AZTECa 



A/.TKCS. 



ret 



the Altec mine of Mexico, there was a field not apart, called jootlalli, 

 in which the first battle wu fought When the Aztec army wa 

 numeroiu it wu counted by xiquipilli, or divisions of 8000 inon. 

 The dignity of generalissimo wag the first in the state after the 

 emperor. Three other superior officer* commanded nn.l. r him. 

 The general* and other officers, who were always chosen out of the 

 nobility, gradually rose from the rank of the common soldier. 

 They had throe military orders, called those of the princes, of the 

 eagle, and of the ocelot, or American tiger. The defensive arms of 

 the Aztecs were the shield, the cuirass, and the helmet. The shields 

 were made of reeds interwoven with cotton thread and covered with 

 feathers, or of turtle-shell covered with plates of copper, silver, or 

 gold. Some of these shields were large enough to cover their bodies 

 entirely, and were made so that they could be folded together and 

 carried under the arm, like an umbrella. Their cuirasses were made 

 of cotton quilted, and were arrow-proof. Their helmets were made 

 of wood, in the shape of heads of tigers, serpents, and other animals. 

 Their offensive arms were slings, bows, spears, pikes, clubs, and 

 swords. They never made use of poisoned arrows. Their sword was 

 a piece of some hard wood, 3J feet long, the edge of which was 

 formed of obsidian. The first blow of this weapon was terrible ; but 

 it was then rendered useless. Their ensign resembled more a Roman 

 than a modern standard. It represented an eagle in the act of 

 darting upon a tiger. They were acquainted with the art of 

 fortifying cities, and surrounded them with walls, ditches, and 

 palisadoes ; but their principal fortifications were their teocallis or 

 temples. 



The judicial system of the Aztecs showed no small degree of civili- 

 sation. A supreme judge called cihuacoatl decided definitively in all 

 matters both civil and criminal, and appointed some of the inferior 

 judges and also the collectors of the revenues. A tribunal composed 

 of three judges called tlacatecatl sat every day to hear causes. In 

 civil but not in criminal causes there was an appeal from this tribunal 

 to the cihuacoatl. There was also such a gradation of district courts 

 with their necessary officers as to provide for the extension of judicial 

 forms in accordance with the wants of the community. Their criminal 

 laws were very severe. Treason, voluntary homicide, robbery of gold 

 or silver, theft in tho market-place, adultery, and incest, were visited 

 with the utmost rigour of the law. Drunkenness in a young man 

 was punished by hanging and throwing the body afterwards into tho 

 lake, if the offender was of a noble family ; if he was one of the com- 

 mon people he wan made a slave for the first offence and hung for the 

 second. At the age of 70 a man or a woman might get intoxicated 

 with impunity. No advocates were in use among the Aztecs : the 

 criminal himself conducted the defence of his own cause. No other 

 proof could be adduced except witnesses, and in the absence of wit- 

 nesses the criminal was allowed to clear himself by an oath. They 

 swore by the sun : the form of taking this oath was to touch the 

 ground with two fingers and then carry them to their mouths. 



The right of private property was fully understood among the 

 Aztecs. The lands were held by different tenures, and were appor- 

 tioned among the king, the priests, the nobles, and the people. Of 

 these the nobility alone were full possessors ; the other three merely 

 enjoyed the use. The produce of the common lauds was deposited 

 in storehouses, from which the inhabitants were supplied gratis 

 according to their want*. The inhabitants of conquered countries 

 ware obliged to pay tribute in kind to the king both of the produce 

 of the field and of their industry. Among the Aztecs slaves were 

 bought or persons wen reduced to slavery as a punishment for certain 

 crime*, but the son of a slave was in all cases a freeman. 



The Aztecs had some imperfect idea of a Supreme Being, absolute 

 and eternal, to whom worship was due. They believed him to be 

 invisible and incorporeal, and therefore no representation of him was 

 either painted or sculptured. They gave to this being the name of 

 Teotl. The epitheU of Ipalnemoaui (' him by whom we live '), and 

 Tloque-Nahuauue (' he who has all in himself'), were also given to 

 him. They acknowledged however a multitude of inferior deities. 

 They also believed in the existence of an evil spirit, called by them 

 TUcateoolotoU, whom they supposed to be always employed in 

 causing evil to mankind. The souls both of man and beast they 

 believed to be immortal According to their notions of a future state, 

 there were three different mansions where men enjoyed a future state 

 of existence. The first wu the house of the sun, where the soldiers 

 who fell in battle and the women who died in childbed were received. 

 It wu the daily occupation of the spirits of the departed warriors to 

 hail the sun with hymns and dances on it* rising, and to accompany 

 it to the zenith, where it wu met by the female spirits, who in like 

 manner escorted the great luminary in the rest of its course. After 

 a period of four years had elapsed they were transformed into cloud*, 

 or into birds of the most brilliant plumage, and they ascended into 

 heaven to breathe the pure ether, or occasionally descended on the 

 earth, where their time wu passed in singing and inhaling the per- 

 fumes of planU and flowers. The second abode was the Tlalocan, or 

 the abode of the god Tlaloc, the god of water, which wu the place 

 that the spirits of young children who had been sacrificed to that god 

 and of all others who had died of certain diseases inhabited : in this 

 place they were regaled with every sort of delicacy that could produce 

 delight. The third abode wu the Mictlan, or hell, where Mictlon- 



teuctli and Mitloncihuatl, the god ami goddess of hell, reigned, 

 place was destined for those who died in any other way. In this place 

 the departed spirits suffered nothing except the inconvenience arising 

 from the complete darkness of the place. 



