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Were the Aztecs savages
The victim was held down by four priests on an alter at the top of a pyramid or raised temple while the officiate made an incision below the rib cage and pulled out the living heart. The heart was then burned and the corpse was pushed down the steep steps; a very brave or noble victim was carried down the steps. The worst were to the god Huchueteotl. Victims were drugged then thrown into a fire at the top of the cerimonial platform, before they were killed by the fire they were dragged out with hooks and their living hearts were pulled out and thrown back into the fire. Sometimes the limbs were even eaten in ritual feasts. Their heads were skewered on wooden posts of the skull rack beside the temple, and in some sacrifices the limbs and head were cut off and out into this rack.
The Aztecs had no system of imprisonment either they would pay in work or money or they would be sold as slaves to the people they had caused damage to. Stoned to death or sent to the alter were usually the punishments but lighter punishments consisted of heads being shaved or houses burned or knocked down.
Slaves were bought and sold at slave markets, the largest of which was in Azcapotzalco. Slaves were paraded in good clothes but stripped off and put in wooden cages until the new owner came, after the sale slaves had one chance to regain their freedom, if they could escape from the market and reach the rulers palace, they were freed.