THE LUSTER OE ANCIENT MENICO 



15 



buscades, sudden surprises, and the light 

 skirmish of guerilla warfare. Yet their 

 discipline was such as to draw forth the 

 encomiums of the Spanish Conquerors. 

 "A beautiful sight it was," says one of 

 them, "to see them set out on their march, 

 all moving forward so gayly and in so 

 admirable order !" In battle they did not 

 seek to kill their enemies so much as to 

 take them prisoners, and they never 

 scalped, like other North American tribes. 

 The valor of a warrior was estimated by 

 the number of his prisoners, and no ran- 

 som was large enough to save the devoted 

 captive. 



Their military code bore the same 

 stern features as their other laws. Dis- 

 obedience of orders was punished with 

 death It was death also for a soldier to 

 leave his colors, to attack the enemy be- 

 fore the signal was given, or to plunder 

 another's booty or prisoners. One of the 

 last Tezcucan princes, in the spirit of an 

 ancient Roman, put two sons to death, 

 after having cured their wounds, for 

 violating the last-mentioned law. 



THEIR "HOUSES OF GOD" 



The Mexican temples — teocallis, 

 "houses of God," as they were called — 

 were very numerous. They were solid 

 masses of earth, cased with brick or 

 stone, and in their form somewhat re- 

 semble the pyramidal structures of an- 

 cient Egypt. The bases of many of them 

 were more than a hundred feet square, 

 and they towered to a still greater height. 

 They were distributed into four or five 

 stories, each of smaller dimensions than 

 that below. The ascent was by a flight 

 of steps, at an angle of the pyramid, on 

 the outside. This led to a sort of terrace, 

 or gallery, at the base of the second story, 

 which passed quite round the building to 

 another flight of stairs, commencing also 

 at the same angle as the preceding and 

 directly over it, and leading to a similar 

 terrace ; so that one had to make the cir- 

 cuit of the temple several times before 

 reaching the summit. In some instances 

 the stairway led directly up the center of 

 the western face of the building. 



The top was a broad area, on which 

 were erected one or two towers, 40 or 

 50 feet high, the sanctuaries in which 



stood the sacred images of the presiding 

 deities. Before these towers stood the 

 dreadful stone of sacrifice and two lofty 

 altars, on which fires were kept, as inex- 

 tinguishable as those in the Temple of 

 Vesta. There were said to be 600 of 

 these altars on smaller buildings within 

 the inclosure of the great temple of Mex- 

 ico, which, with those in the sacred edi- 

 fices in other parts of the city, shed a 

 brilliant illumination over its streets 

 through the darkest night. 



CEREMONIALS OE PEACE 



From the construction of their temples 

 all religious services were public. The 

 long processions of priests winding round 

 their massive sides, as they rose higher 

 and higher toward the summit, and the 

 dismal rites of sacrifice performed there, 

 were all visible from the remotest corners 

 of the capital, impressing on the spec- 

 tator's mind a superstitious veneration 

 for the mysteries of his religion and for 

 the dread ministers by whom they were 

 interpreted. 



This impression was kept in full force 

 by their numerous festivals. Every 

 month was consecrated to some protect- 

 ing deity ; and every week — nay, almost 

 every day — was set down in their calen- 

 dar for some appropriate celebration ; so 

 that it is difficult to understand how the 

 ordinary business of life could have been 

 compatible with the exactions of religion. 

 Many of their ceremonies were of a light 

 and cheerful complexion, consisting of 

 the national songs and dances, in which 

 both sexes joined. Processions were made 

 of women and children crowned with 

 garlands and bearing offerings of fruits, 

 the ripened maize, or the sweet incense of 

 copal and other odoriferous gums, while 

 the altars of the deity were stained with 

 no blood save that of animals. 



These were the peaceful rites derived 

 from their Toltec predecessors, on which 

 the fierce Aztecs engrafted a superstition 

 too loathsome to be exhibited in all its 

 nakedness, and one over which I would 

 gladly draw a veil altogether, but that it 

 would leave the. reader in ignorance of 

 their most striking institution, and one 

 that had the greatest influence in form- 

 ing - the national character. 



