4. Sahagúfn, vol. I p. 323; vol. II p. 211.
5. Sahagún, vol. II pp. 212-217. The Codex Mendoza depicts these rites, and in the picture the midwife is shown with the wrinkles of an old woman.
6. Sahagún, vol. I p. 321.
7. A. Caso, Explicaciόn del reverso del Codex Vindobonensis, ( Mexico 1951).
8. For example, see Codex of 1576, p. 5 (glyphs corresponding to the proper names Quauhcoatl, Apanecatl, Tezcacoatl and Chimalman), pp. 28 (Tezozomoctli), 32 (Tenochtli); Codex Azcatitlan, pp. XI ( Uitziliuitl, Chimalaxochitl, Tozpanxochitl), XIII ( Tezozomoc and Quaquauhpitzauac), XIV ff. (names of the Mexican emperors); Codex Telleriano-Remensis, pp. 30 ( Uitziliuitl), 31 ( Chimalpopoca and Itzcoatl), 32 ( Nezaualcoyotl), 33 verso ( Quauhtlatoa), 36 ( Nezaualpilli), etc.
9. Torquemada, vol. II pp. 186-187.
10. Ibid.
11. Sahagún, vol. I p. 195, 'If (the boy who was going to enter the calmecac) were the son of poor people. . .'
12. Ibid., p. 299.
13. Torquemada, vol. II. p. 179.
14. Sahagún, vol. I pp. 288 ff.; Torquemada, vol. II p. 221; Zurita, p. 121.
15. Sahagún, vol. II p. 222.
16. Ibid., vol. I p. 298.
17. Torquemada, vol. II p. 189.
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18. Sahagú, vol. I pp. 291-293.
19. Ibid., p. 293.
20. Codex Florentino, vol. II pp. 137-138.
21. Torquemada, vol. II pp. 220-221.
22. Ibid., p. 187.
23. Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichimeca, p. 213.
24. Sahag00FA. II p. 151.
25. Motoliní, p 255.
26. SahagU+00F, vol. II p. 152.
27. For a description of the preparations and of the wedding itself, see Sahag00FA, vol. II pp. 152 ff., and Motoliní, pp. 260 ff.
28. This scene is shown in the Codex Mendoza, p. 61.
29. Motoliní, p.263.
30. Oviedo, Dilcayde de la Fortaleza de la Cibdad éo de Santo Domingo . . . de la una parte, é de la otra, un caballero vecino de la gran Cibdad de México,llamado Thoan (sic) Cano, published by Prescott, History of the Conquest of Mexico, Appendix (Original Documents), vol. III, pp. 453-454.
31. Pomar, Relacióde Texcoco, p. 25.
32. Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichimeca, p. 213.
33. Relation anonyme. . . Ternaux-Compans, Voyages, relations et mémoires, vol. X ( Paris 1838), p. 103.
34. Muñ Camargo, p. 137.
35. Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichimeca, p. 267.
36. Ibid., pp. 219-222.
37. Ibid., p. 294.
38. Ibid., p. 268.
39. Ibid., p. 267.
40. Cr00F3nica Mexicayolt, pp. 137-139, 143-146, 150-157
41. Ibid., pp. 125-127
42. Motoliní, p. 325.
43. Mu00F1 Camargo, p. 138.
44. Crónica Mxicayolt, pp. 117-119.
45. Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichimeca, p. 29.
46. Historia de los Mexicanos por sus pinturas, published by Icazbalceta, Nueva Colecció de documentos para la historia de Mé, vol. III ( Mexico 1891) p. 249.
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47. Relació de la genalogia y linaje de los señores. . published by Icazbalceta, ibid., pp. 273-275. On the Toltec character of Colhuacán, see Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones, p. 59.
48. Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, p. 108.
49. Sahagú, vol. II p. 351.
50. Motoliní, p.320.
51. Codex Florentino, vol. II p. 93.
52. Ibid., pp. 61-62.
53. Codex Telleriano-Remensis, p. 17.
54. Alcobiz, Estas son las leyes. . . published by Icazbalceta , Nueva colecció de documentos. . . vol. III ( Mexico 1891) p. 311.
55. Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichimeca, pp. 285-287.
56. See George C. Vaillant, Aztecs of Mexico, ( GardenCity, N.Y., 1947) p. 112, and Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones, p. 239.
57. Zurita, p. 112.
58. Seler, in Sahagú, vol. V p. 118.
59. Sahagú, vol. II pp. 158-159.
60. The Aztec text of the prayer to Ayopechcatl is to be found in Sahagú, vol. V pp. 116-117 (with translation and commentary by Seler) and in the Codex Florentino, vol. III p. 211 (with English translation).
61. Sahagú, vol. II pp. 30, 32, 33, and pp. 176-178.
62. Martínez, Plantas de medicinales de México ( Mexico 1944), pp. 331-338. Modern experiments show that this plant does in fact possess the properties that the ancient Mexicans attributed to it.
63. 'The tail of this little animal is highly medicinal. Women in labour who drink a small amount are delivered at once . . . Whoever eats the bones or the tail of the tlaquatzin, even a dog or a cat, instantly voids his own bowels.' ( Sahagú, vol. III p. 156). A decoction of nopal leaves was also used (ibid., p. 263).
64. Sahagú, vol. II p. 181.
65. Ibid., pp. 181-183. The young men were not alone in attributing magic properties to the bodies of the 'valliant women'. Malignant wizards did their utmost
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to acquire the left arm of one of these women: they used it, in their spells, to paralyse the inhabitants of a house and send them to sleep while they robbed it at their leisure. ( Sahagú, vol. I pp. 350-351.)
66. Codex Florentino, vol. I p. 6. On the 'coming back' of the Ciuateteo, see Codex Telleriano-Remensis, p. 18 verso, and Sahagú, vol. I p. 341.
67. See Georgette Tequila Soustelle: Un Village Nahuatl du Mexique Oriental (Institut d'Ethnologie, Paris, 1958).
68. Codex Florentino, vol. I p. 4.
69. Hernando Ruiz de Alarc?ó, Tratado de las supersticiones y costumbres gentí que oy viuen entre los Indios naturales desta Nueva Españ, ( 1629), published in Anales del Museo Nacional de Mé, vol. VI ( Mexico 1892) pp. 123-223. 'La causa de la enfermedad del niñ es faltarle su hado o fortuna o estrella, que estas tres cosas se comprehenden en la lengua mexicana debaxo deste nombre tonalli' (p. 197).
70. Sahagún, vol. I p. 48.
71. Ibid., p. 287.
72. Ibid., p. 22.
73. Ruiz de Alarcón, pp. 182-183.
74. Codex Florextino, vol. I pp. 13 and 16.
75. Jacinto de La Serna, Manual de ministros de Indios para el conocimiento de sus idolatrías y extirpación de ellas ( 1656), published in Anales del Museo Nacional de México, vol. VI, 1892, pp. 261-480, p. 284.
76. Codex Florentino, vol. I p. 15. On Tzapotlatenan, ibid., p. 5.
77. Ruiz de Alarcón, pp. 193-197.
78. The ololiuhqui (a Datura?) does not appear to have been exactly identified. Cf. Martínez, Plantas medicinales de México ( Mexico 1944) pp. 505-508, and B. P. Reko, Das mexikanische Rauschgift 'ololiuhqui', in México Antiguo vol. III, no. 3-4 ( Mexico 1934) pp. 1-7.
79. Ruiz de Alarcón, pp. 142-145: de La Serna, p. 303.
80. Codex Florentino, vol. I p. 4. Motolinía, p. 126, 'The magicians had bundles of thin cord like bunches of
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keys, and these they threw on the ground. If the cords remained entwined, it was said to foretell death, but if one or several of them separated itself from the others, it was a sign of recovery.'
