Daily Life of the Aztecs

by Jacques Soustelle

  Leyenda de los Soles, Codex Chimalpopoca, ( Mexico 1945) pp. 119 ff.

  A. Caso, La Religión de los Aztecas, figures 1, 2, 3 and 4.

  Muñoz Camargo, Historia de Tlaxcala, p. 155.

  Sahagún, vol. II, pp. 256 ff. The Aztec text, after the Madrid manuscript, is to be found in Garibay, Llave del Náhuatl (Otumba 1940) pp. 125-130.

  Quauhxicalli, from quauhtli, an eagle, and xicalli, a calabash or vessel, means 'the vessel of the eagle, of the sun'.

  Anales de Cuauhtilán, Codex Chimalpopoca, p. 8.

  See, for example, Codex Telleriano-Remensis, pp. 32 verso, 38 verso, 39, 40 etc.

  On Xipe Totec, see the representation of this god dressed in the skin of a victim in Caso, El Pueblo del Sol, pl. IX. On the rites celebrated in honour of the god, Codex Florentino, vol. II pp. 46 ff.

  Jacques Soustelle, Respect aux dieux morts, in Cahiers de la Compagnie Madeleine Renaud--J.-L. Barrault no. 1 ( Paris (Julliard] 1954) pp. 93 ff.

  For example, Corté had the feet of the pilot Gonzalo de Umbria cut off, two Spaniards hanged and others given two hundred strokes of the whip ( Díaz del Castillo , vol. I p. 220). He had Indian prisoners' hands cut off (ibid. p. 265). On the massacres of Cholula and Mexico, see Díaz del Castillo, p. 309, and Sahagún, vol. IV pp. 169-171. On the torture and the execution of Cuauhtemotzin, see Héctor Pérez Martínez , Cuauhtémoc, vida y muerte de una cultura

  -270-

  ( Mexico) (French translation [Laffont] Paris 1952).

  13. The passage referring to the mutual feelings of captive and captor is to be found in the Codex Florentino vol. II pp. 52-53. For the words of the emperor to a prisoner of war, see Tezozomoc, vol. II p. 177.

  14. Tezozomoc, vol. I p. 116.

  15. Muñoz Camargo, pp. 125-128. Another version, less favourable to the Tlaxcaltec warrior, is given by Tezozomoc, vol. II p. 175. See also Torquemada, vol I p. 220.

  16. It was Cortés who had Quauhpopoca and four other dignitaries burnt alive in front of the imperial palace: see Díaz del Castillo, vol. I p. 375, and Prescott, History of the Conquest of Mexico, ( Philadelphia 1864) vol. II pp. 171-173.

  17. Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichimeca, pp. 205-208.

  18. See Alfonso Caso, El Teocalli de la Guerra Sagrada ( Mexico 1927).

  19. Alfonso Caso, El Pueblo del Sol ( Mexico 1953).

  20. Sahagún, vol. I p. 259 ff.

  21. Codex Florentino, vol. I p. 1.

  22. Ibid. vol. II p. 207.

  23. Ibid. vol. III p. 208.

  24. See the statues of Coatlicue in Malraux, Le Musée imaginaire de la Sculpture mondiale ( Paris [Gallimard] 1952) pl. 352 and 355. Comments by J. Soustelle, ibid., pp. 740-741.

  25. Teteo innan icuic (Song of the mother of the gods), Codex Florentino, vol. III p. 208. Ciuacoatl icuic, ibid. p. 211.

  26. Pp. 49 and 59 of the Codex Magliabecchiano are devoted to the representation of the gods of drunkenness and to that of the goddess of the agave and of octli, Mayauel.

  27. Sahagún, vol. V p. 150 (hymn to Xipe Totec).

  28. Ibid. pp. 90-91 (song of Xochipilli), 98 (song of Xochiquetzal), 158 (song of Chicomecoatl) and 178 (song of Macuilxochitl).

