# About Mexico - Past and Present/Chapter 3

Table of Contents
CHAPTER III.
THE VALLEY REPEOPLED.
AMONG those who became masters of the great tableland of Anahuac after the disappearance of the Toltecs were several kindred tribes called Nahuas, or "skilled ones," who claimed to have entered Mexico at different times from some place at the North. Their civilization, which made them differ from those tribes that lived by the chase, was shown by their giving up their wandering life and settling down, one after another, as neighbors around Tezcuco, the largest lake on the tableland of Mexico. Thus they became what is known as sedentary, or pueblo ("village"), Indians. These people, like other North American tribes, have straight black hair, with a fondness for paint, feathers and gewgaws. Their nahuatl—the word for language—meant "pleasant sound." This varied as much then among different tribes as is now the case in Mexico, where the people of one Indian village (especially the women) speak a language which those in another—not ten miles distant, perhaps—cannot understand, although they have been neighbors for a century.
Like all Indian languages, Aztec proper names had a meaning and were easily written in rude signs or pictures. Thus the name of the great chief Nezacoyatl, or "Hungry Fox," was expressed by a picture of a fox, ​and its image, carved in stone, in his lordly pleasure-grounds on the shore of Lake Tezcuco, gave the title and the history of the owner.
By giving our readers the English signification of these names they will have some advantages possessed by old Mexican readers, who, it is likely, would have stumbled as often as we do over the spelling, if not over the pronunciation, of these words. Thus, for instance, Quetzalcohuatl (ketzalcowattle), a hero-saint who figures in Mexican history, shall be "Feathered Serpent," and, instead of Huitizilapochtli—that frightful name for their still more frightful war-god—we will say "Humming-Bird," which is the decidedly mild interpretation thereof. The Aztec tribe with which our story has most to do were among the latest arrivals on the great table-lands of Mexico. A curious map of their migrations before they came there was still in existence when the Europeans overran the country. It was so different from the maps in use in Spain that the Spanish soldiers who captured it supposed it was an Aztec embroidery-pattern, and sent it as such to the old country. They also had a history of the tribe in picture-writing. This declares that Mexico was peopled by men who came out of a cave and afterward traveled all over the country on the backs of turtles. Aztlan, the home of the Aztecs, was written with atl, a waved line (17:55, 2 February 2019 (UTC)~)—their picture-sign for water—put beside one of a pyramidal temple and a palm tree. We may know by the latter picture that Aztlan was not very far to the north.
The Aztecs were a band of fierce savages who took refuge in the swamps near the site of the present City of Mexico after a migratory life elsewhere. It is quite possible to fix the date of this last remove by records kept ​by their more intelligent neighbors. A few of the Toltecs no doubt remained in the valley, and they had taught the Alcohuans—a tribe which preceded the Aztecs—who afterward became the most cultured people in Mexico. Their calculations were thus exact enough to guide us in ours, so that we know that the Aztecs entered the Valley of Mexico early in the fourteenth century. Their records also show that at that time the Aztecs were composed of seven related families, or clans, each one of which formed a little community guided by its own chief, and all bearing the same surname. In other words, there were only seven surnames in the whole tribe.
From the outset these new comers were considered intruders, and were obliged to content themselves with a precarious footing on the neutral ground by which, in Indian fashion, the settlements of their neighbors were surrounded. They lived on fish, birds and such water-plants as grew in the swamp, as well as by predatory raids on the peaceful farmers around them. While they were still in this unsettled state the oracle of the tribe is reported to have spoken for Humming-Bird, their war-god, in this wise:
"I was sent on this journey, and my office it is to carry arms, bows, arrows and shields. War is my chief duty and the object of my coming. I have to look out in all directions, and with my body, head and arms have to do my duty in many tribes, being on the borders and lying in wait for many nations to maintain and gather them, though not graciously."
