68 MEXICO, CENTRAL AMEEICA, WEST INDIES. 



was pierced by an ingeniously constructed gateway terminating in a parapet, 

 behind wbicb its defenders could keep under cover. 



But the chief architectural works of the Nahuas were the temples and 

 pyramids, such as those of Teotihuacan and Cholula ; these with the strongholds are 

 the only structures which in certain places have survived to our times, though 

 careful exploration has revealed a few traces of the private dwellings formerly 

 occupied by the Mexicans, The religious monuments were constructed on a plan 

 analogous to that of the Babylonian temples, being like them step pyramids 

 formed by a series of rectangular parallelojDipeds, superimposed and receding 

 upwards ; but as a rule the American were proportionately much broader at the 

 base than the Asiatic structures. Some were of prodigious size, a proof that 

 human labour was little valued on the Anahuac plateaux. 



At the time of the Spanish conquest the native civilisation was already on the 

 wane, a fact recognised by the people themselves when speaking of the Toltec age 

 as the flourishing epoch of the arts, sciences, and industries. Hemmed in on all 

 sides, without any regular communications seawards, and relieved from the 

 necessity of foreign trade by the great variety of products yielded by its three 

 superimposed climatic zones, the Aztec world had been reduced to live on its own 

 resources ; there was no inflow of commodities, no interchange of thought to 

 renew the vital forces ; the social system gradually became foul and stagnant, like 

 the flood waters that lodge in the depressions of a level plain. 



Trade was doubtless held in high honour, so much so that caravans could 

 traverse the land without danger even in time of war ; but the traffic was always 

 confined to the beaten tracks affording communication between the plateau and 

 the lower zones on both slopes. Thus shut out from free intercourse with distant 

 countries, Mexican civilisation was unable to find the elements of renewed life 

 within itself, with the result that the people gradually lost all spirit of enterprise, 

 enslaved by traditional and increasingly^ oppres^ve formularies. A rigid etiquette 

 regulated all relations between the classes, and society became, so to say, petrified, 

 while public worship grew more and more atrocious. 



Yet at its origin the Mexican religion had been exempt from all sanguinary 

 rites. The first of the gods, bearing the name of Teotl, in a pre-eminent sense 

 was Atonatiuh, the " Sun of the Waters," whose rays, heating the seas, caused all 

 things to rise out of chaos. Tlaloc, issue of the sun, yearly reviver of the spring- 

 tide, is the trade- wind bearer of the fertilising rains, the bird that comes from the 

 sea, the snake that glitters in the lightning flash, and glides into the fissures of 

 the earth, emblem of the running waters. 



At the time when the Aztecs founded Tenochtitlan, the memory was still 

 preserved of a mild religion, at which suppliants offered to " Father Sun," to 

 " Mother Moon," to " Brother Earth, " and to the wind-god nothing but seeds and 

 fruits, to obtain a blessing on the future crops. Hopes were even cherished that, 

 in a coming age of gold, these placid rites might yet be restored ; at least they 

 were associated with the advent of another Tlaloc, Quetzacoatl, the "Plumed 

 Serpent," who comes from the east with the east wind and thither returns. 



