About Mexico - Past and Present/Chapter 8
CHAPTER VIII.
CIVILIZATION OF MEXICO.
WHILE the Mexicans built temples to the sun and the moon like those in which their ancestors worshiped in Asia and retained many of the religious forms which prevailed there, they forgot many other things which had been known in the Old World from the earliest ages. In the book of Job iron is spoken of as taken out of the earth; in Mexico mountains of iron-ore are found, but no use was made of it until Europeans showed the people what to do with this most valuable of metals.
Antediluvians like Jabal, "the father of all such as dwell in tents and such as have cattle," and old Tubal Cain, who "worked in brass and iron," would have looked upon the Mexicans as far behind the times in which they lived. The farmers of ancient Syria, such as Gideon and Oman the Jebusite, taught oxen to tread out the grain on their threshing-floors; the Mexicans had never heard of such a thing. Of all the vast herds of cattle which roamed their uplands, not one had ever been tamed. There was not a beast of burden in all Mexico, neither had the people any idea that the milk of cows and of goats was good for human food.
The horse was unknown by the Mexicans until they saw those brought from Cuba by Cortez for the use of his cavalry. For a long time the Indians looked upon horse and man as one animal, and supposed them to be supernatural beings. At one time, in an encounter with these people, a Cuban horse was left wounded on the field. The villagers near by, finding him in this condition, were full of sympathy for the poor beast. They brought him their finest flowers and their fatted poultry to tempt his appetite, but all in vain. He was only a horse, and he starved to death on fare which would have satisfied some of the best-worshiped idols in all Mexico. Some months afterward, when the Spaniards came that way again, they found the skeleton neatly polished and set up in the village temple as a new god. The spirited mustangs for which the country is now so famous all date from the conquest. Before that time important news was brought to the capital by fleet-footed runners. By means of relays at short intervals these men could bring despatches from the coast, two hundred and fifty miles distant, in twenty-four hours; this seems almost incredible when we remember the lofty mountains to be crossed on the way. The Aztecs boasted that fish which only the day before had been swimming in the Gulf were often brought to Montezuma's table.
An Indian road in those days had but one virtue: it was as nearly straight as it could be made, never turning to the right hand or to the left for rugged mountain or for precipitous ravine. A chasm was sometimes filled up with stones or bridged with a log, but otherwise there was only a footpath wide enough for one man. Ordinary travelers kept up a steady trot all day, even when carrying burdens—a habit still common among the Mexican Indians. Many footpaths used in these days were traveled by Montezuma's carriers, and some are now worn in deep ruts by the feet of many generations. As it was considered beneath the dignity of the great chiefs to walk, they were carried in litters on the shoulders of porters. When they alighted, they were supported under each arm, and were led about like children when first attempting to walk. The tribe of Zapotecs, in the South, had a high priest who never walked at all, his feet being too sacred to touch the ground. The people bowed with their faces to the earth when he passed, and no one of the vulgar crowd ever saw him except in his litter.
The immense stones used in building temples in Mexico were hewn in some distant quarry and dragged by long files of men, with ropes, over wooden rollers, to their destination. They were hoisted to their places in lofty walls by some such simple but effective contrivances as were in use when the oldest cities of the world were built.
Men were also employed as carriers of merchandise in the trading expeditions from tribe to tribe. Companies of merchants were fitted out by the tribe not only with goods for sale or for exchange, but regularly prepared for battle in case of attack. Their journey was always a dangerous one. As they felt their way cautiously from one tribe to another they always had to cross the yaotalli, or debatable ground, or no man's land, by which each territory was surrounded. An experienced and honorable chief always led the party, which, when the porters were included, often formed a small army. Many a battle was occasioned by the visit of such an armed force, some of whom might always be suspected as spies. The return of such an expedition was an occasion for great public rejoicing, especially if it had come back successful. It was met by gay processions, and came marching home with flying colors, under arches of flowers and greenery and pelted with bouquets. The traders went first to the central temple to lay an offering of their best before the idol. From thence they went to the great teepan, or council-house, to meet the chiefs who
had sent them out, and feast with them as honored guests and in token of fraternity. After these ceremonies they went each man to his own dwelling.