  29. Paul Westheim, Arte axtiguo de México, ( Mexico 1950) fig. 55.

  -271-

  30. Jacques Soustelle, La Pensée cosmologique. . . pp. 80-81.

  31. The literal meaning of tonalpoualli is 'the account of the days'. See Alfonso Caso, "¿Tenían los Teotichuacanos conocemiento del Tonalpohualli?" in México Antiguo, vol. IV no. 3-4 ( Mexico 1937) pp. 131-143. Tonalamatl means 'the book of the days', and is used for the manuscript which the soothsayers employed.

  32. The representation of these groups of thirteen is particularly to be found in the codicies Borbonicus, Telleriano-Remensis and Ríos. There are detailed explanation in Sahagún, vol. I pp. 305-361.

  33. Codex Fejérváry-Mayer, p. 1.

  34. Codex Cospiano, pp. 12-13; Borgia, p. 72.

  35. The fall of Mexico and its capture by Cortás ( August 13, 1521) happened on a day 1 coatl considered generally favourable, but in a year calli, whose sign brings to mind decline, the setting of the sun, decaence, death. The last Mexican emperor was called Cuauhtemotzin, 'the descending eagle', that is to say, 'the setting sun'.

  36. Sahagún, vol. II pp. 11-26.

  37. Ibid. p. 23.

  38. Tezozomoc, vol. I pp. 229-231. Another prodigy took place at Tlateloco, according to the same author, when the king's wife, taking her bath, began talking in the manner of the characters in Diderot Les Bijoux indiscrets.

  39. Sahagún, vol. IV p. 25.

  40. Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichimeca, p. 313.

  41. Sahagún vol. IV p. 24.

  42. Jacques Soustelle, La Famille otomí-pame du Mexique central, ( Paris 1937) pp. 532-533.

  43. On this question see A. Casa, El Pueblo de Sol, pp. 20-21.

  44. Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichimeca, p. 227. Pomar ( Relacíon de Texcoco, p. 24) confirms Ixtlilxochitl's version. The same belief was to be found at the Tlaxcala ( Muñoz amargo, Historia de Tlaxcala, p. 130).

  -272-

  CHAPTER FOUR 1. Sahagún, vol. II p. 364.

  2. Díaz de Castillo, vol. I p. 335.

  3. Codex Telleriano-Remensis, pp. 29-30.

  4. R. H. Barlow, The Extent of the Empire of the Culhua Mexica ( Berkeley 1949) p. 42.

  5. Díaz del Castillo, vol. I. p. 336.

  6. From petlatl, mat, and calli, house: literally 'a mat house' and thus 'wickerwork cheat'. The Spanish word petaca, which is derived from petlacalli, means a cigarette-holder in Europe, but in Mexico it has retained its sense of 'valise'.

  7. Díaz del Castillo, vol. I p. 335. The secret room in which the treasure was hidden was opened in the end by the Spaniards, who were then Motecuhzoma's guests (ibid. p. 364). It contained such vast wealth, especially in gold, that Díaz 'held it for certain that in the whole world there was not its like.'

  8. Díaz del Castillo, vol. I p. 344.

  9. Sahagún, vol. I p. 95.

  10. Ibid. vol. II p. 31.

  11. Ibid. vol. II pp. 347-349 and 361. They were sparing, as tradesmen ought to be, and they only gave the fire-god the heads of the birds served at the banquet.

  12. Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichimeca, pp. 174 ff.

  13. Ixtlilxochitl here employs the Arabic word alcázar: this must no doubt be understood as summer-houses or little rural châteaux.

  14. Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichimeca, pp. 208-212.

  15. R. H. K. Marrett, Archaeological Tours from Mexico City ( Oxford University Press 1933) pp. 76-77.

  16. Díaz del Castillo, vol. I pp. 330-331.

  17. Cortés, pp. 160-162.

  18. Andrés de Tapia, Relación sobre la conquista de México, published by J. García Icazbalceta in Documentos para la historia de México ( Mexico 1866) pp. 581-582.

