Chapter IV: The Aztecs (1)

The Aztecs were the dominant nation on the highlands of Mexico when Cortez marched with his small army to conquer New Spain. The horrible sacrifices that they made to their gods and the wealth and barbaric splendor of their rulers have often been described. But their history in point of time covered short space and their art and religion was based in a large measure on achievements of the nations that had preceded them.

Mayas and Aztecs compared to Greeks and Romans.

A remarkably close analogy may be drawn between the Mayas and Aztecs in the New World and the Greeks and Romans in the Old, as regards character, achievements, and relations one to the other. The Mayas, like the Greeks, were an artistic and intellectual people who developed sculpture, painting, architecture, astronomy and other arts and sciences to a high plane. Politically, both were divided into communities or states that bickered and quarreled. There were temporary leagues between certain cities, but real unity only against a common enemy. Culturally, both were one people, in spite of dialectic differences, for the warring factions were bound together by a common religion and a common thought. To be sure the religion of the Mayas was much more barbaric than that of the Greeks but in each case the subject matter was idealized and beautified in art.

Plate XXXIX.

The Aztecs, like the Romans, were a brusque and warlike people who built upon the ruins of an earlier civilization that fell before the force of their arms and who made their most, notable contributions to organization and government. The Toltecs stand just beyond the foreline of Aztecan history and may fitly be compared to the Etruscans. They were the possessors of a culture derived in part from their brilliant contemporaries that was magnified to true greatness by their ruder successors.

The Chichimecas.

The term Chichimecas was applied by the more civilized tribes of the Mexican highlands to those nomads outside the pale who dressed in skins and hunted with the bow and arrow. Some of these wandering groups spoke Nahuan dialects, but the term was also applied to the Otomis who spoke a distinct language. Possibly through having been reduced in war certain of these wandering groups were drawn into civilization and when the Toltecan cities began to decline, they advanced to considerable power and prestige. In fact, the Aztecs may be considered as originally Chichimecan, along with the people of Texcoco. In later times, these city-broken nomads looked back with considerable pride on their lowly origin. The early life in the open is pictured interestingly in several documents including the Map of Tlotzin and the Map of Quinatzin.

We have already seen how the splendid culture of the Toltecan cities broke down under the weight of civil war about 1220 A. D. To be sure, Cholula appears to have kept alive the flame of Toltecan religion and art up to the advent of the Spaniards. Atzcapotzalco, Colhuacan, and other towns near the lakes that had been established during the Toltecan period were able to hold their own for a time against the newer order.

Xolotl, founder of the dynasty of Texcoco, makes his first appearance in the Valley of Mexico in 1225, five years after the dispersion of the Toltecs, according to the Codex Xolotl. He viewed the abandoned cities but neither he nor his immediate successors chose to lead a sedentary life. The first date appears too early because it seems unlikely that the reigns of Xolotl and his son actually covered ninety years. The foundation of Texcoco took place in the reign of Techotlala and Ixtlilxochitl, his son, fell a victim to the murderous policy of Tezozomoc, the famous tyrant of Atzcapotzalco. Nezahualcoyotl, who regained the throne in 1431 was a great poet, philosopher, and law maker. The rulers of Texcoco were as follows:—

THE DYNASTY OF TEXCOCO

Nomadic Chieftains

Xolotl 1225-1284
Nopalli 1284-1315
Tlotzin 1315-1324
Quinatzin 1324-1357

Sedentary Chieftains

Techotlala 1357-1409
Ixtlilxochitl 1409-1418
(Interregnum) 1418-1431
Nezahualcoyotl 1431-1472
Nezahualpilli 1472-1515
Cacama 1515-1520

Aztecan History.

The history of the Aztecs has a mythological preamble in common with other nations of Mexico. The Chicomoztoc or Seven Caves must not be considered historical but simply man’s place of emergence from the underworld. The general conception of an existence within the earth that preceded the existence upon the earth is found very widely among North American Indians. It is likewise impossible to locate the Island of Aztlan, that served, according to several codices, as the starting place of the Mexican migration. The northern origin for the Aztecan tribe to which so much attention has been paid need not have been far from the Valley of Mexico, since in their entire recorded peregrination they hardly traveled eighty miles.

Owing to the ineffectiveness of the Mexican time count Aztecan chronology is far from fixed. The year was known by the day with which it began and as this day ran the permutation of four names and thirteen numbers a cycle was fifty-two years in length. No method of keeping the cycles in their proper order seems to have been devised except the laborious one of putting down every year in sequence whether or not an event occurred in it. According to different authorities the year 1 Stone which begins the historical account in the Aubin Codex was 648, 1064, or 1168 in the European calendar, each date differing from the others by multiples of fifty-two years. The last base, 1168, is correct; this being the epoch of the Toltec Era established by Quetzalcoatl.

Plate XL.

The wandering tribes, among which may be mentioned the Chalca, Xochimilca, Tlahuica, Huexotzinca, Tepaneca, and Azteca, pushed their way into the region of the lakes and were allowed to live in less desirable locations as vassals to the established tribes. The “peregrinations” relate the succession of stops and the length of each stop. The Aztecs themselves made twenty or more stops lasting from two to twenty years. Finally, about 1325, they reached Chapultepec and for a number of years lived in comparative peace and quiet. Their bad manners and growing power excited the enmity of several nearby towns and in 1351 the Aztecs, under their chieftain Huitzilihuitl, were worsted in a fierce battle. Remnants of the tribe, including Huitzilihuitl and his daughter, sought the protection of Cozcoztli, king of Colhuacan. They soon were able to repay his support in a war with Xochimilco. The first actual settlement on the site of the future Tenochtitlan was made in 1364 and in 1376 Acamapictli, a noble allied to the royal house of Colhuacan, was elected to be the first war chief of the new city.