The Aztecs supposed that four successive revolutions had at diffe- 

 rent epochs destroyed mankind. These epochs were called ages or 

 suns. The first wu called Tlaltonatiuh, 'the age of the earth,' which 

 took place 5206 years after the creation of the first sun ; in whi. I, the 

 giants who hod then dominion over the earth were destroyed by 

 famine, and those who escaped from this scourge were devoured by 

 tigers. The second wu called Tletonatiuh, ' the age of fire,' and hap- 

 pened 4804 yean after the preceding age. At this epoch the world 

 wu destroyed by fire, and as the birds only could escape the general 

 conflagration men were changed into birds. A man and woman were 

 however saved in a cave. The third epoch, Ehccatonatiuh, ' the 

 age of wind,' took place 4010 years after the age of fire. In tin* 

 revolution the world wu destroyed by violent hurricanes, and tin- 

 few men who escaped were changed into apes. The fourth epoch, 

 Atonatiuh, ' the age of water,' happened 4008 years after the preced- 

 ing revolution. In this revolution a universal deluge occurred, in 

 which all men were changed into fishes except a man and a woman. 

 This privileged pair were saved in the hollow of a tree : the children 

 of this couple were all born dumb, and were taught to speak by a 

 dove ; but every child learned a different language. The duration ,.f 

 these four ages, which, according to Huuiboldt's interpretation, is as 

 we have stated 18,028 years, does not exceed 1417 years according to 

 the interpretation of Ixtilxochitl. 



In all the European historians who have written on the antiquities 

 of the Aztecs the order of these revolutions is different, the age of 

 water being placed first and that of fire last. This error, according 

 to Humboldt, has arisen from their reading the painting which : 

 sents this part of the Aztecs' history from left to right, beginning at 

 the top, instead of reading from right to left, beginning at the bottom, 

 which is the system adopted by the Mexican historian Fernando Alba. 

 Ixtilxochitl, who lived soon after the conquest : he was a great grand- 

 son of the last king of Acolhuacan. His history of New Spain wu in 

 manuscript in the library of the Jesuits at Mexico. 



Of the innumerable inferior divinities worshipped by the Aztecs the 

 principal were thirteen. Their worship included sacrifices of human 

 victims, of animals, plants, flowers, and fruits ; and prayer?, hymns, 

 fastings, and other rigorous penances, in which the worship)*!-* fre- 

 quently shed their own blood. The human sacrifices were so horrible 

 that the simple recital of them excites disgust i and so frequent and 

 numerous, that the Mexican historians calculate that no less than 

 20,000 victims perished every year; but this must be a great 

 exaggeration. 



The priests were very numerous. Besides serving in the temple 

 they were employed in educating the youth, in painting the annals of 

 the empire, in forming and regulating the calendar, in composing 

 hymns, and in other scientific and literary pursuits. The body of the 

 priests was subject to two high-priests the Teotcuctli, or divine lord, 

 and the Hueiteopixqui, or high-priest : both offices were elective, ex- 

 cept in Acolhuacan, where the high-priest was always the second son 

 of the king. (Clavigero, vol. il cb, vl p. 39.) There were persons 

 of both sexes devoted to the service of tho gods, who lived in retire- 

 ment, practising very severe austerities. Every child who won devoted 

 by ita parents to the service of the temple wu consecrated by the 

 priests by making an incision on itx breast with a knife of obniiluui. 

 A child of either sex, four days after its birth, was taken by tho miil- 

 wife to the court of the house, where a ceremony analogous to baptism 

 was performed. 



In general, every male child followed the profession of his father. 

 From tlioir third to their fifteenth year they were instructed in tln-ir 

 houses by their parents. At the age of fifteen they were ent 

 temples or to some private school, to be taught those n< 

 which their parents were unable to impart to them. The edu 

 of the Aztec youth is described in the collection of Meudozo, plate 

 Iviii. Ixtv. (Aglio, ' Antiquities of Mexico,' vol. i.) 



When a man and a female had arrived at a proper age, which for 

 the former wu twenty or twenty-two, and for the latter seventeen or 

 eighteen, the marriage wu contracted between the families by means 

 of a female negotiator, who wu sent to the bride that the father of the 

 youth had chosen for his son. This woman, accompanied 1>\ 

 other females with lighted torches in their bonds, carried the bride 

 upon her shoulders to the house of the bridegroom. There she was 

 met by the relations of the intended husband, who after fumigating 

 her with copal introduced her into the house. The couple were 

 placed upon a mat by the fire-side, and the female negociat. 

 together the end of their garment*, in which ceremony they made the 

 marriage contract consist. An elderly man and woman, who nt the 

 same time acted u witnesses to the ceremony, then delivered a speech 

 to the new-married couple, and presented them with some food. !'.,. , r 

 days after they went to the temple to offer to their god tho mats on 

 which they had slept 



The ceremonies which the Aztecs used in their burial* were no less 

 singular. The body wu dressed in a peculiar garment, and a flask 

 of water and a number of instructions for the conduct of tho body in 

 iU new state was placed with it. The body was usually burnt, with 



