinizing glance around him, and then said in
a loud and solemn voice--
"The victim is immolated, and Ikarri is satisfied. Guatechu protects
us. The victory will be faithful to the right, and our enemies will
fall never to rise again. Sons of the Tortoise, this is the war stake!"
he continued, as he pointed to the tree; "It is for me to strike the
first blow in the name of Guatechu and Ikarri."
And, raising the axe, which he held in his right hand, the old man
dealt the tree a blow, and descended. This was the signal for a
frenzied assault; each Indian, drunk with fury, advanced with horrible
yells to the tree, which he struck, and each blow that re-echoed seemed
to arouse such ardour among those who were waiting their turn, that
they soon all rushed with deafening noise upon the tree, which could
not endure such an attack for any length of time. Long after it had
fallen, furious men were assailing a few inches of the trunk which
stood out of the ground.
The kindling of the pyre by the Sayotkatta by means of a torch could
alone interrupt these attacks on the tree, which they treated as if
they were dealing with a real enemy. A few minutes later, the flames
whirled up, the snapping of wood and the cracking of bones which were
being calcined in the midst of the fire became audible. A dense smoke
escaped from the furnace, and driven by the wind, suffocated the birds
sleeping in the aspens and larch trees that surrounded the clearing.
It was the finale of the festival, and, like most Indian festivals, was
accompanied by a dance, if such a name can be given to the mad round
which the Indians performed. Taking each other by the hand, without
distinction of rank or dignity, they began whirling round the pyre,
forcing Leon, who did not dare decline, to share in this horror.
Ere long, overexcited by the sound of the Molucho war song, which they
struck up in chorus, they went round so hurriedly and quickly, that
at the end of ten minutes it would have been impossible for any human
being to distinguish a single ring of the chain, which seemed to be
moved by a spring. Imagine an immense wheel turning on its axle with
the speed of a railway carriage wheel, and you will have an idea of
the exercise which the bravest and most brilliant warriors of the
twelve Molucho tribes indulged in with gaiety of heart.
They did not stop till the pyre had become a pile of ashes. Carefully
collecting these ashes the piaies went with great pomp to throw them
into a torrent which leaped no great distance from the camp. A portion
of the Indians, that is to say, those among them still able to use
their limbs, accompanied them with a new dance and fresh songs. As for
Leon, utterly exhausted, he had fallen almost in a fainting state near
a hut.
"Come, brother," Diego said to him, as he helped him to rise, and
pointed to the dawn which was beginning to whiten the horizon, "let us
depart; it is late, and we must be back in camp before daylight."
"Let us go--let us go," said Leon, "for my head is turning. The smell
of blood chokes me, and the atmosphere here is poisoned."
Diego looked at him without replying; then, after exchanging a few
words with the great chief Huachacuyac and the Sayotkatta, he took the
arm of the smuggler captain, and went with him toward the camp where
the Soto-Mayor family were resting.