One of the first improvements undertaken by the new city was in the matter of water supply. Rights were secured to the famous spring of Chapultepec, an important gain because the brackish waters of the lake were not fit to drink. A double water main of terra cotta was laid from the springs to the town. New land was made, probably after the manner still to be seen in the famous floating gardens of Xochimilco by throwing the soil from the bed of the shallow lake into enclosed areas of wattle work. Gradually a Venice-like city, traversed by canals and admirably protected from attack, rose from the lake. At the coming of the Spaniards there were three causeways leading to the shores of the lake and each of these was protected by drawbridges. There was a city wall upon which were lighthouses for the guidance of homecoming fishermen. There were palaces and market places and a great central plaza called the Tecpan, where were situated the principal temples.

The Spaniards destroyed the ancient city, blocking up the canals with the débris of temples, and building the new City of Mexico over the leveled ruins. Ancient relics are brought to light wherever excavations are made. In 1900 many sculptures and ceremonial objects were uncovered in Escalerillas street near the Cathedral. Recently a building near the National Museum was torn down for replacement and in digging for new foundations part of the base of the great pyramid was found. This had been enlarged several times, as could be seen by the stairways successively buried under new walls. At the bottom of the balustrade of one stairway a great serpent head of stone was found in its original position (Plate XL).

The Aztecs count their history as a great people from their first war chief Acamapichtli who commenced his rule in 1376 (Codex Aubin). The names and the order of the succeeding war chiefs are the same in several records, but the dates are found to vary slightly.

Acamapichtli 1376-1396
Huitzilihuitl 1396-1417
Chimalpopoca 1417-1427
Itzcouatl 1427-1440
Moctezuma I 1440-1469
Axayacatl 1469-1482
Tizoc 1482-1486
Ahuitzotl 1486-1502
Moctezuma II 1502-1520
Cuitlahua 1520
Cuauhtemoc 1520-1521

After throwing off the yoke of their early overlords, the Tepanecas, by the subjection of Atzcapotzalco at the beginning of the brilliant reign of Itzcouatl, the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan entered into a three-cornered league with Texcoco and Tlacopan (Tacuba). This was an offensive and defensive alliance with an equal division of the spoils of war. Soon the united power of these three cities dominated the Valley of Mexico and began to be felt across the mountains on every side. Tenochtitlan gradually assumed the commanding position in the league, and although Texcoco continued to be an important center the third member was apparently much reduced. The great votive stone of Tizoc records some of the earlier conquests of the Aztecs. At the arrival of Cortez only a few important cities such as Tlaxcala retained their independence. But the crest of power had then been passed and it seems pretty certain that the remarkable city in the lake would in time have suffered the fate of other self-constituted capitals both in the Old World and the New.

Social Organization.

Spanish historians often liken Tenochtitlan to the seat of an empire and speak of the ruler as one who had the power of an absolute monarch while other and more recent writers have declared that the tribal organization of the Aztecs was essentially democratic. The truth doubtless lies between these extremes. The people were warlike by nature and all men, except a few of the priesthood, were soldiers. Honors depended largely upon success in war and warriors were arranged in ranks according to their deeds. The common warriors formed one rank and next came those who had distinguished themselves by definite achievements which gave the right to wear certain articles of dress or to bear certain titles. The chiefs were elected for an indefinite term of office from the most distinguished fighters and could be removed for cause.

But while the offices of state were elective there was, nevertheless, a tendency to choose from certain powerful families and at least the foundation of an aristocratic policy. A chief was succeeded by his son or brother except when these candidates were manifestly unfit. In the actual succession of the great war chiefs of Tenochtitlan, a peculiar system seems to have been followed in that the candidates from the older generation were ordinarily exhausted before the next lower generation became eligible. Thus Huitzilihuitl, Chimalpopoca, and Itzcouatl were all sons of Acamapichtli, and the last and greatest was born of a slave mother. Then followed Moctezuma Ilhuicamina I, the son of Huitzilihuitl. This chief had no male heirs but the children of his daughter ruled in order: Axayacatl, Tizoc, and Ahuitzotl. Moctezuma II was the son of the first of these as was Cuitlahua, while Cuauhtemoc, the last Aztec ruler, was the son of Ahuitzotl. This peculiar succession was not in vogue in Texcoco, where son succeeded father and the lawful wife was chosen from the royalty of Tenochtitlan. In the various annals, the genealogies are often indicated and the evidence that aristocracies existed is too strong to be overthrown. There are even cases of queens who succeeded to the chief power after the death of the royal husband.

It is extremely doubtful whether the Aztecs ever had what might be called clans. We have seen that there were originally eight closely related tribes constituting the Mexica or Mexici nation. The Aztecs themselves are said to have been divided into seven groups that were first reduced to four or five and then increased to about twenty. It is not clear that these were exogamic kinship groups. They were probably military societies taking into their membership all the men of the tribe. The name _Calpolli_, or “great house,” which was applied to them seems to have referred to a sort of barracks or general meeting place in each ward or division of the city where arms and trophies were kept and the youth educated in the art of war. The title in land was held by the _calpolli_ and the right of use distributed among the heads of families who held possession only so long as the land was worked. Each _calpolli_ seems to have had a certain autonomy in governmental matters as well as a local religious organization. It is curious to find in Salvador, far to the south, the word _calpolli_ applied to the platform mounds that surround courts in the ancient ruins. This use of the word may indicate that the “great houses” of the different societies were ordinarily the principal buildings of the city and that they were used for civil, military, and religious purposes.

