Even after death a slave, held up the lamp
To light his conqueror's revels?.. Think not, Boy,
To palter with me thus ! A fire may tremble
Within the sockets of a skull, and groans
May issue from a dead man's fleshless jaws,
And images may fall, and yet no God
Be there!.. If it had walk'd abroad with life,
That had indeed been something!
Then she turn'd
Her voice toward the people.. Ye have heard
This Priest of Aztlan, whose insidious tongue
Bids ye desert the Children of the Sea,
And vow again your former vassalage.
Speaks Aztlan of the former? O my people,
I too could tell ye of the former days,
When yonder plain was ours, with all its woods
And waters and savannahs! . . of those days,
When, following where her husband's stronger arm
Had open'd the light glebe, the willing wife
Dropt in the yellow maize; ere long to bear
Its increase to the general store, and toss
Her flowing tresses in the dance of joy.
And I could tell ye how those summer stores
Were hoarded for the invader's winter feasts;
And how the widows clipt those flowing locks
To strew them,.. not upon their husband's grave,.
Their husbands had no graves!.. but on the rocks
And mountains in their flight. And even these rocks
And mountains could not save us!
Year by year
Qur babes, like firstlings of the flock, were cull'd
To be the banquet of these Aztecas!
This very wretch, who tells us of the past,
Hath chosen them for the butchery... Oh, I thank you For this brave anger!.. In your name I take
Gods of Aztlan, Helhua cried,
As to Erillyab's ready hand he
The deadly symbol, in your name I give
The war-gift! Ye have thirsted over long;
Take now your fill of blood!.. He turn'd away
And Queen Erillyab bade the tribe fulfil
Bore its own dead, and to the general grave,
With melancholy song and sob of woe,
The slow procession moves. The general grave
Was delved within a deep and shady dell,
Fronting a cavern in the rock,.. the scene
Of many a bloody rite, ere Madoc came, .
A temple, as they deem'd, by Nature made,
Where the Snake-Idol stood. On fur and cloth
Of woven grass, they lay their burthens down,
Within the ample pit; their offerings range
Beside, and piously a portion take
Of that cold earth, to which for ever now
Consign'd, they leave their fathers, dust to dust;
Sad relic that, and wise remembrancer.
But as with bark and resinous boughs they pile The sepulchre, suddenly Neolin
Sprung up aloft, and shriek'd, as one who treads
Upon a viper in his heedless path.
The God! the very God! he cried, and howl'd
One long, shrill, piercing, modulated cry;
Whereat from that dark temple issued forth
A Serpent, huge and hideous. On he came,
Strait to the sound, and curl'd around the Priest
His mighty folds innocuous, overtopping
His human height, and arching down his head,
Sought in the hands of Neolin for food;
Then questing, rear'd and stretch'd and waved his neck,
And glanced his forky tongue. Who then had seen
The man, with what triumphant fearlessness,
Arms, thighs, and neck, and body, wreathed and ring'd
In those tremendous folds, he stood secure,
Play'd with the reptile's jaws, and call'd for food,
Food for the present God! . . who then had seen
The fiendish joy which fired his countenance,
Might well have ween'd that he had summoned up
The dreadful monster from its native Hell,
By devilish power, himself a Fiend inflesh'd.
Blood for the God! he cried; Lincoya's blood! Friend of the Serpent's foe!.. Lincoya's blood! Cried Amalahta, and the people turn'd Their eyes to seek the victim, as if each Sought his own safety in that sacrifice. Alone Erillyab raised her voice, confused But not confounded; she alone exclaim'd, Madoc shall answer this! Unheard her voice By the bewilder'd people, by the Priest Unheeded; and Lincoya sure had fallen The victim of their fear, had he been found In that wild hour; but when his watchful eye Beheld the Serpent from his den come forth, He fled to bear the tidings... Neolin
Repeats the accursed call, Food for the God!
Ayayaca, his unbelieving Priest !
At once all eager eyes were fix'd on him,
But he came forward calmly at the call;
Lo! here am I! quoth he; and from his head
Plucking the thin grey hairs he dealt them round.
Countrymen, kinsmen, brethren, children, take
These in remembrance of me! there will be
No relic of your aged Priest but this.
From manhood to old age, full threescore years,
Have I been your true servant: fit it is
That I, who witness'd Aztlan's first assault,
Should perish her last victim!.. and he moved
Towards the death. But then Erillyab
Seized him, and by the garment drew him back!..
By the Great Spirit, but he shall not die!
The Queen exclaim'd; nor shalt thou triumph thus,
Liar and traitor! Hoamen, to your homes!
Madoc shall answer this!
They heard, and inobedient; to obey
Fearing, yet fearful to remain. Anon,
The Queen repeats her bidding, To your homes,
My people!.. But when Neolin perceived
The growing stir and motion of the crowd,
As from the outward ring they moved away,
He utter'd a new cry, and disentangling
The passive reptile's folds, rush'd out among them,
With outstretch'd hands, like one possess'd, to seize
His victim. Then they fled; for who could tell
On whom the madman, in that hellish fit,
Might cast the lot? An eight-years' boy he seized
And held him by the leg, and, whirling him
In ritual dance, till breath and sense were gone,
Set up the death-song of the sacrifice.
Amalahta, and what others rooted love
Of evil leagued with him, accomplices
In treason, join'd the death-song and the dance. Some too there were, believing what they fear'd, Who yielded to their old idolatry,
And mingled in the worship. Round and round The accursed minister of murder whirl'd
His senseless victim; they too round and round
In maddening motion, and with maddening cries
Revolving, whirl'd and wheel'd. At length, when now,
According to old rites, he should have dash'd
On the stone Idol's head the wretch's brains,
Neolin stopt, and once again began
The long, shrill, piercing, modulated cry.
The Serpent knew the call, and, rolling on,
Wave above wave, his rising length, advanced
His open jaws: then, with the expected prey.
Glides to the dark recesses of his den.
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