In the same museum is a great stone idol. It was dug up about a hundred
years ago in the central square of the city of Mexico. It probably stood
in the great temple of the old Aztecs, which was totally destroyed by
Cortez and his soldiers when they finally captured the city of
Tenochtitlan. What an ugly thing it is! It is more than eight feet high
and more than five feet across, but is cut from a single block of stone.
It has a head in front, and another one behind; they look something like
serpent heads. While the general form of this great idol is human, it has
neither the feet nor hands of a man. The skirt it wears is made of an
intertwined mass of rattlesnakes. A human skull is at the front of the
belt. Four human hands apparently severed from their bodies are displayed
upon the chest. This is only one of many curious and dreadful Aztec gods.
It would take a book larger than this to describe the Aztecs properly. It
would take another to describe the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards.
Cortez had only a handful of men to fight against many thousands. But he
had guns, powder, and horses, all of which were unknown before to the
Aztecs and which they greatly feared. Sometime you must read Bernal Diaz
del Castillo’s story of the Conquest. He was one of Cortez’s soldiers. He
tells us that he was present in one hundred and nineteen battles and
engagements. He also says: “Of the five hundred and fifty soldiers, who
left the island of Cuba with Cortez, at the moment I am writing this
history in the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-eight, no more
than five are living, the rest having been killed in the wars, sacrificed
to idols, or died naturally.”