In forming judgment on the fundamentals of social organization among the Aztecs we must remember that no clear case of kinship clans has been reported south of the area of the United States. Among the Cakchiquels, a Mayan tribe of the Guatemalan highlands, two royal houses are reported from which the ruling chief was alternately drawn. The Zotzils have been explained as a bat clan because their name is associated with the word for bat and because a bat god appears to have been their patron deity. The Mazatecas and Mixtecas, Deer people and Cloud people, also have clanlike names but in all cases these are designations of entire tribes, not of subdivisions of tribes.

Plate XLI.

Tenochtitlan was divided into four quarters and each quarter subdivided into a number of wards. An under chief was elected from each of the subdivisions which are doubtless to be identified with the _calpolli_, and an over chief from each of the four quarters. Above these stood the war chief of the entire tribe who was likewise elected, but within the limits of a fixed aristocracy. A second great chief, who seems to have been a peace officer with some important relation to the priesthood, was nominally equal to the war chief, but practically much less powerful. The real center of the home government was a council made up of all the chiefs. In time of war the war chief was in supreme command and could either delegate his rights or act in person. Just how much the priesthood intervened in governmental affairs cannot be definitely put in words, but their power was doubtless great. Certain lands were cultivated in common for the officers of church and state and much of the tribute from conquered provinces was devoted to their needs.

The Tecpan or Temple Enclosure.

Plate XLII.

Central or cosmogonic portion: The day sign 4 Olin with details in
the arms representing four epochs of the world; with the face of the
sun god in the center and minor hieroglyphs that may represent the
four directions just outside the Olin symbol.

Band of day signs beginning at the top and reading towards the left.

Bands of conventional rays of the sun and other details such as the
embellishment of the sun with turquoise and eagle feathers.

The outer circle of two great reptiles that may indicate the
universe.

Invisible edge of the disk bears representations of Itzpapalotl, the
obsidian butterfly which is symbolical of the heavens.]

The ceremonial center of Tenochtitlan has been transformed into the civic center of Mexico City. The Cathedral, the National Palace, and the Zocolo, or Plaza Major, mark the site where once stood the famous Tecpan or temple enclosure. Within the serpent walls, according to Sahagun, there were twenty-five temple pyramids, five oratories, sundry fasting houses, four bowl-shaped stones, one disk-shaped stone, a great stepped altar, a “star column,” seven skull racks, two ball courts, two enclosed areas, a well, three bathing places, two cellar-like rooms, a dancing place, nine priest houses, a prison for the gods of conquered nations, arsenals, work places, etc. A native plan of the Tecpan, much simplified, occurs in the Sahagun manuscript. The great pyramid rose in several terraces and was surmounted by two temples each three stories in height, one dedicated to Huitzilopochtli and the other to Tlaloc. Each temple contained an image of the god to which it was dedicated and a sacrificial altar. The walls were encrusted with blood of human victims whose hearts, still beating, had been torn out for divine food and whose bodies had been rolled down the steep flight of temple stairs. The foundations for the great pyramids were laid in 1447 by Moctezuma I, the pyramids were completed in 1485 while Tizoc was war chief and the final dedication ceremonies were held in 1487.

Several very interesting large sculptures and many minor objects have been unearthed on the site of the Tecpan. In 1790 and 1791 were found three famous monoliths, the Calendar Stone, the Stone of Tizoc (Sacrificial Stone), and the Statue of Coatlicue. Since 1897 many fine pieces of pottery and several sculptures have been excavated near the Cathedral and placed in the Museo Nacional.

Plate XLIII.

The Calendar Stone.

The great sculptured monument known as the Calendar Stone or Stone of the Sun, is the most valuable object that has come down intact from the time of the Aztecs. It is a single piece of porphyry, irregular except for the sculptured face. It now weighs over twenty tons and it is estimated that the original weight was over twice as much. The sculptured disk is about twelve feet in diameter. This great stone was transported by men over many miles of marshy lake bottom before it could be placed in position in front of the Temple of the Sun in the temple enclosure that has just been described. The stone was doubtless thrown down from its original position by the soldiers of Cortez and may have been lost to sight. We know, however, that it was exposed to view about 1560 and was then buried by order of the archbishop of Mexico City lest its presence should cause the Indians to revert to their original pagan beliefs. It was rediscovered in 1790 and was afterwards built into the façade of the Cathedral where it remained until 1885, when it was removed to the nearby museum.