  19. Díaz del Castillo, vol. I pp. 348-349.

  20. Tezozomoc, vol. I pp. 211-212.

  -273-

  21. Relation anonyme. . . published by Ternaux-Compans: Voyages, relations et mémoires. . . vol. X ( Paris 1838) p. 100.

  22. Rafael García Granados, Filias y Fobias ( Mexico 1937) pp. 111-112.

  23. Zurita, Breve y sumaria relación. . . p. 111. Motolinía, Memoriales, p. 305.

  24. Tapia, p. 581.

  25. Clavigero, Historia antigua de México, vol. II p. 349.

  26. Ibid. p. 368.

  27. Sahagún, vol. II p. 346. Codex Florentino, vol. II p. 139.

  28. Codex Florentino, vol. II pp. 130-131. Uitzilopochco (now Churubusco) means 'the place of Uitzilopochtli'. Uitzilatl means 'the water (atl) of the humming-bird (uitzilin)'.

  29. Codex Florentino, vol. II p. 77.

  30. A good description and drawings are to be found in Clavigero, vol. II pp. 349 ff.

  31. Robert Redfield, Tepoztl?á?n, a Mexican Village, ( University of Chicago 1930) p. 137.

  32. Codex of 1576, p. 45.

  33. A very fine obsidian mirror
with a frame of carved wood is to be found in the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, New York. It is illustrated in C. A. Burland, Art and Life in ancient Mexico ( Oxford 1948) p. 43. The Musée de l'Homme in Paris has a marcasite mirror whose back is engraved with a representation of the wind-god Eecatl. See E. T. Hamy , La Galerie américaine du Musée d'Ethnographie du Trocadéro ( Paris, n. d.) vol. I pl. XI no. 34.

  34. Codex Telleriano-Remensis, p. 17.

  35. On the Huaxtecs, see Sahagún, vol. III p. 132. On the Otomí, ibid. p. 124.

  36. Codex Azcatitlan, pl. V, XI etc.

  37. Sahagún, vol. III p. 123.

  38. Ibid., vol. II pp. 128-130.

  39. The Aztec word tzictli, which has been corrupted into chicle, means the gum that comes from the

  -274-

  coagulated sap of the chicozapote (Achras sapota L.), a tree of the tropical regions. It is the raw material of chewing-gum. Cf. Maximino Martínez, Plantas útiles de la República Mexicana ( Mexico 1928), pp. 142-145.

  40. Sahagún, vol. III pp. 47-48.

  41. Among the Olmecs: see, for example, the statue called The Wrestler in the Catalogue do l'Exposition d'Art mexicain ( Paris, Musée d'Art modern, 1952) pl. IV and V. Among the Mayas, see particularly Agustín Villagra Caleti , Bonampak, la ciudad de los muros pintados ( Mexico 1949), and Gilbert Medioni, Art maya du Mexique et du Guatemala ( Paris 1950).

  42. Sahagún, vol. III p. 132, 'Los hombres (Huaxtec) no traen maxtles con que cubrir sus vergüensas.' On the clothing of the Tarascas, see Muñoz Camargo, Historia de Tlaxcala, p. 9. The Codex TellerianoRemensis, p. 33 verso, shows a warrior of Xiquipilco (valley of Toluca) wearing a maxtlatl, in the act of fighting with a Tarasca dressed in a short white tunic.

  43. Relation anonyme . . . Ternaux-Compans, vol. X p. 64

  44. Codex Telleriano-Remensis, pp. 29 verso, 30, 32 etc.

  45. 'Liberales de su cuerpo', according to Sahagún, vol. I pp. 317-318.

  46. Codex Magliabecchiano, the first eight leaves.

  47. See the illustrated album of Wilfrido du Solier, Indumentaria antiqua mexicana ( Mexico 1950).

  48. Sahagún, vol. II pp. 293-295.

  49. Boban, pl. 66, 68, 69.

  50. Marquina, Arquitectura prehispάnica, fig. 49.

  51. Marquina, fig. 69.

  52. Codex Telleriano-Remensis, pp. 31, 34, 37, 42 etc.

  53. Codex Azcatitlan, pl. V, X, XI. Codex TellerianoRemensis, p. 43. Boban, pl. LXX (clothing of Tlaloc).

  54. du Solier, pl. X.