81. De La Serna, pp. 400-401.
82. Sahagún, vol. III p. 47, 'The (woman healer) pretended to draw worms from the teeth, and from the other parts of the body, paper and flint, which is used as a knife in this country; and in drawing all this from the bodies of the sick people she claimed to heal them.'
83. Ruiz de Alarcón, pp. 196, 200, 230: de La Serna, pp. 414-415.
84. Ruiz de Alarcón, p. 200. Quato and Caxoch are two deities who appear only in the invocations of doctors and midwives. Cf. de La Serna, p. 409.
85. Martinez, Plantas medicinales. . . pp. 378-379.
86. De La Serna, p. 416.
87. De La Serna (pp. 425-426) describes the operation: each stage was accompanied by magical formulæ addressed to the bones, the splints and the cords.
88. Clavigero, Historia antigua de México, vol. II p. 349.
89.
Sahagún, vol. III p. 281.
90. Ibid., p. 282. The epidemic referred to is that of matlazahuati (? plague) which killed at least two million people in 1576.
91. Ibid., p. 267.
92. On Francisco Hernández, see Clavigero, vol. II p. 345, and Martínez, Plantas medicinales. . . pp. 14-16. The first edition of Francisco Hernández's book appears to be that of Mexico in 1615 (abridged), which was followed by the best-known edition, that of Rome, in 1651.
93. On this subject, see particularly Sahagún, vol. III pp. 229-276; Ignacio Alcocer, Consideraciones sobre la medicina azteca, an essay published as a supplement to Sahagún, vol. III pp. 375-382; Martínez, Plantas útiles de la República mexicana ( Mexico 1928) and Plantas medicinales de México ( Mexico 1944); Del Paso y Troncoso , Estudio sobre la historia de la medicinaen México. La Botánica entre los Nahoas
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en México. La Botánica entre los Nahoas, in Anales del Museo Nacional de México, vol. III, 1896, pp. 140-235; Paul C. Standley, Trees and Shrubs of Mexico, in Contributions from the U.S. National Herbarium, vol. XXIII ( Washington, 1920- 1926).
94. Torquemada, vol. I p. 206.
95. Codex Florentino, vol. I pp. 8-11. Sahagún, vol. I p. 28, says, 'And even now, when an Indian commits murder or adultery, he takes refuge in one of our monasteries . . . He confesses . . . and asks for a certificate signed by the confessor so that he may show it to the authorities, the governor or the alcaldes, to prove that he has confessed and done his penance and that consequently the law has nothing further to do with him.'
96. Sahagún, vol. I p. 287.
97. Sahagún, vol. III p. 198.
98. On the tomb-pyramid of Palenque, cf. Alberto Ruz Lhuillier , Estudio de la cripta del Templo de las Inscripciones en Palenque, in Tlatoani, vol. I, no. 5-6 ( Mexico 1952) pp. 3-28. By the same author, Exploraciones en Palenque: 1950- 1951, in Anales del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, vol. V ( Mexico 1952) pp. 25-66. Jacques Soustelle, Une Ancienne Cité maya: Palenque, in Revue de Paris, February 1954, pp. 111-121. On the tombs of Monte Albán, cf. Alfonso Caso, Las Tumbas de Monte Albán, in Anales del Museo Nacional de México, Epoca 4a., vol. VIII, no. 4 ( Mexico 1933) pp. 641-648. On the pyre of Quetzalcoatl, see Anales de Cuauhtitlán, Códice Chimalpopoca, ( Mexico 1945) p. 11.
99. Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichimeca, p. 97.
100. Muñoz Camargo, p. 148.
101. Relation anonyme. . . p. 213.
102. Letter published by Ternaux-Compans in Voyages, relations et mémoires, vol. X ( Paris 1838) p. 213.
103. Pomar, Relación de Texcoco, p. 38.
104. Codex Magliabecchiano, pp. 66-69.
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Pomar, loc. cit.: Tezozomoc, vol. I pp. 302-303.