The Calendar Stone is not only a symbol of the sun’s face marked with the divisions of the year but it is a record of the cosmogonic myth of the Aztecs and the creations and destructions of the world. In the center is the face of the sun god, Tonatiuh, enclosed in the middle of the symbol called Olin. Tonatiuh is often represented by a much simpler sign of a circle with four or more subdivisions resembling those of a compass which are intended to represent the rays of the sun. Olin is one of the day signs and means movement, or perhaps earthquake. It has also been explained as a graphic representation of the apparent course of the sun during the year. The history of the world, according to the Aztecan myth, is divided into five suns or ages, four of which refer to the past and one to the present. The present sun is called Olin Tonatiuh because it is destined to be destroyed by an earthquake. The day signs of the four previous suns are represented in the rectangular projections of the central Olin symbol beginning at the upper right hand corner and proceeding to the left. They are 4 Ocelotl (jaguar); 4 Ehecatl (wind); 4 Quauhtli (rain); 4 Atl (water), and they refer to destruction, first, by jaguars, second, by a hurricane, third, by a volcanic rain of fire, fourth, by a flood. It is claimed by some that the year 13 Acatl (reed) recorded at the top of the monument between the reptile tails refers to the first year of the present sun. The fifth sun will end with the day 4 Olin, that is expressed in the central symbol already described. For this reason a fast was held on each recurrence of this day. Outside of the Olin symbol but between its arms are four hieroglyphs of uncertain meaning. Next to this area dealing with the great ages of the world comes a band of the twenty day signs of the Aztecan month. Outside of this band are several others which probably represent in a conventionalized manner the rays of the sun and the turquoise and eagle feathers with which the sun disk was believed to be decorated. Finally, outside of all, are two plumed monsters meeting face to face at the bottom of the disk. In each reptile face is seen a human face in profile. These reptiles are probably to be identified as the Xiuhcoatl or Fire Serpents.

The newly discovered National Stone pictures the Calendar Stone in vertical position on a mound and at the head of a flight of steps. The dates on the side of the stairway are 1 Tochtli and 2 Acatl, 1506 and 1507, indicating that the Calendar Stone was dedicated in connection with the New Fire Ceremony. The design on the back of this new-found monument pictures the eagle on the cactus, symbolic of the founding of Tenochtitlan. Other sculptures adorn the sides, the top, and the bottom of the stone.

Stone of Tizoc.

The Sacrificial Stone or Stone of Tizoc is believed to have been carved by order of Tizoc, the war chief who ruled from 1482-1486, as a memorial offering to Mexican arms on the completion of the great temple to the Mexican God of War. The stone was a _quauhxicalli_, or “eagle bowl.” This name was given to large bowls which were used to hold the blood and the heart of human victims sacrificed to the gods. The same name was extended to the large drum-shaped stone, under consideration, which has a pit in the center and a sort of canal running from the center to one side which may have been intended to drain off the blood. Human sacrifice actually took place on this stone but it is pretty certain that it was not one of the _temalacatl_ or “gladiator stones” on which were staged mortal combats as ceremonies. According to description the gladiator stones were pierced by a hole in the center so that one or more captives could be bound fast by a rope.

Plate XLIV.

On the top of the Stone of Tizoc is a representation of Tonatiuh, or the sun’s disk, much less complex than that which we have seen on the Calendar Stone but with many similar parts. On the sides of the stone are fifteen groups of figures, each group representing a conqueror and his captive. The victorious soldier appears each time in the guise of the war god, Huitzilopochtli, or his wizard brother Tezcatlipoca. The left foot of the figure ends in two scroll-like objects that may represent the humming bird feathers that formed the left foot of Huitzilopochtli. But Tezcatlipoca also had a deformed foot. Moreover, on the side of the headdress is a disk with a flame-shaped object coming out of it. This may represent the smoking mirror of Tezcatlipoca. The captive wears costumes that change slightly from one figure to the next. Over the head of the captive in each instance is the hieroglyph of a captured town or district.

Nearly all the place name hieroglyphs have been deciphered. The list is interesting historically because it gives the principal conquests up to the reign of Tizoc. Starting at the side directly across the stone from the groove or drain we see that the figure of the victor has behind his head a hieroglyph that represents a leg. This is the hieroglyph of Tizoc and the victim in this case represents the district of Matlatzinco in the Valley of Toluca. This district was brought under subjection by Tizoc himself. Among the other conquered cities are such well-known ones as Chalco, Xochimilco, and Colhuacan in the vicinity of Lake Texcoco and Ahuilizapan (Orizaba) and Tuxpan that are more distant.

Coatlicue.

Plate XLV.

The famous statue of the Earth Goddess, Coatlicue, “the goddess with the serpent skirt,” is one of the most striking examples of barbaric imagination. The name Teoyamiqui is often given to this uncouth figure, but the identification is faulty. Like the other great sculptures we have just examined, it doubtless occupied an important place in the great ceremonial center of Tenochtitlan, but no ancient reference to it is extant. This goddess is reported to have been the mother of the gods.

The statue may be described as follows: The feet are furnished with claws. The skirt is a writhing mass of braided rattlesnakes. The arms are doubled up and the hands are snake heads on a level with the shoulders. Around the neck and hanging down over the breast is a necklace of alternating hands and hearts with a death’s head pendant. The head of this monstrous woman is the same on front and back and is formed of two serpent heads that meet face to face. The forked tongue and the four downward pointing fangs belong half and half to each of the two profile faces.

Mexican Writing.

The means of record employed in Mexican codices are in part pictographic and in part hieroglyphic. The sequence of the historical events in these native manuscripts is often indicated by a line of footprints leading from one place or scene of action to another. Historical records of this type resemble old-fashioned maps and some are actually called maps. The names of towns in these documents are represented by true hieroglyphs and often the character of the country is indicated by pictures of typical vegetation, such as maguey plants for the highlands and palms for the lowlands. The day or the year in which took place the foundation of the town or whatever event is intended to be recorded is usually placed in conjunction with the hieroglyph or picture. Conquest is indicated by a place name hieroglyph with a spear thrust into it or by a temple on fire, while warfare is a shield and bundle of lances encircled by footprints.

