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.
[Illustration.]