A Mexican home was unlike any known in Christian lands. In comparison with the clan to which a man belonged, the wife and the children held a low place. The whole community had a claim upon him in his day of triumph and home-coming. The council of his kindred had named him at birth, educated him, trained him for war, chosen him a wife and married him to her, and they would bury him when he died; and it was easy to see that duty to them came before all other duties. The habit of giving descriptive titles was shown in the name applied to the merchant. He was called "the man who exchanges one thing for another," or "the man who gets more than he gives."
Most of the commerce of the country was carried on in the way of barter. The artisan brought his own wares to the town market-place and exchanged them for whatever he wanted of his neighbor's goods of equal value. The money was cacao-beans, put up in small bags or lots of eight thousand. Expensive articles were paid for in grains of gold, which was passed from hand to hand in quills. Sometimes pieces of cotton cloth were used, or bits of copper instead of coin.
The market-place was a great open square surrounded by wide corridors, where venders sat with their goods protected from the weather. Cortez thus describes the market-place in the City of Mexico as he saw it in 1519:
"This city has many public squares, in which are situated the markets and other places for buying and selling. There is one square, twice as large as that of the city of Salamanca, surrounded by porticoes, where are daily assembled more than sixty thousand souls engaged in buying and selling, and where are found all kinds of merchandise that the world affords, embracing the necessaries of life—as, for instance, articles of food as well as jewels of gold and silver, lead, brass, copper, tin, precious stones, bones, shells, snails and feathers. There are also exposed for sale wrought and unwrought stone, bricks burnt and
unburnt, timber hewn and unhewn of various sorts.
THE SPLENDID TROGON OF MEXICO. "There is a street for game, where every variety of birds found in the country are sold, as fowls, partridges, quails, wild ducks, flycatchers, widgeons, turtle-doves, pigeons, reed-birds, parrots, sparrows, eagles, hawks, owls and kestrels; they sell, likewise, the skins of some birds of prey, with their feathers, head, beak and claws. There are also sold rabbits, hares, deer and little dogs, which are raised for eating. "There is also an herb street, where may be obtained all sorts of roots and medicinal herbs that the country affords. There are apothecaries' shops where prepared medicines, liquids, ointments and plasters are sold; barbers' shops, where they wash and shave the head; and restaurateurs, that furnish food and drink at a certain price. There is also a class of men like those called in Castile porters, for carrying burdens. Wood and coals are seen in abundance, and braziers of earthenware for burning coals; mats of various kinds for beds, others of a lighter sort for seats, and for halls and bedrooms.
"There are all kinds of green vegetables, especially onions, leeks, garlic, watercresses, nasturtium, borage, sorel, artichokes and golden thistle; fruits, also, of numerous descriptions, amongst which are cherries and plums similar to those in Spain; honey and wax from bees and from the stalks of maize, which are as sweet as the sugar-cane. Honey is also extracted from the plant called maguey which is superior to sweet or new wine; from the same plant they extract sugar and wine, which they also sell. Different kinds of cotton thread, of all colors, in skeins, are exposed for sale in one quarter of the market, which has the appearance of the silk-market at Granada, although the former is supplied more abundantly. Painters' colors as numerous as can be found in Spain, and as fine shades; deerskins, dressed and undressed, dyed different colors; earthenware of a large size and excellent quality; large and small jars, jugs, pots, bricks and an endless variety of vessels, all made of fine clay, and all, or most of them, glazed and painted; maize, or Indian corn, in the grain and in the form of bread—preferred in the grain for its flavor to that of the other islands and terra firma; patés of birds and fish; great quantities of fish, fresh, salt, cooked and uncooked; the eggs of hens, geese, and of all the other birds I have mentioned, in great abundance, and cakes made of eggs. Finally, everything that can be found throughout the whole country is sold in the markets, comprising articles so numerous that to avoid prolixity, and because their names are not retained in my memory or are unknown to me, I shall not attempt to enumerate them. Each kind of merchandise is sold in a particular street or quarter, assigned to it exclusively, and thus the best order is preserved.