_tlan_ from _tlantli_, teeth
_cal_ from _calli_, house
_mix_ from _mixtla_, cloud

A few examples of Nahuan hieroglyphs will now be given to illustrate this interesting method of writing. It must be remembered that there is nothing in the nature of a connected narrative. The hieroglyphs or word pictures are limited to geographical and personal names, including the names of gods, to months, days, numbers, objects of commerce and a few objects or ideas of ceremonial import. Some of the signs are in no degree realistic and have a definite meaning by common consent alone, such as the symbol for gold (Fig. 73). Others are abbreviated and conventionalized pictures of objects. Thus the head of a god or of an animal frequently appears as the sign of the whole. But the most important and interesting word signs are rebuses in which separate syllables or groups of syllables are represented by more or less conventionalized pictures. The whole word picture is a combination of syllable pictures which indicate phonetically the word as a whole. Very often advantage is taken of puns on whole or partial words, while color and position are also employed to indicate sounds and syllables.

Caltepec
Itztepec
Atepec
Pantepec
Mistlan
Itzlan
Petlatlan
Tecalco

In Fig. 74 are given a few of the more common syllable pictures. The name of the object represented is cut down by the elimination of _tl_, _li_, etc., that form the nominal endings. Thus, the picture of water, _atl_, becomes the sign for the sound _a_, that of stone _tetl_ is cut down to the syllable _te_. Several of these syllable pictures are combined to represent a whole word.

_Cipactli_ _Ehecatl_ _Calli_ _Cuezpallin_ _Coatl_ Crocodile Wind House Lizard Snake _Miquiztli_ _Mazatl_ _Tochtli_ _Atl_ _Itzcuintli_ Death Deer Rabbit Water Dog _Ozomatli_ _Malinalli_ _Acatl_ _Ocelotl_ _Quauhtli_ Monkey Herb Reed Jaguar Eagle _Cozcaquauhtli_ _Olin_ _Tecpatl_ _Quiahiutl_ _Xochitl_ Vulture Movement Stone Rain Flower

The hieroglyphs of the twenty days of the month (see Fig. 76) are frequently represented, but those of the eighteen months are not nearly so well known. As for the gods, the faces are usually pictured, especially when these are grotesque, but sometimes details of dress or an object connected with a special ceremony is sufficient to recall the divinity. The Mexican system of numbers was based on twenties. The units were figured by dots, the twenties by flags, the four hundreds by a device like a tree that represented hair, and the eight thousands by the ceremonial pouches in which copal incense was carried.

Plate XLVI.

Aztecan Religion.

The religion of the Aztecs, like that of the Mayas, was a polytheism in which special divinities controlled the powers of nature and the activities of men. The gods were perhaps further advanced towards human form and attributes than were those of the earlier culture to the south, but definite characterization was still accomplished by grotesque features and certain animal connections were still evident. The matter is confused beyond the point of analysis. The mythologies often ascribe different origins to the same deity. One god is addressed by many names, descriptive or figurative, that are intended to bring out the various aspects of his power. Overlapping functions make it impossible to assign each god to his special province. There are universal gods, there are special gods, and there are patron gods of trade guilds. Moreover, there are foreign gods, some recent, some ancient.

The religion of central Mexico had its objective, ritualistic side, which appealed directly to the understanding of the masses, and its more subtle theological or philosophical side seen, for instance, in the poems written by priests and rulers. It was a mixture of spirituality and the grossest idolatry. The ceremonial calendar, with a description of the feasts and sacrifices occurring at different times of the year, has been preserved in a number of documents. Pageants, incense-burning, and human sacrifice gave a strong dramatic quality to the religious rites.

Plate XLVII.

The conception of a supreme deity is seen in _Ometeuctli_, the Lord of Duality, a vague god-head and creator who is sometimes addressed in some of the religious poems as the “Cause of All.” In the background of the popular religion was the belief in the Earth Mother and the Sky Father and in the divinity of the Sun, the Moon, the Jaguar, the Serpent, and whatever else was beautiful, powerful, and inexplicable. Tezcatlipoca, by reason of his magic and his omniscience, was placed at the head of the pantheon of active gods. Huitzilopochtli was, however, the favorite god of the Aztecs through his relation to war. Tlaloc, the god of rain, was naturally of great importance to agriculturists living in a rather arid region. Tonatiuh, the Sun God, was a more or less abstract deity who acted in part through other gods. But the list is too long to be repeated here.

The special gods of principal Mexican cities were as follows:—

Tenochtitlan Huitzilopochtli
Texcoco Tezcatlipoca
Tlaxcala Camaxtli
Cholula Quetzalcoatl
Cuauhnahuac Xochiquetzalli

Of gods with a foreign origin perhaps the most important were Quetzalcoatl and Xipe. The former was introduced long before the Aztecs raised their banner of war and was the Long-nosed God of the Mayas, introduced under the patronage of Quetzalcoatl, the powerful emperor of the Toltecs. The worship of Xipe is said to have originated in a town in southern Mexico. It had certainly taken a strong hold on the Aztecs of Mexico City and was likewise known as far south as Salvador. It has recently been demonstrated that the people of Yopico, specially given to the worship of Xipe, originated in Nicaragua.

Conceptions of the Universe.

