History Of The Conquest Of Mexico, The Aztecs (part four)
Book: Book I: Introduction. Preliminary View Of The Aztec Civilization.
Author: Prescott, William H.
Chapter V: Aztec Agriculture, Part II.
But the occupation peculiarly respected was that of the merchant. It
formed so important and singular a feature of their social economy as to
merit a much more particular notice than it has received from historians.
The Aztec merchant was a sort of itinerant trader, who made his journeys to
the remotest borders of Anahuac, and to the countries beyond, carrying with
him merchandise of rich stuffs, jewellery, slaves, and other valuable
commodities. The slaves were obtained at the great market of Azcapozalco,
not many leagues from the capital, where fairs were regularly held for the
sale of these unfortunate beings. They were brought thither by their
masters, dressed in their gayest apparel, and instructed to sing, dance, and
display their little stock of personal accomplishments, so as to recommend
themselves to the purchaser. Slave-dealing was an honourable calling among
the Aztecs. ^3
[Footnote 3: Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-Espana, lib. 9, 4, 10-14.]
With this rich freight the merchant visited the different provinces,
always bearing some present of value from his own sovereign to their chiefs,
and usually receiving others in return, with a permission to trade. Should
this be denied him, or should he meet with indignity or violence, he had the
means of resistance in his power. He performed his journeys with a number of
companions of his own rank, and a large body of inferior attendants who were
employed to transport the goods. Fifty or sixty pounds were the usual load
for a man. The whole caravan went armed, and so well provided against sudden
hostilities that they could make good their defence, if necessary, till
reinforced from home. In one instance, a body of these militant traders
stood a siege of four years in the town of Ayotlan, which they finally took
from the enemy. ^4 Their own government, however, was always prompt to embark
in a war on this ground, finding it a very convenient pretext for extending
the Mexican empire. It was not unusual to allow the merchants to raise
levies themselves, which were placed under their command. It was, moreover,
very common for the prince to employ the merchants as a sort of spies, to
furnish him information of the state of the countries through which they
passed, and the dispositions of the inhabitants towards himself. ^1
[Footnote 4: Ibid., lib. 9, cap. 2.]
[Footnote 1: Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-Espana, lib. 9, cap. 2, 4. - In the
Mendoza Codex is a painting representing the execution of a cacique and his
family, with the destruction of his city, for maltreating the persons of
some Aztec merchants. Antiq. of Mexico, vol. i. Pl. 67.]
Thus their sphere of action was much enlarged beyond that of a humble
trader, and they acquired a high consideration in the body politic. They
were allowed to assume insignia and devices of their own. Some of their
number composed what is called by the Spanish writers a council of finance;
at least, this was the case in Tezcuco. ^2 They were much consulted by the
monarch, who had some of them constantly near his person, addressing them by
the title of "uncle," which may remind one of that of primo, or "cousin," by
which a grandee of Spain is saluted by his sovereign. They were allowed to
have their own courts, in which civil and criminal cases, not excepting a
capital, were determined; so that they formed an independent community, as it
were, of themselves. And, as their various traffic supplied them with
abundant stores of wealth, they enjoyed many of the most essential advantages
of an hereditary aristocracy. ^3
[Footnote 2: Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 2, cap. 41. - Ixtlilxochitl
gives a curious story of one of the royal family of Tezcuco, who offered,
with two other merchants, otros mercaderes, to visit the court of a hostile
cacique and bring him dead or alive to the capital. They availed themselves
of a drunken revel, at which they were to have been sacrificed, to effect
their object. Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 62.]
[Footnote 3: Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-Espana, lib. 9, cap. 2, 5. - The ninth
book is taken up with an account of the merchants, their pilgrimages, the
religious rites on their departure, and the sumptuous way of living on their
return. The whole presents a very remarkable picture, showing they enjoyed a
consideration, among the half-civilized nations of Anahuac, to which there is
no parallel, unless it be that possessed by the merchant-princes of an
Italian republic, or the princely merchants of our own.]
That trade should prove the path to eminent political preferment in a
nation but partially civilized, where the names of soldier and priest are
usually the only titles to respect, is certainly an anomaly in history. It
forms some contrast to the standard of the more polished monarchies of the
Old World, in which rank is supposed to be less dishonoured by a life of idle
ease or frivolous pleasure than by those active pursuits which promote
equally the prosperity of the state and of the individual. If civilization
corrects many prejudices, it must be allowed that it creates others.
