The Leman River comes from the eastern plateau and meanders to the west. The river becomes turbulent during the rainy season. This is a natural crossing for the river, and the river here is only two to three hundred meters wide.
Groups of Tarascan and Mexican canoes were anchored on either side. At this time, the boat armies of both sides were watching the Tarascans' pre-war sacrifice together with one hundred thousand soldiers.
Hulot looked at Tarasco's colleagues with great interest, watching how they held morale-boosting performances.
The crests on the heads of these priests expand like cattail fans, and they prefer indigo blue feathers. They all wear a necklace around their necks. In the center of the necklace is one or several round pottery containers, shaped somewhat like gourds. The boy was very curious about what these "pottery gourds" were used for.
The priests successively placed sacrificial utensils on the newly built altar.
The first altar symbolizes the sun god of Tarasco, Curricaveri, who controls the sky of the universe and is the most important god. The priests placed a golden sun several meters in diameter on his altar, which reflected dazzling golden light in the sunlight.
The second altar symbolizes Tarasco's earth goddess, Kveravaperi, who controls the earth of the universe and is also the god of harvests and minerals. The priests then brought a huge piece of copper ore and placed it on His altar. The spotted copper ore surface flowed like water waves in the sunlight.
"These strange Tarascans, where do their beliefs come from?" Xiulote was a little curious. "They neither believe in the God of War nor Quetzalcoatl, which is completely different from other Mexican tribes."
"Their beliefs should come from the Bajo and Micancho people who were conquered by them hundreds of years ago. They are the native beliefs of the Patzcuaro Lake area. They believe that the Patzcuaro Basin is the center of the universe and provides the power for the world to move. . And the universe is made up of three parts: the sky, the earth and the realm of the dead underground," Avitt explained.
"So the Tarascans have a completely different language, culture, and beliefs, and are a foreign race isolated from the rest of the world?"
"Yes! This is why the Tarascans have no allies in the world." Avite nodded.
"But we Mexicans don't have any allies either." Hulot responded.
"The strongest does not need allies." The two laughed and continued to look at the sacrifice on the other side.
The last altar symbolizes Tarasco's Moon Goddess, Haratana, who is the daughter of the Sun God and the Mother Earth, and controls the underworld of the universe, the realm of the dead. The Tarascos particularly worshiped the God of Death and invented the Day of the Dead for "Haratana".
After a while, dozens of priests brought an unusually huge clay pot with many yellow lumps in it. This is a symbol of the Moon Goddess.
"What's in that clay pot?" Shulot asked curiously.
"That is the stone of the dead collected from the cracks in the world. It comes from the underground world of the dead and can communicate between the human world and the kingdom of the dead." Avitt said seriously about the information he had learned.
"???" The young man's head was a little confused. He knew that the rift in the world should refer to the crater in the west. The underworld definitely refers to the underground. But what is the Stone of the Dead, the communication between life and death? ...Is this a fantasy plane?
With 70% curiosity and 30% confusion, Shulot continued to watch.
The priests of Tarasco quickly completed the placement of the symbols. Then, in front of the three shrines facing each other, villagers brought a large amount of firewood and thatch and piled them into a huge firepile.
Then, an unusually majestic old man with a gorgeous feather crown, holding a torch high, lit the pyre and gave it the "flame of the gods".
The priests then used wooden sticks to borrow the "sacred flame" from the firewood pile, gently put a little bit into the pottery gourd, then put the pottery gourd to their noses, and selflessly inhaled the smoke wafting out of it.
"Is this the divine smoke?" Shulot asked in surprise.
"Yes, unlike our war priests, the priests of Tarasco carry divine smoke with them. They add a lot of strange plant minerals to it. It is said that this can make it easier for them to communicate with the gods."
The young man was speechless for a while. Soon, the smoking priests fell into a world of fantasy. They began to dance vigorously on the altar, using various strange postures to create a mysterious atmosphere.
