Over the
doors and alcoves were suspended a variety of charms, old stone axes
and arrow tips, nuts, gourds, amulets, beads, and other trumpery
articles.
The palace was in all respects exactly as the king had left it. The
royal bed and couch were in their places, the royal chairs occupied
their usual raised position. Only, curiously enough, all had been
turned round and over. The storerooms upstairs were untouched, and
here was found an infinite variety of articles, for the most part
mere rubbish, but many interesting and valuable: silver plate,
gold masks, gold cups, clocks, glass, china, pillows, guns, cloth,
caskets, and cabinets; an olla podrida, which resembled the contents
of a sale room.
In many of the native apartments of the palace were signs that human
sacrifice had been carried on to the last minute. Several stools
were found covered with thick coatings of recently shed blood, and
a horrible smell of gore pervaded the whole palace, and, indeed, the
whole town. The palace was full of fetish objects just as trumpery
and meaningless as those in the humblest cottages. The king's private
sitting room was, like the rest, an open court with a tree growing
in it.
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