We can picture in imagination the wily old medicine-man who made this speech, and thus fixed the policy of the tribe on a distinctively war-basis. ​In 1325, as we learn from their old records, a great change took place in the condition of the Aztecs. Some of the tribe saw on a reedy island on the lake a splendid eagle perched on one of the cactus-plants with which the region abounds. His wings were outstretched toward the rising sun, and he held a writhing serpent in his beak. The old oracle of the tribe was consulted again. He decided that this was a token that the gods were smiling on the Aztecs and wished to point out this place as a site on which they ought to build a city. This was begun by sinking piles in the water. On these they first built little thatched cabins, with walls woven out of the reeds they found growing on the lake-shore, and plastered with mud. They called the place Tenochtitlan (or "Stone-cactus City"), either because of this circumstance or because one of their leading chiefs was called Tenoch ("Stone Cactus"). The Aztec capital—for such it became—was afterward named Mexico, after Mexitli, one of their gods. Year after year, as the tribe pushed out and increased in numbers and wealth, the islands on which they lived were linked together and to the mainland by strong causeways of stone. The place Mexitli became impregnable to Indian warfare. They continued by means of their long dykes not only to join the island to the mainland, but so to pen up the waters flowing into the lake as to surround the city with deep water, and thus defend it in case of a siege. At intervals sluices were cut through the causeways, over which openings bridges were thrown that could be taken up in time of war.
It is probable that for many years the tribe owned no other land than that on which their city stood. It was divided into four quarters, or calpulli, each having its own chief and temple, council-house, and other public ​buildings. These calpulli were afterward further subdivided into communities,-each living in houses large enough to contain a small army. The rush huts in time gave place to more substantial edifices, many of which were elegant in design and finish. In Montezuma's day a quarry of soft blood-red stone almost as porous as a sponge was discovered in the mountains near by, and many of the houses in the city were rebuilt of this with fine effect.
The city was regularly laid out, with wide, straight, clean streets radiating from the central teocallis, or house of the gods (a plan which was followed throughout Mexico), and numerous and beautiful squares. One of these, the principal market-place of the city, was surrounded by splendid corridors so smoothly paved that they were as slippery as ice. Like Venice, the city was veined with canals, along which the produce of the country was borne in numberless boats into its very centre.
A massive stone aqueduct brought an abundance of pure water from a large spring at Chapultepec, a few miles distant. Immense reservoirs cut out of solid rock, with steps leading down to the level of the water, still remain to show the substantial character of Aztec masonry and enterprise. Where the branch streams of this aqueduct crossed the canals they were widened and left open on top, so that the carriers who served out water to families could bring their canoes directly under these bridge-like reservoirs to be filled, the water being dipped out for them by a man stationed above.
The houses of the better class in Mexico were built of stone and were seldom over two stories in height; they covered a great deal of ground, having large courtyards in the centre. The roofs were flat and terraced, the walls ​well whitened and polished, and the floors made of the smoothest plaster and neatly matted. All the walls were very thick and strong, the ceilings being high and generally of wood. Doors were almost unknown and chimneys unheard of.
The houses were usually kept very neatly. Walls were hung with cotton drapery in bright colors and curious feather-work. The beds were often curtained and quite comfortable. Though chairs and tables were not found even in the so-called palace of Montezuma, there were low seats which were easy as well as elegant. The house occupied by Montezuma's clan was very luxurious in its appointments. Its garden was surrounded by balconies supported by marble columns and floored with jasper elegantly inlaid. In the grounds were ten large pools, in which all the different species of waterbirds found in Mexico disported themselves. Sea-birds had tanks of salt water. All were kept pure and sweet, filled by pipes leading from the lake or the aqueduct. Three hundred men were constantly employed to take care of these creatures, and a bird-doctor attended to such as were sick. About these tanks there were pleasant corridors, where Montezuma and his brother-chiefs often walked to observe the curious habits of these feathered captives.
Spanish writers speak also of a great collection of albinos, another of dwarfs and giants and deformed people, some of whom had been made such to provide curiosities for the State museum.