We shall be able to form a better idea of the actual refinement of the
natives by penetrating into their domestic life and observing the intercourse
between the sexes. We have, fortunately, the means of doing this. We shall
there find the ferocious Aztec frequently displaying all the sensibility of a
cultivated nature; consoling his friends under affliction, or congratulating
them on their good fortune, as on occasion of a marriage, or of the birth or
the baptism of a child, when he was punctilious in his visits, bringing
presents of costly dresses and ornaments, or the more simple offering of
flowers, equally indicative of his sympathy. The visits at these times,
though regulated with all the precision of Oriental courtesy, were
accompanied by expressions of the most cordial and affectionate regard. ^1
[Footnote 1: Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-Espana, lib. 6, cap. 23-37. - Camargo,
Hist. de Tlascala, MS. - These complimentary attentions were paid at stated
seasons, even during pregnancy. The details are given with abundant gravity
and minuteness by Sahagun, who descends to particulars which his Mexican
editor, Bustamante, has excluded, as somewhat too unreserved for the public
eye. If they were more so than some of the editor's own notes, they must
have been very communicative indeed.]
The discipline of children, especially at the public schools, as stated
in a previous chapter, was exceedingly severe. ^2 But after she had come to
a mature age the Aztec maiden was treated by her parents with a tenderness
from which all reserve seemed banished. In the counsels to a daughter about
to enter into life, they conjured her to preserve simplicity in her manners
and conversation, uniform neatness in her attire, with strict attention to
personal cleanliness. They inculcated modesty, as the great ornament of a
woman, and implicit reverence for her husband; softening their admonitions by
such endearing epithets as showed the fulness of a parent's love. ^3
[Footnote 2: Zurita, Rapport, pp. 112-134. - The Third Part of the Col. de
Mendoza (Antiq. of Mexico, vol. i.) exhibits the various ingenious
punishments devised for the refractory child. The flowery path of knowledge
was well strewed with thorns for the Mexican tyro.]
[Footnote 3: Zurita, Rapport, pp. 151-160. - Sahagun has given us the
admonitions of both father and mother to the Aztec maiden on her coming to
years of discretion. What can be more tender than the beginning of the
mother's exhortation? "Hija mia muy amada, muy querida palomita: ya has oido
y notado las palabras que tu senor padre te ha dicho; ellas son palabras
preciosas. v que raramente se dicen ni se oyen, las quales han procedido de
las entranas y corazon en que estaban atesoradas; y tu muy amado padre bien
sabe que eres su hija, engendrada de el, eres su sangre y su carne, y sabe
Dios nuestro senor que es asi; aunque eres muger, e imagen de tu padre ?que
mas te puedo decir, hija mia, de lo que ya esta dicho?" (Hist. de Nueva-
Espana, lib. 6, cap. 19.) The reader will find this interesting document,
which enjoins so much of what is deemed most essential among civilized
nations, translated entire in the Appendix, Part 2, No. 1.]
Polygamy was permitted among the Mexicans, though chiefly confined,
probably, to the wealthiest classes. ^4 And the obligations of the married
vow, which was made with all the formality of a religious ceremony, were
fully recognized, and impressed on both parties. The women are described by
the Spaniards as pretty, unlike their unfortunate descendants of the present
day, though with the same serious and rather melancholy cast of countenance.
Their long black hair, covered, in some parts of the country, by a veil made
of the fine web of the pita, might generally be seen wreathed with flowers,
or, among the richer people, with strings of precious stones, and pearls from
the Gulf of California. They appear to have been treated with much
consideration by their husbands, and passed their time in indolent
tranquility, or in such feminine occupations as spinning, embroidery, and the
like, while their maidens beguiled the hours by the rehearsal of traditionary
tales and ballads. ^5
[Footnote 4: Yet we find the remarkable declaration, in the counsels of a
father to his son, that, for the multiplication of the species, God ordained
one man only for one woman. "Nota, hijo mio, lo que te digo, mira que el
mundo ya tiene este estilo de engendrar y multiplicar, y para esta generacion
y multiplicacion, ordeno Dios que una muger usase de un varon, y un varon de
una muger." Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-Espana, lib. 6, cap. 21.]
[Footnote 5: Ibid., lib. 6, cap. 21-23; lib. 8, cap. 23. - Rel. d'un gentil'
huomo, ap. Ramusio, tom. iii, fol. 305 - Carta del Lie Zuazo, MS.]
The women partook equally with the men of social festivities and
entertainments. These were often conducted on a large scale, both as
regards the number of guests and the costliness of the preparations.
