Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/399

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HOUSES AND BELONGINGS.
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main street, the other on the back lane or canal. The terrace platform was particularly spacious in front, where occasionally a small oratorio faced the entrance. The façade was adorned with elegant cornices and stucco designs of flowers and animals, often painted in brilliant colors. Balconies were occasionally to be seen, supported on monolith columns without base or capital, though with incised ornamentation; but they were not common, owing to the prevalence of flat roofs surrounded by battlemented and even turreted parapets. Behind them rose flowering plants, arranged in pots or growing in garden plots, and aiding to render the spot attractive for the family gathering in the evening. Flower-gardens might be seen also in the courts, with a sparkling fountain in the centre. Around ran the shady porticos, lined with suites of apartments, the larger reception rooms in front, the stores and kitchen in the rear, and other rooms and chambers, with the never failing temazcalli, or bath, arranged between them, and provided with wicker screens or curtains in lieu of doors.

Courts as well as rooms were covered with flags of stones, tessellated marble or cement, polished with ochre or gypsum; and the walls were decorated not infrequently with porphyry, jasper, and alabaster, and hung with cotton tapestry adorned with feather and other ornaments. The furniture on the other hand was scanty, consisting chiefly of mats of palm leaves, cushions, low tables, and stools.[1]

  1. For further description of streets, buildings, and people, see Native Races, passim. Also Ramirez, Noticias de Mex., etc., in Monumentos Domin. Esp., MS. no. 6, 309-50; Dávila, Continuacion de la Crónica, etc., MS., 296; Viagero Univ., xxvi. 203-6; Libro de Cabildo, MS., 1, 5, 11, 62, 105, 201-2; Sammlung aller Reisebesch., xiii. 459-60, 464-67; Las Casas, Hist. Apolog., MS., 17-27; L'America Settentrionale, 88-207; Mex., Not. Ciudad, 1-8. Venecia la Rica is the name applied to the city by some of the Spaniards. Carta, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xiii. 339.

    A curious view of Mexico is given in the edition of Cortés' letters issued at Nuremberg in 1524, which exhibits six causeway connections with the mainland. Both in situation, with respect to the surrounding towns, and in the general plan, it accords very fairly with the descriptions of the conquerors. The temple of Huitzilopochtli occupies an immense square in the centre of