184 



from the foundation of Tenochtitlan, in the 

 year 1825 of our era, to the death of Montezuma 

 the Second, properly called Monte uczoma Xo- 

 cojotzin, in 1520 ; the second section is a list 

 of the tributes, which each province and little 

 town paid the Azteck sovereigns ; the third and 

 last section contains sketches of the domestic 

 life and manners of the Azteck people. The 

 viceroy Mendoza has added to each page of 

 the collection an explanation in Mexican and 

 Spanish, so that the whole forms a work very 

 interesting to the historian. The figures, not- 

 withstanding the incorrectness of the outlines, 

 present several very singular sketches of man- 

 ners. We see in them the education of chil- 

 dren from their infancy, till they become mem- 

 bers of society, either as husbandmen, manu- 

 facturers, warriors, or priests. The quantity of 

 food suitable to every age, the punishment that 

 ought to be inflicted on children of both sexes ; 

 every thing among the Mexicans was prescribed 

 in the most minute detail, not by law, but by 

 ancient customs, from which no deviation was 

 permitted. Fettered by the yoke of arbitrary 

 power, and the barbarism of civil institutions, 

 without freedom of will in the most indifferent 

 actions of domestic life, the whole nation was 

 reared in a languid uniformity of customs and 

 of superstitions. The same causes have pro- 

 duced similar effects in ancient Egypt, in India, 



