About the Aztecs
When the Spaniards reached Mexico, that country was filled with Indians belonging to many different tribes. These differed in language and in customs. Perhaps the most powerful and warlike tribe was that of the Aztecs, who lived in the central high table-land, with a chief city named Tenochtitlan. This city, occupying the same site as the present city of Mexico, was situated upon the shores of, and partly within, the lake of Texcoco. The lake lay in a beautiful valley which was occupied not only by the Aztecs, but also by a number of other tribes related to them in speech. Among these tribes were the Acolhuas, with their chief city of Texcoco, and the Tecpanecans, whose chief city was Tlacopan.
These three tribes spoke about the same language, and, after a great deal of quarreling among themselves, they united in a league or confederacy something like that of the Iroquois. Together, they were so strong that they carried on successful war against their neighbors. When they conquered a tribe, they did not take its land away nor interfere with its government, but compelled the people to pay an annual tribute to the confederacy. At the head of the confederacy was a great war-chief, who was called by the title of the Chief of Men. When Cortez conquered Mexico, the name of this “Chief of Men” was Montezuma.
The Aztecs raised crops of corn, beans, squashes, and chili peppers. Still they got a considerable amount of food from hunting, and they knew how to make snares and traps for capturing animals. Their lake used to be covered with ducks, and to capture these they employed a clever trick. Calabashes are large gourds. The Aztec hunters left calabashes floating at places where ducks were plenty so that the birds should be used to seeing them, and pay no attention to them. When a man wished to catch ducks, he placed a big calabash over his head, and waded cautiously out into the water until it was just deep enough for it to look as if his calabash were floating. Little by little, he moved over toward the swimming ducks, and, when among them, he seized one by the legs and dragged it under water; then another, and another, and so on. Ducks were not the only food taken from the lake. The scum or dirt floating on the water was skimmed off, and pressed into cakes; the eggs of a fly, which were laid in bunches on the rushes, near, or in the water, were gathered and eaten. These eggs are still a favorite food with modern Mexicans.
The Aztecs knew how to spin and weave. They had cotton, and they also had a fine, stout fiber from the maguey plant. From these they made good cloths which they sometimes dyed in bright colors. The dress of the men consisted of a sort of blanket or cloak—worn knotted over one shoulder—and the breech-clout. The women wore a skirt, which was only a long strip of cloth wrapped around the body, and held firmly in place by a belt; they also wore a pretty sleeveless waist. Men wore sandals on the feet, but usually went bareheaded. Great officials, however, were finely dressed, and one might tell from the clothing what official he met. Men often wore lip-stones. These were in idea like the lip-plugs of the Haida women, but were different in shape and material. Most of them were made of obsidian,—a fine-grained, glassy, black mineral. Their shape was that of a little stovepipe hat. The brim was inside the lip and prevented the stone from slipping out; the crown projected from the hole in the lower lip.
The common people lived in huts made of mud or other destructible material; but the buildings intended for the government and for religion were sometimes grand affairs, built of stone and covered with plaster. This plastering was sometimes white, sometimes red, and upon it were at times pictures painted in brilliant colors. These pictures generally represented warriors ready for battle, or priests before the altar. Temples were usually built upon flat-topped pyramids. These were often large, and were terraced on one or more sides. Sometimes they were coated with plaster. Flights of steps, or sloping paths, led to the summit. There would be found the temple and the gods. The gods of the Aztecs were like the Aztecs themselves, bloodthirsty and cruel.
In war the Aztecs used clubs, wooden swords, bows and arrows, spears or darts, slings and stones. They had wooden swords with broad, flat blades, grooved along the sides; into these grooves were cemented sharp pieces of obsidian. These were fearful weapons until dulled or broken by use. Spears and darts were often thrown with a wooden stick or hurler called an atlatl. Important warriors carried round or rectangular shields upon their left arms to ward off attack. These shields often bore patterns worked in bright feathers. Sometimes the whole dress of warriors was covered with feathers, and famous braves wore helmets of wood on their heads, from which rose great masses of fine feathers. Often warriors wore a sort of jacket covering the upper part of the body and reaching the knees. This was padded thickly with cotton, and arrows shot with great force could hardly penetrate it.
Calendar Stone. (From Photograph.)
In battle the Aztecs did not desire to kill the enemy, but preferred to capture prisoners to sacrifice to the gods. When a man was captured he was very well treated until the day for his sacrifice came. He was taken up to the temple on the pyramid and thrown on his back upon a sacrificial stone. He was held by several priests, while the high priest, with a knife of stone, cut open his breast. The heart was torn out, and offered to the gods; some other parts were cut off for them or for the priests. The rest of the body was then thrown down to the soldier who had captured the victim, and who waited below. He and his friends bore it away and ate it, or parts of it, as a religious duty. All the time the sacrifices were being made, the great drum was beaten. It made a mournful noise that could be heard to a great distance. In the National Museum in the city of Mexico is a great carved stone which is believed by many persons to be one of these old sacrificial stones upon which victims were sacrificed.
Stone Idol: Mexico. (From Photograph.)
In the same museum is a great stone idol. It was dug up about a hundred years ago in the central square of the city of Mexico. It probably stood in the great temple of the old Aztecs, which was totally destroyed by Cortez and his soldiers when they finally captured the city of Tenochtitlan. What an ugly thing it is! It is more than eight feet high and more than five feet across, but is cut from a single block of stone. It has a head in front, and another one behind; they look something like serpent heads. While the general form of this great idol is human, it has neither the feet nor hands of a man. The skirt it wears is made of an intertwined mass of rattlesnakes. A human skull is at the front of the belt. Four human hands apparently severed from their bodies are displayed upon the chest. This is only one of many curious and dreadful Aztec gods.
It would take a book larger than this to describe the Aztecs properly. It would take another to describe the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. Cortez had only a handful of men to fight against many thousands. But he had guns, powder, and horses, all of which were unknown before to the Aztecs and which they greatly feared. Sometime you must read Bernal Diaz del Castillo's story of the Conquest. He was one of Cortez's soldiers. He tells us that he was present in one hundred and nineteen battles and engagements. He also says: “Of the five hundred and fifty soldiers, who left the island of Cuba with Cortez, at the moment I am writing this history in the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-eight, no more than five are living, the rest having been killed in the wars, sacrificed to idols, or died naturally.”