Numerous attendants, of both sexes, waited at the banquet. The halls were
scented with perfumes, and the courts strewed with odoriferous herbs and
flowers, which were distributed in profusion among the guests, as they
arrived. Cotton napkins and ewers of water were placed before them, as they
took their seats at the board; for the venerable ceremony of ablution ^1
before and after eating was punctiliously observed by the Aztecs. ^2 Tobacco
was then offered to the company, in pipes, mixed up with aromatic substances,
or in the form of cigars, inserted in tubes of tortoise-shell or silver.
They compressed the nostrils with the fingers, while they inhaled the smoke,
which they frequently swallowed. Whether the women, who sat apart from the
men at table, were allowed the indulgence of the fragrant weed, as in the
most polished circles of modern Mexico, is not told us. It is a curious fact
that the Aztecs also took the dried leaf in the pulverized form of snuff. ^3
[Footnote 1: As old as the heroic age of Greece, at least. We may fancy
ourselves at the table of Penelope, where water in golden ewers was poured
into silver basins for the accommodation of her guests, before beginning the
repast.
The feast affords many other points of analogy to the Aztec, inferring a
similar stage of civilization in the two nations. One may be surprised,
however, to find a greater profusion of the precious metals in the barren isle
of Ithaca than in Mexico. But the poet's fancy was a richer mine than
either.]
[Footnote 2: Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-Espana, lib. 6, cap. 22. - Amidst
some excellent advice of a parent to his son, on his general deportment, we
find the latter punctiliously enjoined not to take his seat at the board till
he has washed his face and hands, and not to leave it till he has repeated
the same thing, and cleansed his teeth. The directions are given with a
precision worthy of an Asiatic. "Al principio de la comida labarte has las
manos y la boca, y donde te juntares con otros a comer, no te sientes luego;
mas antes tomaras el agua y la jicara para que se laben los otros, y echarles
has agua a los manos, y despues de esto, cojeras lo que se ha caido por el
suelo y barreras el lugar de la comida, y tambien despues de comer lavaras te
las manos y la boca, y limpiaras los dientes." Ibid., loc. cit.]
[Footnote 3: Rel. d'un gentil' huomo, ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 306. -
Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-Espana, lib. 4, cap. 37. - Torquemada, Monarch.
Ind., lib. 13, cap. 23. - Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. p. 227. -
The Aztecs used to smoke after dinner, to prepare for the siesta, in which
they indulged themselves as regularly as an old Castilian. - Tobacco, in
Mexican yetl, is derived from a Haytian word, tabaco. The natives of
Hispaniola, being the first with whom the Spaniards had much intercourse,
have supplied Europe with the names of several important plants. - Tobacco,
in some form or other, was used by almost all the tribes of the American
continent, from the North-west Coast to Patagonia. (See McCulloh,
Researches, pp. 91-94.) Its manifold virtues, both social and medicinal, are
profusely panegyrized by Hernandez, in his Hist. Plantarum, lib. 2, cap.
109.]
The table was well provided with substantial meats, especially game;
among which the most conspicuous was the turkey, erroneously supposed, as its
name imports, to have come originally from the East. ^4 These more solid
dishes were flanked by others of vegetables and fruits, of every delicious
variety found on the North American continent. The different viands were
prepared in various ways, with delicate sauces and seasoning, of which the
Mexicans were very fond. Their palate was still further regaled by
confections and pastry, for which their maize-flour and sugar supplied ample
materials. One other dish, of a disgusting nature, was sometimes added to
the feast, especially when the celebration partook of a religious character.
On such occasions a slave was sacrificed, and his flesh, elaborately dressed,
formed one of the chief ornaments of the banquet. Cannibalism, in the guise
of an Epicurean science, becomes even the more revolting. ^1
[Footnote 4: This noble bird was introduced into Europe from Mexico. The
Spaniards called it gallopavo, from its resemblance to the peacock. See Rel.
d'un gentil' huomo, ap. Ramusio (tom. iii. fol. 306); also Oviedo (Rel.
