Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/110

pery 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.