690 



ANTHROPOLOGICAL PAPERS. 



iiing of the thirteenth century and settled on the eastern border of 

 the lake opposite Mexico. The descendants of these people live in 

 the vicinity of Tezcoco to-day ahd for three hundred and sixty years 

 have been in contact with European civilization without having ac- 

 quired much knowledge of civilized arts. They are still the Indians 

 whose highest works of art are the feathered pictures which their an- 

 cestors made at the time of the invasion. 



Fig. 1. — Fragment t)f eculptiu-ed j)ori)byiy. 



If these Indians, whom Oortez found in possession of the soil, were 

 not the authors of these monuments, who did make them? It is quite 

 the fashion to ascribe to the Toltecs everything which is not under- 

 stood and about which there is a doubt; but there is a grave doubt as 

 to the Toltecs themselves and as to the time when they occupied this 

 valley. It is certain however as to the date of occupation of the 

 Aztecs. It is certain, too, that Tenochlitlon or Mexico was their highest 

 achievement in art or architecture, and Mexico at the time of the con- 

 quest, instead of being such a city as Prescott pictures it. was but a 

 collection of mud houses. There were no palaces and there are no re- 

 mains of palaces in the city of Mexico. Wearied with wandering, the 

 Aztecs finding the remains of a civilization adapted themselves to it the 

 best they could, adopting the idols and blending the religion of the 

 people who preceded them with their own rude idolatry. This is per- 

 haps the cause of the strange contradictions in Aztec remains. In no 

 other way can we account for the defacement of the so called sacrificial 

 stone by the cutting of a rude channel through its finely sculptured 