Sumaria, cap. 38), the earliest naturalist who gives an account of the bird,
which he saw soon after the Conquest, in the West Indies, whither it had been
brought, as he says, from New Spain. The Europeans, however, soon lost sight
of its origin, and the name "turkey" intimated the popular belief of its
Eastern origin. Several eminent writers have maintained its Asiatic or
African descent; but they could not impose on the sagacious and
better-instructed Buffon. (See Histoire naturelle, art. Dindon.) The
Spaniards saw immense numbers of turkeys in the domesticated state, on their
arrival in Mexico, where they were more common than any other poultry. They
were found wild, not only in New Spain, but all along the continent, in the
less frequented places, from the North-western territory of the United States
to Panama. The wild turkey is larger, more beautiful, and every way an
incomparably finer bird than the tame. Franklin, with some point, as well as
pleasantry, insists on its preference to the bald eagle as the national
emblem. (See his Works, vol. x. p. 63, in Spark's excellent edition.)
Interesting notices of the history and habits of the wild turkey may be found
in the Ornithology both of Buonaparte and of that enthusiastic lover of
nature, Audubon, vox Meleagris, Gallopavo.]
[Footnote 1: Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-Espana, lib. 4, cap. 37; lib. 8, cap.
13; lib. 9, cap. 10-14. - Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 13, cap. 23. - Rel.
d'un gentil' huomo, ap. Ramusio, tom. ii. fol. 306. - Father Sahagun has gone
into many particulars of the Aztec cuisine, and the mode of preparing sundry
savoury messes, making, all together, no despicable contribution to the noble
science of gastronomy.]
The meats were kept warm by chafing-dishes. The table was ornamented
with vases of silver, and sometimes gold, of delicate workmanship. The
drinking-cups and spoons were of the same costly materials, and likewise of
tortoise-shell. The favourite beverage was the chocolatl, flavoured with
vanilla and different spices. They had a way of preparing the froth of it,
so as to make it almost solid enough to be eaten, and took it cold. ^2 The
fermented juice of the maguey, with a mixture of sweets and acids, supplied,
also, various agreeable drinks, of different degrees of strength, and formed
the chief beverage of the elder part of the company. ^3
[Footnote 2: The froth, delicately flavoured with spices and some other
ingredients, was taken cold by itself. It had the consistency almost of a
solid; and the "Anonymous Conqueror" is very careful to inculcate the
importance of "opening the mouth wide, in order to facilitate deglutition,
that the foam may dissolve gradually, and descend imperceptibly, as it were,
into the stomach." It was so nutritious that a single cup of it was enough
to sustain a man through the longest day's march. (Fol. 300.) The old
soldier discusses the beverage con amore.]
[Footnote 3: Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-Espana, lib. 4, cap. 37; lib. 8,
cap. 13. - Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 13, cap. 23. - Rel. d'un gentil'
huomo, ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 306.]
As soon as they had finished their repast, the young people rose from
the table, to close the festivities of the day with dancing. They danced
gracefully, to the sound of various instruments, accompanying their movements
with chants of a pleasing though somewhat plaintive character. ^4 The older
guests continued at table, sipping pulque, and gossiping about other times,
till the virtues of the exhilarating beverage put them in good humour with
their own. Intoxication was not rare in this part of the company, and, what
is singular, was excused in them, though severely punished in the younger.
The entertainment was concluded by a liberal distribution of rich dresses and
ornaments among the guests, when they withdrew, after midnight, "some
commending the feast, and others condemning the bad taste or extravagance of
their host; in the same manner," says an old Spanish writer, "as with us." ^5
Human nature is, indeed, much the same all the world over.
[Footnote 4: Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 7, cap. 8. - Torquemada,
Monarch. Ind., lib. 14, cap. 11. - The Mexican nobles entertained minstrels
in their houses, who composed ballads suited to the times, or the
achievements of their lord, which they chanted, to the accompaniment of
instruments, at the festivals and dances. Indeed, there was more or less
dancing at most of the festivals, and it was performed in the courtyards of
the houses, or in the open squares of the city. (Ibid., ubi supra.) The
principal men had, also, buffoons and jugglers in their service, who amused
them and astonished the Spaniards by their feats of dexterity and strength
(Acosta, lib. 6, cap. 23; also Clavigero (Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. pp.
179-186), who has designed several representations of their exploits, truly
surprising.) It is natural that a people of limited refinement should find
their enjoyment in material rather than intellectual pleasures, and,
consequently, should excel in them. The Asiatic nations, as the Hindoos and
Chinese, for example, surpass the more polished Europeans in displays of
agility and legerdemain.]
