individuals sold into slavery. Persons in extreme poverty could pledge themselves or their children, and we read that in the reign of Montecuzoma many of the better-class families were reduced to such straits by a famine lasting two years that they fell into slavery. By orders of the king these unfortunates were sought out and ransomed by him at twice the price paid for them. It is said that the sale of a slave required two witnesses, and that slaves could not be sold without their own permission, except those who wore heavy wooden collars as runaways or insubordinate. A peculiar form of slavery existed, in accordance with which an indigent family could bind itself to supply one or more slaves perpetually to some lord, the individual in servitude being changed every few years. If a slave-woman died as the result of an intrigue with a free man, the latter became the slave of her master; but if a child was born and both survived, it became the property of the father and was free-born. Slaves were well treated on the whole, though they were liable to be sacrificed. They were considered as under the protection of Tezcatlipoca, and at one of his feasts were accorded absolute licence as at the Roman Saturnalia.