"They sell everything by number or measure—at least, so far, we have not observed them to sell anything by weight. There is a building in the great square that is used as an audience-house, where ten or twelve persons, who are magistrates, sit and decide all controversies that arise in the market and order delinquents to be punished. In the same square there are other persons, who go constantly about among the people, observing what is sold and the measures used in selling, and they have been seen to break measures that were not true."
The Mexicans appear to have been a very cleanly people. Abundant provision was made in the cities for bathing. Great basins cut in stone, with steps leading down to the water, are still found. In many places there were underground reservoirs for rain-water.
Fountains and waterfalls were included in their landscape-gardening—an art that seems to have reached a perfection which European gardeners of that age could not exceed. Cortez describes "a garden near Mexico which was the largest, most beautiful and refreshing that I ever beheld. It is two leagues in circuit, and through the middle of it flows a fine stream of water. At intervals of about two bow-shots are houses, with beds of flowers, together with a profusion of herbs and odoriferous plants." The botanical gardens contained specimens of every plant to be found in that end of the continent. The floating gardens of Mexico, so often described, were light rafts of woven reeds on which turf was heaped. Through the matted vegetable growth thus produced willow stakes were driven, fastening all together, and in time the roots of plants reached down through the soil into the shallow water of the lake. Such gardens, linked together on the borders of the city, extended its boundaries far beyond its original limits. The terraced roofs of the houses were also airy gardens abloom with flowering plants, and even with small shrubbery. The whole city seemed devoted to floriculture. Out of this wilderness of beauty arose hundreds of towers, with many open squares surrounded with well-paved corridors and handsome public buildings. As every male among the Aztecs was born a warrior, and as the army was almost constantly in the field, the house-building of this nation of banditti was mostly done by levies on subjugated tribes. They put up houses without a nail or a hammer. Hungry Fox, chief of the Tezcucans, employed a force of two hundred thousand men in building and furnishing a government house. The same great chief had in the centre of a magnificent park a country-house which, judging from its ruins still remaining, must well have compared with some of the finest royal residences in Europe. Enough can still be found to prove that art has sadly degenerated in Mexico since Aztec rule declined. With the despotic power of the tribal council, the greatest tyranny of custom prevailed throughout Mexico. Every act of civil and of common life was regulated for the people so rigorously that "the course of improvement," says one writer, "was chained as completely as in China or Hindostan." The manners of the people showed great attention to all the proprieties of life. The Aztecs always saluted by touching the hand to the ground and then raising it to the head. When they appeared in the presence of the great chiefs, it was common to wear a coarse mantle over their rich garments, in token of respect to superiors in rank. The dignity and the decorum of an Indian council are proverbial among us, and the Mexican teepan was a model of tedious etiquette. Cortez says, "No sultan or infidel lord now known had so much ceremonial in their courts as did Montezuma." A censer with sweet incense thrown on the burning coals was swung before the honored guest by an Aztec host, that the very air might breathe its welcome to him. Hands were carefully washed and dried before and after meals, and the whole person was bathed every day. There were no tables or knives or forks, but finger-bowls and cotton napkins were commonly used, and dainty pottery. It is said that in the higher circles meats were kept hot on chafing-dishes, the guests being seated on clean rush mats placed on the floor; chocolate was served in cups of gold, silver or tortoise-shell, and an after-dinner pipe was as common there as here. The Aztecs became skillful cooks as the tribe increased in wealth, though the poor could never forget the day when, hunted into the swamps, their ancestors were often obliged to fall back on the glutinous scum of the lake as a substitute for more palatable food.