Cosmogonic myths, the world over, are unscientific attempts to explain the creation of the universe, to outline the powers of the gods and to trace the development of nature. The cosmogonic myths of Mexico and Central America are characterized by multiple creations. The Aztecan belief in five suns each standing for a world epoch is paralleled in fragments of Mayan mythology. Creation is not emphasized so much as destruction. The sequence of the suns is figured on the Calendar Stone, and in one of the codices, besides being explained in some of the early writings of Spanish priests and educated natives. The first sun was devoured by a jaguar and in the resulting darkness the inhabitants of the earth were devoured by jaguars. The second sun was destroyed by a hurricane, the third by a rain of fire, and the fourth by a flood. One human pair escaped each cataclysm and lived to repopulate the world. The fifth or present sun will be destroyed by an earthquake.

Notions of the shape and character of the universe are pretty well defined in Aztecan lore. The widespread belief that the universe consists of three superimposed worlds, the upper or sky world, the middle world of living men and the under world of the dead, is found in a developed form. The upper world is divided into thirteen levels. The uppermost four levels are called _Teteocan_, the abode of the gods, and are considered to be invisible. The creator of all, Ometeuctli, Lord of Duality, dwells with his spouse in the highest heaven and under him in order are the Place of the Red God of Fire, the Place of the Yellow Sun God and the Place of the White Evening Star God. The inferior heavens, called _Ilhuicatl_, are given over to the visible celestial activities. There is one heaven for the storms, another for the blue sky of the day, the dark sky of the night, the comets, the evening star, the sun, the stars, etc.

The under world is _Mictlan_, the Place of the Dead. Nine divisions are commonly given and in the lowermost of these lives _Mictlanteuctli_, the Lord of Death, and his mate. The idea of future blessing or punishment is not entirely absent from the minds of the Aztecs. Warriors killed in battle go to the House of the Sun, in one of the upper worlds, as do women who die in childbirth. _Tlalocan_, the lowermost heaven, is a sort of terrestrial paradise for others. _Mictlan_ is, however, the common abode of the dead, and the wretched soul can reach it only after a journey set with horrors.

The cult of the quarters is intimately associated with the concept of the universe. With the four cardinal points a number of others are sometimes taken including the zenith, the nadir, and the middle. The sacred numbers 4, 5, 6, and 7 may thus conceivably be derived from the points of space, but it would be very unsafe to assume that they are necessarily so derived. The general concept of a universe divided into quarters, fifths, or sixths is a powerful conventionalizing factor in mythology, religion, and art. Prayers, songs, and important acts are repeated in identical or in systematically varied form for each point of space. In Mayan and Aztecan codices the symbolism of the four directions is often manifest.

Ceremonies.

Ceremonialism was intensely developed in Mexico and the dramatic quality of many Aztecan rites of human sacrifice has probably never been equaled. We are apt to think only of the gruesome features of human sacrifice and to overlook the spiritual ones. The victim was often regarded as a personification of a god and as such he was fêted, clothed in fine garments, and given every honor. Efforts were made to cause the victim to go willingly to his death uplifted by a truly religious ecstasy. It was considered unlucky that he should grieve or falter.

The religious calendar was given over to fixed and movable feasts. The fixed feasts were eighteen in number and each came on the last day of a twenty-day period and gave its name to that period. These eighteen periods correspond with the Mayan uinals or months, but since dates were rarely given in relation to them, they do not have the same calendrical importance. The five days that rounded out the 365-day year were considered unlucky.

Each of the eighteen feasts of the year was under the patronage of a special divinity and each had a set of ceremonies all its own. In some cases the ceremonies were really culminations of long periods of preparation. Thus, on the last day of the month Toxcatl there was sacrificed a young man, chosen from captured chieftains for his beauty and accomplishments, who for an entire year had been fitting himself for his one turn on the stage of blood and death. This intended victim, gayly attired and accompanied by a retinue of pages, was granted the freedom of the city. When the month of Toxcatl entered he was given brides, whose names were those of goddesses, and in his honor was held a succession of brilliant festivals. On the last day there was a parade of canoes across Lake Texcoco and when a certain piece of desert land was reached, the brides and courtiers bade farewell to the victim. His pages accompanied him by a little-used trail to the base of an apparently ruined temple. Here he was stripped of his splendid garments and of the jewels that were symbols of divinity. With only a necklace of flutes he mounted the steps of the pyramid. At each step he broke one of the flutes and he arrived at the summit, where the priests waited, knife in hand, a naked man whose heart was to be offered to the very god he had impersonated. This ceremony is given only as an example, but it illustrates two characteristics that are seen in several other sacrifices, namely, the paying of homage and honor to the intended sacrificial victim, and, secondly, the necessity of keeping the victim in a happy frame of mind.

The eleventh feast of the year was called Ochpaniztli, “the feast of the broom” and was celebrated in honor of the goddess known as Toci, or Teteoinnan. The first of these names means “our female ancestor” and the second one means “the mother of the gods.” She was a goddess of the earth and her symbol was the grass broom with which the earth was swept. She also exerted an influence over the arts of the hearth, such as weaving. Her pictures in the codices show her with a broom in one hand and a shield in the other while about her head is a band of unspun cotton into which are stuck spindles wrapped with thread.

During this month the roads were repaired, the houses and plazas swept, and the temples and idols refurbished. According to the text in the Codex Magliabecchiano there were human sacrifices in the temples which fronted on the roads and there were great dances and carousals. Those sacrificed were afterwards flayed as in the feast of Xipe and their skins worn by dancers. The picture that accompanies this revolting admission is itself devoid of any morbid symbols. It shows a kneeling woman holding out the broom and shield. She wears a white dress and a neckless of jade beads with golden bells for pendants. Below her are two standing men who bear in their hands offerings of ripe fruit.

