ABSTRACT
The varied surface of the America was modeled by a giant hand. In the north a group of great lakes, covering nearly a hundred thousand square miles, held half the fresh water of the entire world. In the extreme lower end of the apex of the continental triangle in what Americans call Mexico, the varieties of scenery and climate were more closely squeezed together. In the southeast of Mexico and on the peninsula of Yucatan there had dwelt a mysterious people whom they call the Mayas. In spite of the splendor of the civilization and its high social and economic organization, it differed only in degree from that of the North, and its religion was ghastly in its cruelty. The especial deity of the Aztec, however, Quetzalcoatl, a bearded god of white skin who had given them all their arts and crafts, was supposed to have been averse to human sacrifice.
