One of the most vivid examples of the Aztec ritual of sacrificing human beings (tlamictiliztli) appears in Bernal Díaz del Castillo's book The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico (1632; Eng. ed., 1953). Díaz del Castillo, a foot soldier in Hernando Cortés's army, describes seeing his comrades, who had been captured in a recent battle, being dragged by force up the steps of the temple of Coatepec by Aztec warriors and priests. As the "dismal drum" of the war god, Huitzilopochtli, mixed with the ominous sounds of shell and horn trumpets, the Aztecs decorated their captives with Aztec costumes and "with fans in their hands they forced them to dance before Huichilobos [Huitzilopochtli]" (p. 191). After this ceremonial preparation, we are told that the Aztecs lay the Spaniards "on their backs on some rather narrow stones which had been prepared as places for sacrifice, and with some...