Sahagun gives details of a terrible drama that was enacted during this twenty-day month. For the first eight days there was dancing without song and without the drum. After this prologue a woman was chosen to impersonate the patron goddess and to wear her characteristic dress and ornaments. With her was a retinue of women skilled in medicine and midwifery. For four days these persons divided in opposing ranks and pelted each other with leaves and flowers. While this harmless ceremony and others like it were being acted out, the greatest care was taken that the woman who played the rôle of the goddess and who was marked for death should not suspect her fate. It was considered unlucky, indeed, if this victim wept or was sad. When her time to die had come she was clothed in rich garments and given to understand that she should be that night the bride of a rich lord. And under such a beguiling belief she was led silently to the temple of sacrifice. There without warning an attendant lifted her upon himself, back to back, and her head was instantly struck off. Without delay the skin was stripped from her warm body and a youth, wearing it as a garment, was conducted in the midst of captives to the temple of the War God, Huitzilopochtli. Here in the presence of this mighty god the youth himself tore out the hearts of four victims and then abandoned the rest to the knife of the head priest. Thus closed the terrible drama which began with an innocent battle of flowers and ended in an orgy of blood.

The twelfth month passed under two names. It was called Pachtli after a plant with which the temples were decorated and Teotleco which signifies “the arrival of the gods.” The principal feast was held, as usual, on the twentieth day when the great company of gods was supposed to return from a far land. One god, very youthful and robust, arrived on the eighteenth day, being able to outwalk the others, while a few very old and infirm divinities were late in getting to the feast. The one who arrived first was called Telpochtli or Titlacauan but in reality he was the great Tezcatlipoca in disguise.

In anticipation of this return, the temples, shrines, and household idols were decorated with branches. The youths who did this work were repaid in corn, the amount varying from a full basket to a few ears. A novel manner of attesting the earliest presence of divinity is related. Some cornmeal was spread in a circular mass upon the ground. During the night the high priests kept vigil and from time to time visited this circle of cornmeal. When he saw a footprint in the center he cried out, “Our master has come.” Then there was a burst of music and everyone ran to the great feast in the temple. Much native wine was drunk, for this was considered equivalent to washing the tired feet of the travel-worn gods. As a final act of the celebration there was a dance in costume around a great fire and several unfortunates were tossed alive into the flames.

Space will not permit a further examination of the eighteen fixed feasts. The movable feasts were mostly in definite relation to the _tonalamatl_ and were thus subject to repetition every 260 days. The permutation of twenty day names and thirteen numbers is pictured in Mexican codices in two or more stereotyped forms, but these are very complete. In the commonest form the entire cycle is divided into twenty groups of thirteen days each and each group is presided over by a special divinity. There are other repeating series of gods, sacred birds, etc., that preside over the individual days in these groups. The _tonalamatl_ was much used in Mexico in connection with foretelling events. The days were lucky, indifferent, or unlucky, and the future life of a child was believed to be locked up in the horoscope of his birthday.

Other feasts were held in relation to longer time periods. There were important festivals held in connection with the planet Venus with especially elaborate ones falling at intervals of eight years. Still another ceremony was held at the completion of a fifty-two year period, when the set of years were figuratively bundled up and laid away and a new sacred fire lighted.

Poetry and Music.

The languages of Central America were capable of considerable literary development. This is seen especially in the songs that were used in different religious ceremonies of the Aztecs, as well as in the reflective poems written by educated natives. Several very fine pieces have been preserved, and while there is no rhyme, there is much rhythm. When recited by a person speaking fluently the native tongue these poems are very impressive. Of course, translation is always hazardous, and fundamental differences in language, such as exist between English and Aztecan, make it almost impossible. The most famous poet whose name has come down to us was Nezahualcoyotl, or Famishing Coyote, who was a ruler of Texcoco and died at the advanced age of eighty years in 1472. A few verses from one of his poems on the mutability of life and the certainty of death have been translated as follows:—

All the earth is a grave, and naught escapes it; nothing is so perfect
that it does not fall and disappear. The rivers, brooks, fountains and
waters flow on, and never return to their joyous beginnings; they
hasten on to the vast realms of Tlaloc, and the wider they spread
between their marges the more rapidly do they mould their own
sepulchral urns. That which was yesterday is not today; and let not
that which is today trust to live tomorrow.

The caverns of earth are filled with pestilential dust which once was
the bones, the flesh, the bodies of great ones who sat upon thrones,
deciding causes, ruling assemblies, governing armies, conquering
provinces, possessing treasures, tearing down temples, flattering
themselves with pride, majesty, fortune, praise and dominion. These
glories have passed like the dark smoke thrown out by the fires of
Popocatepetl, leaving no monuments but the rude skins on which they
are written.

Another example will serve to emphasize the strain of sadness and the vision of death that characterize so many Aztecan poems.

Sad and strange it is to see and reflect on the prosperity and power
of the old and dying king Tezozomoc; watered with ambition and
avarice, he grew like a willow tree rising above the grass and flowers
of spring, rejoicing for a long time, until at length withered and
decayed, the storm wind of death tore him from his roots and dashing
him in fragments to the ground. The same fate befell the ancient King
Colzatzli, so that no memory was left of him, nor of his lineage.

