Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/492

474 MEXICO which were confined condemned criminals and prisoners taken in war, both of whom were closely guarded, those doomed to capital pun- ishment being sparingly fed, and the others abundantly nourished that they might be in good flesh when led to sacrifice. For the same reason the Mexicans in battle preferred to cap- ture their enemies alive. Polygamy was per- mitted, but seldom practised save by the princes and nobles. Marriage generally required the consent of the parents of both parties; and there was a special court for divorces, in which a wife might sue. Filial affection was a char- acteristic virtue of the Aztecs. Except in the royal family, sons succeeded to all the rights of their fathers; if these died without male issue, their rights reverted to their brothers, and in the absence of the latter to their neph- ews. Daughters could not inherit. The gov- ernment revenues were derived from crown lands set apart in the various provinces, from a tax on the agricultural products, and chiefly from a tribute consisting of provisions and manufactured articles ; besides which a con- tribution was received from the merchants and craftsmen every 20 or 80 days. The profes- sion of arms was one of the most esteemed, and those who died in defence of their country were regarded as the happiest. There were four distinct grades of generals, and next be- low them were captains. The main bodies or regiments consisted of 8,000 men, and seem to have been divided into battalions of 400 men each, and these into squads of 20. They marched in admirable order ; the priests were always in front ; and the signal for combat was given by kindling a fire and sounding a trumpet. Their tactics were unfavorable to hostilities by night ; but "force and stratagem, courage and deceit," says Prescott, "were equally admissible in war." The Aztecs were most sincere in the practice of their religious rites. They believed in a supreme creator, invisible yet omnipres- ent, but requiring numerous assistants to per- form his will, each of whom presided over some special natural phenomenon or phase of human existence. They had 13 principal and several hundred inferior deities. The dread Huitzilopochtli, the war god of the Aztecs, was the patron divinity of the race, and myriads of human victims were sacrificed to him yearly in countless pyramidal temples throughout the realm. Quetzalcoatl, a more beneficent deity, was described by the natives as a tall white man, with a large forehead and flowing beard, who taught his favored people the art of gov- ernment and the various arts of peace, espe- -i;illy those of the husbandman and silver- smith ; forbade bloody sacrifices, and only per- mitted those of bread, roses, and perfumes; ami v;irned against robbery and all violence. TliN -god of the air," as he was named, hav- ing incurred the displeasure of one of the other chief deities, was compelled to leave the coun- try ; but on quitting the shores of the gulf he promised to return, and the Mexicans always looked forward to that auspicious day. After his departure from the capital, he tarried at Cholula, where a magnificent temple was dedi- cated to him, the ruins of which are among the most curious remains of Mexican antiquities. All these divinities were represented by images of clay, wood, stone, or precious metals and gems, but of most fantastic forms, coarse and hideous ; and of the minor gods of every de- gree hosts of images were to be found in the dwellings of both great and small. The Mexi- cans, with all the other polished natives of Anahuac, regarded the soul both of man and brutes as immortal. The number of priests corresponded with the multitude of gods and temples; ancient historians affirm that 5,000 were attached to the great temple of the capi- tal, on the site of which now stands the cathe- dral. There were several different orders among the priests, the chief of all being the two high priests, whose dignity was conferred by election. The high priests anointed the king, and were the oracles consulted by him on all important state concerns. The sacer- dotal hierarchies of the several gods were quite separate, and had each a gradation of their own. The temples (teocallis) were of two kinds : low and circular, or high and pyrami- dal, on the tops of which the sacrifices took place. Torquemada estimates that there were upward of 40,000 throughout the empire, and other historians estimate their number much higher. There were hundreds in each princi- pal city, besides the great temple with several smaller ones within its precincts ; in each out- lying quarter of the city were other small courts with as many as six temples ; and there were temples on the mountains and at inter- vals along the highroads. They were solid pyramidal masses of earth cased with brick or stone, many of them more than 100 ft. square and of a still greater height. The ascent was by flights of steps on the outside, and on the broad flat summit were sanctuaries containing the images of the deities and altars on which fires were continually burning. Human sacri- fices, which they made on the most trivial occasions, formed the chief religious ceremony of the Mexicans and the most important duty of the priesthood. In later days the repetition of these sacrifices became mournfully frequent ; some Franciscan monks computed that about 2,500 persons were annually slaughtered on the altars of Tenochtitlan and some of the adjacent towns; and "days had been observed," writes Herrera, " on which above 20,000 had thus perished, reckoning all the sacrifices in several parts." Within the temples were schools, col- leges, and apartments for the priests. A few of the priestesses took vows of perpetual celibacy. Some of the priests were permitted to marry ; those of whom chastity was required were pun- ished with death for the slightest deviation from it. When a child of two years was dedicated to Quetzalcoatl, a priest with a knife made a slight cut on its breast, to confirm the dedication.