[Footnote 5: "Y de esta manera pasaban gran rato de la noche, y se despedian,
e iban a sus casas, unos alabando la fiesta, y otros murmurando de las
demasias y excesos, cosa mui ordinaria en los que a semejantes actos se
juntan." Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 13, cap. 23. - Sahagun, Hist. de
Nueva-Espana, lib. 9, cap. 10-14]
In this remarkable picture of manners, which I have copied faithfully
from the records of earliest date after the Conquest, we find no resemblance
to the other races of North American Indians. Some resemblance we may trace
to the general style of Asiatic pomp and luxury. But in Asia, woman, far
from being admitted to unreserved intercourse with the other sex, is too
often jealously immured within the walls of the harem. European
civilization, which accords to this loveliest portion of creation her proper
rank in the social scale, is still more removed from some of the brutish
usages of the Aztecs. That such usages should have existed with the degree
of refinement they showed in other things is almost inconceivable. It can
only be explained as the result of religious superstition; superstition which
clouds the moral perception, and perverts even the natural senses, till man,
civilized man, is reconciled to the very things which are most revolting to
humanity. Habits and opinions founded on religion must not be taken as
conclusive evidence of the actual refinement of a people.
The Aztec character was perfectly original and unique. It was made up
of incongruities apparently irreconcilable. It blended into one the marked
peculiarities of different nations, not only of the same phase of
civilization, but as far removed from each other as the extremes of barbarism
and refinement. It may find a fitting parallel in their own wonderful
climate, capable of producing, on a few square leagues of surface, the
boundless variety of vegetable forms which belong to the frozen regions of
the North, the temperate zone of Europe, and the burning skies of Arabia and
Hindostan.
One of the works repeatedly consulted and referred to in this
Introduction is Boturini's Idea de una nueva Historia general de la America
Septentrional. The singular persecutions sustained by its author, even more
than the merits of his book, have associated his name inseparably with the
literary history of Mexico. The Chevalier Lorenzo Boturini Benaduci was a
Milanese by birth, of an ancient family, and possessed of much learning.
From Madrid, where he was residing, he passed over to New Spain, in 1735, on
some business of the Countess of Santibanez, a lineal descendant of
Montezuma. While employed on this, he visited the celebrated shrine of Our
Lady of Guadaloupe, and, being a person of devout and enthusiastic temper,
was filled with the desire of collecting testimony to establish the
marvellous fact of her apparition. In the course of his excursions, made
with this view, he fell in with many relics of Aztec antiquity, and conceived
- what to a Protestant, at least, would seem much more rational - the idea of
gathering together all the memorials he could meet with of the primitive
civilization of the land.
In pursuit of this double object, he penetrated into the remotest parts
of the country, living much with the natives, passing his nights sometimes in
their huts, sometimes in caves and the depths of the lonely forests.
Frequently months would elapse without his being able to add anything to his
collection; for the Indians had suffered too much not to be very shy of
Europeans. His long intercourse with them, however, gave him ample
opportunity to learn their language and popular traditions, and, in the end,
to amass a large stock of materials, consisting of hieroglyphical charts on
cotton, skins, and the fibre of the maguey; besides a considerable body of
Indian manuscripts, written after the Conquest. To all these must be added
the precious documents for placing beyond controversy the miraculous
apparition of the Virgin. With this treasure he returned, after a pilgrimage
of eight years, to the capital.
His zeal, in the meanwhile, had induced him to procure from Rome a bull
authorizing coronation of the sacred image at Guadaloupe. The bull, however,
though sanctioned by the Audience of New Spain, had never been approved by
the Council of the Indies. In consequence of this informality, Boturini was
arrested in the midst of his proceedings, his papers were taken from him,
and, as he declined to give an inventory of them, he was thrown into prison,
and confined in the same apartment with two criminals! Not long afterward he
was sent to Spain. He there presented a memorial to the Council of the
Indies, setting forth his manifold grievances, and soliciting redress. At
the same time, he drew up his "Idea," above noticed, in which he displayed
the catalogue of his museum in New Spain, declaring, with affecting
earnestness, that "he would not exchange these treasures for all the gold and
silver, diamonds and pearls, in the New World."
After some delay, the Council gave an award in his favour; acquitting
him of any intentional violation of the law, and pronouncing a high encomium
on his deserts. His papers, however, were not restored. But his Majesty was
graciously pleased to appoint him Historiographer-General of the Indies, with
a salary of one thousand dollars per annum. The stipend was too small to
allow him to return to Mexico. He remained in Madrid, and completed there
the first volume of a "General History of North America," in 1749. Not long
after this event, and before the publication of the work, he died. The same
injustice was continued to his heirs; and, notwithstanding repeated
applications in their behalf, they were neither put in possession of their
unfortunate kinsman's collection, nor received a remuneration for it. What
was worse, - as far as the public was concerned, - the collection itself was
deposited in apartments of the vice-regal palace at Mexico, so damp that they
gradually fell to pieces, and the few remaining were still further diminished
by the pilfering of the curious. When Baron Humboldt visited Mexico, not
one-eighth of this inestimable treasure was in existence!