The Aztecs held concerts in the open air where poems were sung to the accompaniment of the drum and other simple instruments. Songs were also sung at banquets and in the stress of love and war. The common musical instruments of the Aztecs vary but little from those in use elsewhere in Mexico and Central America. There were two kinds of drums. One was a horizontal hollowed-out log with an H-shaped cutting made longitudinally on its upper surface so as to form two vibrating strips which were struck with wooden drumsticks having tips of rubber. The second sort of drum was an upright log also hollowed out and covered with a drumhead of deerskin. Conches were used for trumpets. Resonator whistles with or without finger holes were made of clay in fanciful shapes. Flageolets were constructed of clay, bone, or wood and flutes were made of reed. Resounding metal disks and tortoise shells were beaten in time. Many sorts of gourd and earthenware rattles were employed as well as notched bones which were rasped with a scraping stick. Copper bells of the sleigh bell type were exceedingly common. The marimba, however, that is such a favorite musical instrument today in Central America is of African origin and fairly recent introduction. No stringed instruments were known to the ancient Mexicans nor does the pan-pipe appear to have been used in this area although common in Peru.

Minor Aztecan Arts.

Some of the great sculptures of Tenochtitlan have already been described and references have been made to the native books painted in brilliant colors on paper and deerskin. Objects of minor art comprise pottery vessels, ornaments of gold, silver, copper, jade, and other precious materials, textiles, pieces of feather work, etc.

The best known ceramic products are made of orange colored clay and carry designs in black that sometimes are realistic, but more often not. The tripod dishes with the bottoms roughed by cross scoring were used to grind chili. Heavy bowls with loop handles on the sides and a channel across the bottom were seemingly made to be strung on ropes. They may have held pitch and been used for street lights. The pottery figurines of the Aztecan period are nearly all moulded and lack the sharp detail of the earlier examples. They often represent deities wearing characteristic dress and carrying ceremonial objects.

Comparatively few specimens of ancient gold work in Mexico escaped the cupidity of the Spanish conquerors, but these attest a remarkable proficiency in casting. The moulds were made of clay mixed with ground charcoal and the melting of gold was accomplished by means of a blow pipe. The technique seen in Costa Rican gold work according to which details falsely appear to be added by soldered wire, was followed in Mexico. Modern Mexican filigree bears little relation to the ancient Indian work, but is probably of Moorish origin. The examples of Aztecan gold work include finger rings, earrings, nose and lip ornaments, necklaces, and pendants.

Among the precious and semi-precious stones known to the Aztecs, the most valuable in their eyes was turquoise. This was probably obtained by trade from the Pueblo Indians. It was mostly cut into thin plates and used in the manufacture of mosaic objects. Red jasper, green jade, jet, gold, and shell of various colors was also used in these mosaics. Jade was highly prized and was known as _chalchihuitl_. Ornaments of obsidian, a black volcanic glass, and of crystal quartz, are fairly common and others of opal and amethyst have been found. Pearls and emeralds were secured in trade from the south.

The textile decorations in vogue at the coming of the Spaniards can be restored from the pictures in codices. Mantles were often demanded as tribute and the designs are given on the conventional bundles in the tribute lists. Garments with certain designs served as insignia of office for several of the priesthoods. Feather mosaic was highly prized and was made according to several methods. Capes as well as shields and other objects were covered with brilliant feathers so arranged as to bring out designs in the natural colors.

The Tarascans.

The Aztecs while by far the most important tribe in the fifteenth century did not dominate all the surrounding peoples. For instance, most of the State of Michoacan was controlled by the Tarascan tribe who defeated every expedition sent against them. The list of Tarascan towns is a long one but Tzintzuntzan which means the “Place of the Humming Birds” was the capital and principal stronghold. The ancient history of the Tarascans is little known. Large and striking specimens of archaic art were formerly accredited to this people, but without good reason. It is likely that archaic characters in art were maintained in Michoacan after they had passed away in central Mexico, but we cannot be sure that the Tarascans were the ancient inhabitants. There is some evidence, however, of culture which can be associated with them. The peculiar T-shaped mounds called _yatacas_, which rise in terraces and are faced with stone slabs laid without mortar, may have been built by this tribe. Sculptures of rather fine quality are occasionally found, an example being a reclining god of the type made famous by the “Chacmool” of Chichen Itza. Many fine copper celts have been unearthed in this highly mineralized mountain region. When the Spaniards came the Tarascans were skilled in weaving and were particularly famous for feather mosaics and feather pictures made largely of the brilliant plumage of humming birds. The use of the _atlatl_ or spear-thrower survives among the present-day Indians who also make gourd vessels covered with colored clays in pleasing geometric and floral designs.

The Otomis are a tribe of central Mexico even less cultured than the Tarascans and there is some evidence that they entered this region from the south only a few centuries before the Spaniards. Their relatives, the Matlatzincas of the Valley of Toluca, had more interesting arts.

Southern Mexico.

Somewhere about the middle of the fifteenth century Moctezuma I planted an Aztecan colony at Uaxyacac on the edge of the Zapotecan territory to protect the trade route to Tabasco. This name gave rise to the modern Oaxaca. From this point expeditions were sent out which harrassed the Zapotecs to the south and the Mixtecs to the west. In the Tribute Roll of Moctezuma II more than twenty Zapotecan towns are listed as paying tribute that consisted of gold disks and gold dust, jadeite beads, quetzal feathers, cochineal dye, fine textiles, etc. Very little is preserved concerning the traditional history of southern Mexico, but it is presumed that the Zapotecan culture before the Aztecan ascendency was a development of that implanted many centuries before when Monte Alban flourished and which we have already examined. As for the Mixtecs we only know that they produced pottery of great beauty somewhat similar to that of Cholula.