  55. Codex Florentino, vol. II p. 93.

  56. Codex Telleriano-Remensis, p. 30.

  57. Sahagún, vol. III pp. 131-132.

  58. Aztec text of the manuscript of Sahagún in Walter Krickeberg , Los Totonaca ( Mexico 1933), pp. 50-51.

  -275-

  59. Sahagún, vol. III p. 134.

  60. Ibid., p. 124.

  61. Krickeberg, p. 50.

  62. For example, the statue of the goddess Chalchiuhtlicue in the Mexican museum. A. Caso, El Pueblo del Sol, pl. V.

  63. J. Soustelle, La Famille otomί-pame du Mexique central ( Paris 1937), pp. 91-95 and 516.

  64. du Solier, pl. XXV, XXVI, XXVII, XXXII. See also Keith Anderson's drawings in George C. Vaillant, Artists and Craftsmen in ancient Central America, ( New York 1935) p. 65.

  65. Especially the Otomί of the State of Mexico.

  66. Crόnica Mexicayotl, pp. 90-91.

  67. See particularly Barlow, The Extent of the Empire of the Culhua Mexica ( Berkeley 1949).

  68. Gabriel Fernández Ledesma, Calzado mexicano, ( Mexico 1930).

  69. Díaz del Castillo, vol. I p. 333.

  70. Tezozomoc, vol. I p. 307. The act of piercing the nasal septum is shown in various manuscripts, for example, the Codex Nuttall: this picture is reproduced in C. A. Burland, Magic Books from Mexico ( Penguin edition 1953) pl. XIII.

  71. Codex Florentino, vol. II p. 94.

  72. Tezozomoc, vol. I pp. 187-188. On the ornaments and emblems, see Eduard Seler, Altmexikanischer Schmuck und soziale und militärische Rangabzeichen, in Gesammelte Abhandlungen. . . vol. II, 1904, pp. 397-419: and Hans Dietschy, La Coiffure de plumes mexicaine du musée de Vienne, in Actes du XXVIIIe Congrès international des Américanistes ( Paris 1948) pp. 381-392.

  73. Villagra Caleti, pl. I.

  74. Sahagún, vol. II p. 119.

  75. Motolinía, p. 305.

  76. Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichimeca, p. 193.

  77. Ibid.

  78. Zurita, p. 112.

  -276-

  79. Motolinía, p. 306.

  80. Díaz del Castillo, pp. 343-345.

  81. Motolinía, pp. 306-307.

  82. Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones, p. 238.

  83. Ibid., Historia Chichimeca, p. 184.

  84. Andrés de Alcobiz, Estas son las leyes que tenían los Indios de la Nueva España. . . ( 1543), published by J. García Icazbalceta, Nueva Colección de documentos para la historia de México ( Mexico 1891), p. 308.

  85. For the organisation of the judiciary, see Zurita, pp. 109-113.

  86. Codex Florentino, vol. II pp. 42 ff. See also Appendix II of this book, The eighteen months and the rites.

  87. Uey tecuilhuitl. Codex Florentino, vol. II pp. 91 ff.

  88. On the month Panquetzaliztli see Codex Florentino, vol. II pp. 130 ff. On Atemoztli, ibid., pp. 137-138. On Tititl, ibid., pp. 145-146.

  89. Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichimeca, p. 286.

  90. A list and description of all these little trades is to be found in Sahagún, vol. III pp. 52 ff.

  91. Crónica Mexicayotl, pp. 132-133.

  92. Tezozomoc, vol. II pp. 56-57.

  93. Huauhtli is Amaranthus paniculatus var. leucocarpus: Maximino Martínez, Plantas útiles de la República Mexicana ( Mexico 1928), pp. 22-27. Chian is Salvia hispanica L. (ibid., pp. 134-138).

  94. Clavigero, vol. II, p. 366.

  95. Ignacio Alcocer, Las Comidas de los antiguos Mexicanos, an essay added as a supplement to vol. III of Sahagún, p. 367.

  96. Díaz del Castillo, vol. I p. 344.

  97. Ibid., p. 345.

  98. Sahagún, vol. II pp. 306-307.

  99. Alcocer, pp. 367 ff.; Sahagún, vol. II pp. 305-307.

  100. On the different kinds of water-birds on the lake of Mexico, see Sahagún, vol. III pp. 172 ff.

  101. Sahagún, vol. III pp. 193-195; Alcocer, loc. cit.

  102. Sahagún, vol. II p. 372.

  103. Muñoz Camargo, p. 155. He says himself, on p. 156,

  -277-

  that dogs were still sacrificed to Tlaloc in his day, and that he had taken it up with the authorities in order to have 'this error extirpated'.