I have been thus particular in the account of the unfortunate Boturini,
as affording, on the whole, the most remarkable example of the serious
obstacles and persecutions which literary enterprise, directed in the path of
the national antiquities, has, from some cause or other, been exposed to in
New Spain.
Boturini's manuscript volume was never printed, and probably never will
be, if indeed it is in existence. This will scarcely prove a great detriment
to science or to his own reputation. He was a man of a zealous temper,
strongly inclined to the marvellous, with little of that acuteness requisite
for penetrating the tangled mazes of antiquity, or of the philosophic spirit
fitted for calmly weighing its doubts and difficulties. His "Idea" affords a
sample of his peculiar mind. With abundant learning, ill assorted and ill
digested, it is a jumble of fact and puerile fiction, interesting details,
crazy dreams, and fantastic theories. But it is hardly fair to judge by the
strict rules of criticism a work which, put together hastily, as a catalogue
of literary treasures, was designed by the author rather to show what might
be done, than that he could do it himself. It is rare that talents for
action and contemplation are united in the same individual, Boturini was
eminently qualified, by his enthusiasm and perseverance, for collecting the
materials necessary to illustrate the antiquities of the country. It
requires a more highly gifted mind to avail itself of them.
imates no doubt of its Aztec origin. (Vues des Cordilleres,
pp. 266, 267.) M. Le Noir even reads in it an exposition of Mexican
Mythology, with occasional analogies to that of Egypt and of Hindostan.
(Antiquites Mexicaines, tom. ii., Introd.) The fantastic forms of
hieroglyphic symbols may afford analogies for almost anything.]
[Footnote 3: The history of this Codex, engraved entire in the third volume
of the "Antiquities of Mexico," goes no further back than 1739, when it was
purchased at Vienna for the Dresden Library. It is made of the American
agave. The figures painted on it bear little resemblance, either in feature
or form, to the Mexican. They are surmounted by a sort of head-gear, which
looks something like a modern peruke. On the chin of one we may notice a
beard, a sign often used after the Conquest to denote a European. Many of
the persons are sitting cross-legged. The profiles of the faces, and the
whole contour of the limbs, are sketched with a spirit and freedom very
unlike the hard, angular outlines of the Aztecs. The characters, also, are
delicately traced, generally in an irregular but circular form, and are very
minute. They are arranged, like the Egyptian, both horizontally and
perpendicularly, mostly in the former manner, and, from the prevalent
direction of the profiles, would seem to have been read from right to left.
Whether phonetic or ideographic, they are of that compact and purely
conventional sort which belongs to a well-digested system for the
communication of thought. One cannot but regret that no trace should exist
of the quarter whence this MS. was obtained; perhaps some part of Central
America, from the region of the mysterious races who built the monuments of
Mitla and Palenque; though, in truth, there seems scarcely more resemblance
in the symbols to the Palenque bas-reliefs than to the Aztec paintings.
Note: Mr. Stephens, who, like Humboldt, considered the Dresden Codex a
Mexican manuscript, compared the characters of it with those on the altar of
Copan, and drew the conclusion that the inhabitants of that place and of
Palenque must have spoken the same language as the Aztecs. Prescott's opinion
has, however, been confirmed by later critics, who have shown that the
hieroglyphics of the Dresden Codex are quite different from those at Copan and
Palenque, while the Mexican writing bears not the least resemblance to either.
See Orozco v Berra, Geografia de las Lenguas de Mexico, p 101. - Ed.]
