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Often the sacrifice would have consisted of animals – a pig or a horse, but occasionally, perhaps when trouble was close at hand, or the gods were particularly needful, a prisoner would be sacrificed in the same manner. The meat was boiled in large cooking pits with heated stones, either indoors or out. As in many other cultures, the blood was thought to have special powers and was sprinkled on statues of the gods, on walls and on the attendees at the feast, using specially made blot-brushes. Such a festival must have been spectacularly grisly to behold.
    The number nine had magical significance in Norse mythology, and although different regions practised blot in different ways, the number nine was significant for all, so every nine years all Viking communities would stage some form of sacrifice, often involving humans – sometimes as many as ninety-nine prisoners would be executed and their remains offered to one of the three major gods – Odin, Frey or Thor, depending on the particular circumstances.
     
    T HE  A NCIENT  C HINESE
     
    The Chinese of the Shang dynasty (1600–1046 bc) and the Zhou dynasty (1122–255 bc), worshipped a combination of nature gods ranging from forest imps to hill gods, earth gods, sky gods, wind gods, river maidens and rain spirits.
     
    T HE  B RIDES OF THE  Y ELLOW  R IVER
     
    The kings of these early dynasties worshipped a special god named the ‘Gatherer of the Clouds’, otherwise known as a mighty rain god, who was often depicted in dragon form. This cloud gatherer required a sacrifice in order to guarantee good fishing for the year to come, along with an abundance of rain. A richly clad young girl would be made to lay in a raft of her bridal bed and be cast out into the Yellow River to perish alone. An traditional song was sung as the ceremony took place, the lyrics of which remain hauntingly resonant today.
     
You mount the white turtle, Oh!
your train is striped fish!
I rove with you, Oh!
by the aisles of the Ho.
In the chaos of the sweeping thaw, Oh!
down we shall go.
We join our hands, Oh!
as eastward we move.
They escort the lovely one, Oh!
to the south estuary.
Waves in steady surge, Oh!
come to welcome us –
Fish in swishing tumult, Oh!
are bridesmaids to me.
     
    Regular sacrifices were also made to the gods of war in order to guarantee victory in battle, and in honour of long dead ancestors in order to gain a connection with the heavens. The executioners used a bronze yueh axe (a ceremonial weapon) to behead their victims. The axe featured a very large blade which was often assymetric in shape and elaborately decorated, sometimes inset with precious stones.

Mayan Sacrifice

     
    To understand the Mayan’s use of ritual human sacrifice, and the individuals who were responsible for carrying it out, it’s worth looking briefly at the unusual and complex structure of their universe.
     
    T HE  M AYAN  U NIVERSE
     
    The Mayans believed that the earth was flat, something like the back of a crocodile resting in a pool of waterlilies. This mythical crocodile had a counterpart in the sky which took the form of a double-headed serpent. They believed that the sky itself was multi-layered, and that four strong and powerful gods called bacabs kept the sky suspended above the people, preventing it from falling in and destroying the earth beneath.
    According to ancient Mayan teachings, their gods had already destroyed and recreated the universe a number of times. This meant that any natural disaster – such as a violent storm, a hurricane or a flood – struck fear into the people because they thought that the gods may have become angry or even bored, and decided simply to wipe them out and start all over again.
     
    O UT OF  C ONTROL
     
    It’s likely that the resulting atmosphere of mass-hysteria, coupled with the shamans’ use of mind-altering substances such as pulque (an alcoholic drink made