Auh in uncan chicunamictlan uncan ocempopolioa--and there, in the ninth dwelling-place of the dead, there they were completely done away with. ( Codex Florentino, vol. III p. 42.)
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CHAPTER SIX 1. Alfonso Caso, El Teocalli de la Guerra Sagrada ( Mexico 1927) pp. 30-32.
2. Leyenda de los Soles, Códice Chimalpopoca, ( Mexico 1945) p. 123.
3. Ixtlilxochitl, Historia Chichimeca, p. 190.
4. Ibid.
5. Tezozomoc, vol. II p. 26.
6. Ibid., vol. I pp. 48-49.
7. Motolinía, pp. 294-295.
8. Tezozomoc, vol. I p. 26.
9. Crónica Mexicayotl, p. 119: Tezozomoc, vol. I pp. 216 ff., pp. 221-222.
10. This Tlacaeleltzin, a famous figure in Aztec history, was the founder of the dynasty of the Ciuacoatl, which, running parallel with that of the emperors, was very important in the expansion of Tenochtitlan's empire. At that time, in 1428, he had the military title of atempanecatl, 'he (who commands) at the water's edge'.
11. Tezozomoc, vol. I pp. 35-36.
12. Andrés de Tapia, Relación de la conquista de México, published by Icazbalceta in Documentos para la historia de México ( Mexico 1866), p. 592: 'He who obeyed peaceably was not obliged to pay a definite tribute, but, so many times in the year, he sent a present at his own discretion . . . And in these cities no steward or taxgatherer was placed.'
13. Plural of quauhnochtli, the term for the heart of a sacrificed warrior: it was also used as a military title.
14. Motolinía, p. 295.
15. On the embassies, see Motolinía, loc. cit., and Ixtlilxochitl , Historia Chichimeca, pp. 190-192.
16. Plural of the word achcauhtli, which meant officials, of varying status according to the city. At Mexico they formed a kind of police-force for the application of judicial decisions.
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17. Sahagún, vol. I p. 345.
18. On the quimichtin, see Motolinía, p. 295: 'They were called mice because they went about by night or secretly, hiding themselves.' On the disguised merchants called naualoztomeca, see Sahagún, vol. II pp. 356 ff.
19. Fifth statute of Nezaualcoyotl: Ixtlilxochitl, Relaciones, p. 237.
20. Motolinía, p. 298.
21. Tezozomoc, vol. I p. 257.
22. A scene shown in the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, p. 42 verso, the year 'six--reed'.
23. This scene from the Codex Nuttall is reproduced in Herbert J. Spinden, Ancient Civilisations of Mexico and Central America ( New York [ American Museum of Natural History] 1928) fig. 85.
24. As examples of these emblems may be quoted the zaquanpapalotl, butterfly made of yellow feathers; the quetzaltotol, quetzal-bird; the zaquanpanitl, a flag of yellow feathers; the zaquantonatiuh, a solar disc of feathers; the macuilpanitl, an ornament made of five banners; etc. These badges and some others, after the original paintings by Aztec artists, are shown in Sahagún, vol. II pl. 2, 3 and 4.
25. Motolinía, p. 297.
26. Motolinía, loc., cit., gives this information speaking of the king of Texcoco. A page of a pictographic manuscript attributed to Ixtlilxochitl in the Bibliothéque Nationale at Paris, shows Nezaualcoyotl, king of Texcoco, dressed in magnificent feather-armour, his head covered with a helmet, holding in his hands a shield and a sword, while round his neck there is hung a little conical drum. Boban has published a reproduction of this page in Catalogue raisonné . . . atlas, pl. 67.
27. Tezozomoc, vol. I p. 257.
28. Codex Mendoza, p. 6: Codex Nuttall; reproduction in J. Cooper Clark, The Story of 'Eight Deer' ( London 1912) pl. D.
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29. Similar scenes are described in Tezozomoc, vol. I pp. 128, 135 and 179.
