The king, Shield Jaguar, holds a huge torch, which suggests that the rite took place in a dark interior space or at night. In front of him, his kneeling wife, Lady Xoc, pulls a thorn-lined rope through her mutilated tongue. The rope falls to a woven basket, which holds blood-spotted paper and a stingray spine. Her lips and cheeks are smeared with dotted scrolls, symbolic of the blood she sheds to sustain the gods. Lady Xoc's face has a curiously blank look, considering that she is engaged in an act of self-mutilation. Perhaps she is in a trance induced by massive blood loss.
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