Some few of these maps have interpretations annexed to them, which were
obtained from the natives after the Conquest. ^4 The greater part are without
any, and cannot now be unriddled. Had the Mexicans made free use of a
phonetic alphabet, it might have been originally easy, by mastering the
comparatively few signs employed in this kind of communication, to have got a
permanent key to the whole. ^1 A brief inscription has furnished a clue to
the vast labyrinth of Egyptian hieroglyphics. But the Aztec characters,
representing individuals, or, at most, species, require to be made out
separately; a hopeless task, for which little aid is to be expected from the
vague and general tenor of the few interpretations now existing. There was,
as already mentioned, until late in the last century, a professor in the
University of Mexico, especially devoted to the study of the national
picture-writing. But, as this was with a view to legal proceedings, his
information, probably, was limited to deciphering titles. In less than a
hundred years after the Conquest, the knowledge of the hieroglyphics had so
far declined that a diligent Tezcucan writer complains he could find in the
country only two persons, both very aged, at all competent to interpret
them. ^2
[Footnote 4: There are three of these: the Mendoza Codez; the
Telleriano-Remensis, - formerly the property of Archbishop Tellier, - in the
Royal Library of Paris; and the Vatican MS., No. 3738. The interpretation of
the last bears evident marks of its recent origin; probably as late as the
close of the sixteenth or the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the
ancient hieroglyphics were read with the eye of faith rather than of reason.
Whoever was the commentator (comp. Vues des Cordilleres, pp. 203, 204; and
Antiq. of Mexico, vol. vi. pp. 155, 222), he has given such an exposition as
shows the old Aztecs to have been as orthodox Christians as any subjects of
the Pope.]
[Footnote 1: The total number of Egyptian hieroglyphics discovered by
Champollion amounts to 864; and of these 130 only are phonetic,
notwithstanding that this kind of character is used far more frequently than
both the others. Precis, p. 263; - also Spineto, Lectures, Lect. 3.]
[Footnote 2: Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., Dedic. - Boturini, who
travelled through every part of the country in the middle of the last
century, could not meet with an individual who could afford him the least
clue to the Aztec hieroglyphics. So completely had every vestige of their
ancient language been swept away from the memory of the natives. (Idea, p.
116.) If we are to believe Bustamante, however, a complete key to the whole
system is, at this moment, somewhere in Spain. It was carried home, at the
time of the process against Father Mier, in 1795. The name of the Mexican
Champollion who discovered it is Borunda. Gama, Descripcion, tom. ii. p. 33,
nota.]
It is not probable, therefore, that the art of reading these
picture-writings will ever be recovered; a circumstance certainly to be
regretted. Not that the records of a semi-civilized people would be likely
to contain any new truth or discovery important to human comfort or progress;
but they could scarcely fail to throw some additional light on the previous
history of the nation, and that of the more polished people who before
occupied the country. This would be still more probable, if any literary
relics of their Toltec predecessors were preserved; and, if report be true,
an important compilation from this source was extant at the time of the
invasion, and may have perhaps contributed to swell the holocaust of
Zumarraga. ^3 It is no great stretch of fancy to suppose that such records
might reveal the successive links in the mighty chain of migration of the
primitive races, and, by carrying us back to the seat of their possessions in
the Old World, have solved the mystery which has so long perplexed the
learned, in regard to the settlement and civilization of the New. ^4
[Footnote 3: Teoamoxtli, "the divine book," as it was called. According to
Ixtlilxochitl, it was composed by a Tezcucan doctor, named Huematzin, towards
the close of the seventeenth century. (Relaciones, MS.) It gave an account
of the migrations of his nation from Asia, of the various stations on their
journey, of their social and religious institutions, their science, arts,
etc., etc., a good deal too much for one book. Ignotum pro mirifico. It has
never been seen by a European. A copy is said to have been in possession
of the Tezcucan chroniclers on the taking of their capital. (Bustamante,
Cronica Mexicana (Mexico, 1822), carta 3.) Lord Kingsborough, who can scent
out a Hebrew root be it buried never so deep, has discovered that the
Teoamoxtli was the Pentateuch. Thus, teo means "divine," amotl, "paper" or
"book," and moxtli "appears to be Moses;" - "Divine Book of Moses"! Antiq.
of Mexico, vol. vi. p. 204, nota.
Note: It must have been seen by many Europeans, if we accept either the
statement of the Baron de Waldeck, in 1838 (Voyage pittoresque et
archeologique dans la Province d'Yucatan), that it was then in his possession,
or the theories of Brasseur de Bourbourg, who identifies it with the Dresden
Codex and certain other hieroglyphical manuscripts, and who believes himself
to have found the key to it, and consequently to the origin of the Mexican
history and civilization, in one of the documents in Boturini's collection, to
which he has given the name of the Codex Chimalpopoca. Quatre Lettres sur le
Mexique (Paris, 1868). - Ed.]
[Footnote 4: Such a supposition would require a "stretch of fancy" greater
than any which the mind of the mere historical inquirer is capable of taking.