30. R. H. Barlow, La Fundación de la Triple Alianza ( 1427- 1433) in Anales del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia vol. III ( Mexico 1949) pp. 147156. See particularly p. 151.
31. Sahagún, vol. IV. Díaz del Castillo, Historia verdadera . . . vol. III pp. 74-305. Cortés, pp. 196-456. Clavigero, vol. III pp. 165-314. Prescott, vol. II pp. 301-474 and vol. III pp. 1-214.
32. In the account given in Sahagnin (vol. IV p. 22o) of the Mexican defeat, this passage stands out- 'Everywhere, and in the streets, the Spaniards were robbing; they were searching for gold . . . They took, they picked out the best-looking light-brown women . . . And they also picked out men, strong men, fully grown or young . . . and they branded them with a red-hot iron at once near the mouth, on the jaw, round the lips.' The Aztec text is in Garibay, Llave de Náhuall (Otumba 1940) pp. 151-152.
33. Muñoz Camargo, p. 116.
34. Muñoz Camargo, p. 104, describes the Tlaxcaltecs of the sixteenth century, disappointed and bitter, reduced to the same condition as the other Indiana, yet boasting with much 'braggadocio and foolishness' of the decisive rôle that they had played in the fall of Tenochtitlan.
35. There are few subjects as interesting as the causes for the defeat of the Mexicans in 1521. Unlike Arnold J. Toynbee, who thinks that the Mexican civilisation practically fell of itself, I maintain that it was in point of fact murdered. ( Note sur la mewtre des civilisations, in Liberté de l'Esprit, no. 22, Paris 1951 pp. 166-167.) At this point, one may repeat the observation of Spengler, 'This culture is a unique exam
ple of death by violence. It did not languish; it was neither oppressed nor frustrated; but it was assassinated in its prime, cut off as a flower might be cut off by a passer-
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by.' ( Déclin de l'Occident, Paris 1948 [ Gallimard], vol. II p. 46.) The success of the Spaniards may be assigned to four sets of causes:
1. Military causes, which have been treated here.
2. Biological causes. Smallpox was brought in by a Negro from Cuba, and the epidemic claimed thousands of victims in this population which knew nothing of the disease. The emperor Cuitlahuac died of it after reigning only eighty days.
3. Religious causes. At the outset, the Spaniards were very much helped by the belief (apparently shared by Motecuhzoma) that Cortés and his soldiers were the god Quetzalcoatl and his suite.
4. Political causes. The conquerors would never have attained their ends if they had not been so greatly helped by the Tlaxcaltecs and other Indians, particularly the followers of the pretender Ixtlilxochitl at Texcoco. All these Indians, whose thought and reasoning worked only within the frame of reference of the autonomous city-state, saw this war as nothing more than an ordinary struggle between cities: apart from a few far-sighted men like the younger Xicotencatl (killed by Cortés) none of them suspected that they were in the presence of an enemy who was determined to annihilate their political autonomy, their religion and their civilisation. Their eyes were opened only when they found themselves plunged into the same slavery as that which had first been imposed upon the defeated Aztecs. But then it was too late.
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CHAPTER SEVEN 1. André Thevet, Histoyre du Méchique, an unpublished sixteenth-century French manuscript printed by E. de Jonghe in Journal de la Société des Americanistes, vol. II ( Paris 1905) pp. 8 ff.
2. Francisco Ramos de Cirdenas, Descripción de Querétaro ( 1582,) published by Primo F. Velázquez, Colección do documentos para la historia de San Luis Potosí ( San Luis Potosí 1897) pp. 12-13. This author particularly mentions an Otomí pochtecatl from Nopallan who 'went to sell his goods among the Chichimec Indiana who were in a state of war with the province (of Xilotepec) and would not submit to any authority. He took them clothes made from the thread which is obtained from a tree or plant called magey [sic] and he took salt, which is a thing much sought after by them . . . and they gave him in exchange the skins of deer, lions, jaguars, hares . . . and bows and arrows.'
Daily Life of the Aztecs Page 34