In dress as in architecture these people had advanced far beyond the more northern Indians. The costume of the citizen was a large square mantle (tilmantli), worn throughout Mexico; two ends of this were brought together and knotted under the chin. This flowing drapery was often fringed or tasseled and sprinkled with gems according to the taste and wealth of the wearer. The colors were rich and varied, generally dyed before the cloth was woven, and often skillfully embroidered in fanciful designs on a plain ground. Additional mantles of feather-work and fur were common, and quilted cotton tunics. With sash, long and ample, tied about the loins, collars, bracelets and anklets of gold-embroidered leather richly adorned with precious stones, and gaudy pendants from ears, under-lips, and sometimes the nostrils, we have a picture of the Indian brave of Mexico which would quite rouse the envy of his less-cultivated red brother of our own Western frontier. The chiefs, as we have seen elsewhere, had other finery, belonging to them exclusively. The festival array of an Aztec was sometimes a beast mask or in skins flayed from human victims, in which young men dressed themselves to dance. Priests wore the robe of the god whose day they celebrated; the warrior, the colors of his clan. The women wore several skirts of different lengths, one over the other, so that the bottom of each skirt might be seen, while over all these were loose flowing tunics. These garments were often richly tinted and embroidered in tasteful figures. Stripes and plaids were common. A fine soft cloth woven of rabbits' hair and dyed in various colors was also used. Decorations of feathers, gems, pearls, little figures and trinkets of gold added great beauty to these costumes. The Aztec women walked the streets unveiled, though those of some of the other tribes wore a covering on the head. Their eyes were dark and their hair was long, black and thick, flowing about the shoulders. Their faces had the passive, even sad, look which marks their race. No product of Mexican patience and skill was more justly admired than were the exquisite feather-mosaics. The artist sometimes spent a whole day selecting one tiny feather and gumming it in its place on a warrior's cloak or shield. The rainbow sheen of the breast and the throat of the humming-bird was most eagerly sought for this work; it was almost as costly as though the glittering patterns were wrought in the gems it so perfectly imitated. The little bird whose plumage had been stolen was itself reproduced in the design, or fishes with gleaming scales or flowers of radiant colors shone out as though they were real, and not mere copies from nature. Birds, fishes and all other known animals were also imitated exactly in gold and silver, each hair and scale being most carefully wrought in the metal. This art, they claimed, was taught by Feathered Serpent, their hero-god. The same forms were cut in gems and worn as jewelry. One emerald thus carved was crushed with holy horror by a Spanish priest when he found that it had been worshiped as a god.
When the life of the Aztec reached its close and preparation was made for the funeral rites, the darkness with regard to the coming state in which the tribe walked became manifest. After the survivors had mourned all day in silence over their dead, seeking by tender entreaty and offers of food to win back the departed spirit, they filled the night with despairing shrieks and moans. They then made preparations for cremation. All the possessions of the dead man were brought together and burned with him. When a head-chief died, his body lay in state for a certain time dressed in the garb of his patron god. But a long and dreary journey lay between him and those regions of bliss promised to the great warriors of the tribe. Wood and water were put beside him; a costly mask covered his face, and a green stone cut in the shape of a heart was placed between the cold, mute lips. A little dog was provided, to guide his master through the perils of the way, and plenty of paper passes were furnished for the time of need. The priests spoke of a wonderful place where mountains strike together, the road being guarded by "the great snake and great alligator, the eight deserts and eight hills." In earlier days a crowd of wives and servants stood by. The priests exhorted them to be faithful in the next world to their departed master, after which they were killed, and burned also with his ashes. At the funeral of Nezhualpilli, the son of Hungry Fox (a. d. 1515), just before the Spaniards came, it is said that two hundred male and one hundred female attendants thus suffered. With the bodies were burned, in a vast funeral pyre, quantities of rich stuffs, jewels, weapons, ornaments and costly incense—everything, in fact, needed to keep up the dead man's state in the next life. So far as possible, the other classes aped this horrible fashion. Some made wooden statues of their friends, with hollow places in the necks, in which their ashes were put. These were kept as family idols.