Besides the large collection of water-birds, there was another one of such as were found in fields and woods. A menagerie of wild beasts had been gathered from every country known to the Mexicans. ​The official residence of the chiefs of Tezcuco had three hundred rooms; some of the terraces on which it stood are still entire and covered with hard cement. Its richly-sculptured stones form an inexhaustible quarry for the house-builders of this age. The neighboring hill, where once was a summer retreat for these luxurious rulers, still shows the stone stairways and terraces which adorned the place. The city was quite embowered in trees and beautified with many parks and gardens. In fact, the botanical garden found at the time of the Spanish conquest was a model afterward copied in various parts of Europe.
Our faith in the glowing descriptions given by Spanish authors of Mexican art and civilization before the conquest would not survive their many exaggerated and contradictory stories if we could not turn to the testimony left by the old inhabitants themselves. While the monuments reared by the Aztecs in the Valley of Mexico have been swept away, the temples and the dwellings farther south exist in vast and splendid desolation, proving that from their very beginning these later tribes were familiar with a style of architecture whose "lavish magnificence has never been excelled."
​human hives seen to-day in many parts of China where families composed of hundreds of individuals are banded together for mutual protection under one roof, bearing one name. Their communism in living thus finds expression in their houses.
The dwellings of these communities were built on what is called the terraced plan. Imagine a house like a huge staircase, in which each story formed a step ten feet high. The whole interior was made up of numerous small square apartments, often arranged in pairs, having no connection with others, rising tier above tier, without any halls or stairways, each story being wider by one row of rooms than the one above it.
​inside and outside, were very thick and strong, plastered so carefully with a kind of white cement that they shone like enamel and led the Spaniards to think that these were palaces whose stones were plated with silver. Bright unfading colors were often used in decoration, and bricks were laid in ornamental courses. Ventilation was had by small apertures placed opposite each other and in a line with loopholes in the outer walls. Chimneys were un-> known to these ancient masons. The cooking for the community was done by a common fire, or by several fires if the clan was a large one.
Outside the large cities these communal dwellings were often grouped by the side of some stream and surrounded by cultivated fields and orchards, or oftener on some commanding hilltop. This was necessary in case of attack from hostile tribes. A group of these massive buildings surrounded by luxuriant trees must have presented a fine appearance. Some were from five to six hundred feet long, with wings. Towers two or three stories high were often added.
The building known as the Casa Grande, on San Miguel River, has walls eight feet in thickness and is supposed to have been seven stories high, with a front of eight hundred feet. Near this building was another, with rooms built around a square. The whole country in this region (one hundred and fifty miles north-west of Chihuahua) is full of Indian mounds, in which are found stone axes, mills for grinding corn, broken pottery, and other tokens that this was once the home of a large and thriving population.
In case of war the terraced roofs were heaped with missiles and bristled with defenders. When defeated, the survivors fled for refuge to the caves which abounded ​in that mountainous country. Holes large enough for a living-room are found to-day dug out of the face of a precipice, and so high that in one case the mortar which was used in walling up the front of the excavation mast have been carried up four hundred feet. These retreats were generally in the most inaccessible places, where it would be difficult with all the skill of modern times to build fortifications. Water was sometimes led to these places by a secret pipe; others were supplied by cisterns. In a cemented tank which was recently found in one of these cave-dwellings at the North the print of a little child's hand is seen as plainly as if the small fingers had touched the soft plaster but yesterday. In some cases immense pine trees have grown up amid these ruins, showing how long ago they were forsaken by human beings.
* ↑ Meaning "near the water."
* ↑ The captain sent by Mendoza (the first Spanish viceroy) to search for the famous "Seven Cities" speaks of "excellent good houses of three or four lofts high, wherein are good lodgings and fair chambers, with ladders instead of stairs, and certain cellars (estufas) underground, very good and paved. The seven cities are seven small towns, all made with this kind of houses."