To admit the probability of the Asiatic origin of the American races, and of
the indefinite antiquity of the Mexican civilization, is something very
different from believing that this civilization, already developed in the
degree required for the existence and preservation of its own records during
so long a period and so great a migration, can have been transplanted from the
one continent to the other. It would be easier to accept the theory, now
generally abandoned, that the original settlers owed their civilization to a
body of colonists from Phoenicia. In view of so hazardous a conjecture, it is
difficult to understand why Buschmann has taken exception to the "sharp
criticism" to which Prescott has subjected the sources of Mexican history, and
his "low estimate of their value and credibility." - Ed.]
Besides the hieroglyphical maps, the traditions of the country were
embodied in the songs and hymns, which, as already mentioned, were carefully
taught in the public schools. These were various, embracing the mythic
legends of a heroic age, the warlike achievements of their own, or the softer
tales of love and pleasure. ^1 Many of them were composed by scholars and
persons of rank, and are cited as affording the most authentic record of
events. ^2 The Mexican dialect was rich and expressive, though inferior to
the Tezcucan, the most polished of the idioms of Anahuac. None of the Aztec
compositions have survived, but we can form some estimate of the general
state of poetic culture from the odes which have come down to us from the
royal house of Tezcuco. ^3 Sahagun has furnished us with translations of
their more elaborate prose, consisting of prayers and public discourses,
which give a favourable idea of their eloquence, and show that they paid much
attention to rhetorical effect. They are said to have had, also, something
like theatrical exhibitions, of a pantomimic sort, in which the faces of the
performers were covered with masks, and the figures of birds or animals were
frequently represented; an imitation to which they may have been led by the
familiar delineation of such objects in their hieroglyphics. ^4 In all this
we see the dawning of a literary culture, surpassed, however, by their
attainments in the severer walks of mathematical science.
[Footnote 1: Boturini, Idea, pp. 90-97. - Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom.
ii. pp. 174-178.]
[Footnote 2: "Los cantos con que las observaban Autores muy graves en su modo
de ciencia y facultad, pues fueron los mismos Reyes, y de la gerte mas ilustre
y entendida, que siempre observaron y adquirieron la verdad, y esta con tanta
razon, quanta pudieron tener los mas graves y fidedignos Autores."
Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., Prologo.]
[Footnote 3: See chap. 6 of this Introduction.]
[Footnote 4: See some account of these mummeries in Acosta (lib. 5, cap.
30), - also Clavigero (Stor. del Messico, ubi supra). Stone models of masks
are sometimes found among the Indian ruins, and engravings of them are both
in Lord Kingsborough's work and in the Antiquites Mexicaines.]
They devised a system of notation in their arithmetic sufficiently
simple. The first twenty numbers were expressed by a corresponding number of
dots. The first five had specific names; after which they were represented
by combining the fifth with one of the four preceding; as five and one for
six, five and two for seven, and so on. Ten and fifteen had each a separate
name, which was also combined with the first four, to express a higher
quantity. These four, therefore, were the radical characters of their oral
arithmetic, in the same manner as they were of the written with the ancient
Romans; a more simple arrangement, probably, than any existing among
Europeans. ^5 Twenty was expressed by a separate hieroglyphic, - a flag.
Larger sums were reckoned by twenties, and, in writing, by repeating the
number of flags. The square of twenty, four hundred, had a separate sign,
that of a plume, and so had the cube of twenty, or eight thousand, which was
denoted by a purse, or sack. This was the whole arithmetical apparatus of
the Mexicans, by the combination of which they were enabled to indicate any
quantity. For greater expedition, they used to denote fractions of the
larger sums by drawing only a part of the object. Thus, half of three-fourths
of a plume, or of a purse, represented that proportion of their respective
sums, and so on. ^1 With all this, the machinery will appear very awkward to
us, who perform our operations with so much ease by means of the Arabic or,
rather, Indian ciphers. It is not much more awkward, however, than the
system pursued by the great mathematicians of antiquity, unacquainted with
the brilliant invention, which has given a new aspect to mathematical
science, of determining the value, in a great measure, by the relative
position of the figures.
[Footnote 5: Gama, Descripcion, Parte 2, Apend. 2. - Gama, in comparing the
language of Mexican notation with the decimal system of the Europeans and the
ingenious binary system of Leibnitz, confounds oral with written arithmetic.]
[Footnote 1: Gama, ubi supra. - This learned Mexican has given a very
satisfactory treatise on the arithmetic of the Aztecs, in his second part.]