The dance speeds up, the flames rise, and the smoke rises into the sky, changing into strange shapes. The priests on and off the stage sang loudly at the same time. Desolate and simple mantras resounded across the sky, praying for the arrival of the gods.
Avitt simply translated the prayers beside him, first praying to the Sun God, and then thanking the Mother Earth. Finally, the Moon God, who communicates with the underworld, asks Him to resurrect all the war dead and enjoy wealth and peace forever underground.
Under the awed eyes of the soldiers on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, the sacrifice at the altar finally reached its climax. The priests who danced crazily took out obsidian daggers and cut their cheeks without hesitation, letting the blood draw mysterious patterns. Then, high-pitched prayers spread across both sides of the river, and the name of the god "Haratana" was shouted.
The unusually majestic old man appeared again. He directed dozens of priests to lift the huge clay pot on the Moon Goddess platform and throw it into the burning pyre. The pottery pot shattered instantly, yellow chunks scattered into pieces, and then quickly burned in the flames.
Immediately afterwards, an unusually brilliant blue flame rose from the pyre, like a will-o'-the-wisp coming from the netherworld, with a strangeness and magnificence that did not belong to this world, and a crazy imprint engraved into the eyes of every onlooker.
At the moment when the blue fire rose, all the Tarascans fell into a selfless frenzy. A total of 80,000 soldiers, whether warriors or militiamen, knelt on the ground and chanted "Haratana" together.
This time, the shouts were like thunder in the rainy season, splitting the clouds in the sky, exploding the fields on the ground, and shocking the Mexica warriors on the other side of the river. Many warriors bowed to the blue flames in fear. Even the fierce and proud Jaguar warriors turned pale at each other, showing fear of the pagan gods.
At this moment, Avitt stood up suddenly and stared at the command flag opposite. There was the only Tarasco man there who did not fall to his knees. Avitt couldn't see the man's face clearly, but he wanted to remember him firmly in his heart.
The moment he saw the blue flames, Shulot stood up in shock: "Oh my God! The Stone of the Dead turns out to be sulfur!"
The young man estimated the size of the huge clay pot just now and looked thoughtful.
The early Bronze Age Tarascans could easily produce thousands of pounds of sulfur. This proves that there must be huge reserves of natural sulfur deposits in the area under their control. On the western coast and on the islands of Baja California, there is sufficient struvite as a source of saltpeter. Plus the ubiquitous use of wood for making charcoal. The manufacture of gunpowder was unique in Mesoamerica.
The young man looked at the gorgeous blue fire in ecstasy. The crystal clear beauty seemed to be a blessing from God: "As long as the development bottleneck of the Iron Age is overcome, the Gunpowder Age will follow. The future is always full of hope!"
Shulot couldn't help but smile, but his teacher and friend pinched the boy's cheek.
Avitt asked seriously: "Xulot, looking at the blue flames, do you believe that the Tarascans just summoned the God of Death?"
Shulot was amused by his friend's seriousness: "That's just the color of special minerals after burning. If there is sulfur, we can also burn blue fire."
Avitt also breathed a sigh of relief. Although he didn't believe it, he was a little nervous just now.
"You need to lead the war priests to perform a prayer ceremony to the God of War as soon as possible to restore the morale of the Mexica warriors."
After listening to this, Shulot carefully observed the warriors behind him and found that they were really shaken and their faces were ashen. These brave men who have experienced hundreds of battles and are not afraid of death are actually frightened by the myth and blue fire, and their morale is greatly reduced.
The young man couldn't help but shook his head: "These pagans are pretending to be gods and ghosts!" Then he quickly commanded the priests accompanying the army and began to pretend to be gods and ghosts.
The pre-war rituals on the other side of the river were soon coming to an end. The priests shouted words that the boy could not understand, which should be some kind of promise in the name of God. Then, thousands of soldiers were seen cheering loudly, with high morale.
Inspired by high morale, five thousand Tarasco's spearmen were the first to board the canoe group and sailed towards the north shore with high morale.