  Martínez, Plantas útiles. . . p. 25.

  Codex Florentino, vol. II p. 92.

  Sahagún, vol. III p. 125.

  Ibid., pp. 233-237.

  Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, p. 106.

  Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichimeca, p. 206.

  Sahagún, vol. II pp. 372-374.

  Muriel N. Porter, Pipas precortesianas, in Acta Anthropologica, III, 2, ( Mexico 1943).

  Muñoz Camargo, p. 134; Sahagún, vol. II p. 367 and vol. III pp. 229-231.

  On peyotl (Lophophora williamsii) see particularly Leéon Diguet, Le Peyotl et son usage rituel chez les Indiens du Nayarit in Journal de la Société des Américanistes ( Paris 1907); A. Rouhier, Le Peyotl la plante qui faith les yeux émerveillés ( Paris 1927); Richard Evan Schultes, Peyote, an American Indian heritage from Mexico, in México Antiguo, vol. IV. no. 5-6 ( Mexico 1938) pp. 199-208; Maximino Martínez , Plantas medicinales de México, pp. 215 ff.

  Sahagún, vol. II p. 367.

  On the gods of drunkenness, see particularly A. Caso, El Pueblo del Sol, pp. 68-69. The Codex Magliabecchiano devotes ten pages (49-59) to represetations of these gods. Mayauel is shown in the Codex Borbonicus, p. 8. In Sahagún, vol. I p. 237, it may be seen how great an importance the priests of the Centzon Totochtin had in the Aztec clergy. A religious song
proper to these deities is reproduced in the Codex Florentino, vol. II p. 213.

  Sahagún,, vol. II pp. 99 ff.

  Sahagún, vol. I p. 293.

  Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones, p. 238.

  Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichimeca, pp. 188-189.

  Sahagún, vol. I p. 357.

  Tezozomoc, vol. II p. 80.

  -278-

  122. Popol-Vuh: cf. Ch. III, note 2. The decorated vase from Teotihuacán belongs to the Musée de l'Homme at Paris: a reproduction is to be found in J. Soustelle, La Culture matérielle des Indiens Lacandons, in the Journal de la Société des Amécanistes, vol. XXIX, ( Paris 1937) pl. II C.

  123. Codex Florentino, vol. II pp. 126-127.

  124. Motolinía, p. 320.

  125. Codex Magliabecchiano, p. 80; J. Cooper Clark, The Story of Eight Deer, ( London 1912) p. 14.

  126. On tlachtli, see particularly Muñoz Camargo, p. 136 Frans Blom, The Maya ball-game Pok-ta-pok, (Publication no.4, Middle American Papers, Tulane University of Louisiana, New Orleans 1932) T. A. Joyce, The pottery whistle-figurines of Labaantun, in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. LXIII, 1933, pp. XV-XXV.

  127. Symbolic nature of the ball-game: A. Caso, El Pueblo del Sol, pp. 103-104. Death of the lord of Xochimilco: Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichimeca, p. 255.

  128. Alfonso Caso, Un antiguo juego mexicano, el Patolli, in México Antiguo, vol. II, no. 9 ( Mexico 1925) pp. 203-211. See also A. Caso, Notas sobre juegos antiguos in Mexican Folkways, vol. VII, no. 2 ( Mexico 1932) pp. 56-60; Muñoz Camago, p. 136; and Codex Magliabecchiano, p. 60.

  129. Sahagún, vol. I p. 346.

  130. Munñoz Camargo, p. 159.

  131. Sahagún, vol. I pp. 241-242.

  -279-

  CHAPTER FIVE 1. Sahagún, vol. II pp. 186 ff.

  2. Ibid., pp. 189-190.

  3. Muñoz Camargo, p. 149. This author insists upon the obligation upon the parents to make known the birth of the child to their relatives and friends, who would be vexed if they were not told. See also Sahagún, vol. II pp. 196 ff.