The sun., 1900-08-19

! tlnuously reohonod In dayy on the basis OF 800
! 10 tho year and divided into periods OF twenty.
1 marking the sequence Of religious ana oiVh
duties annual calendars Inscribed on papers
and skins wero In common use. and chrono-
logical records carried the knowledge OF events
back through the historical past far into The
region Of fable. Such documents when IN
tended 10 be kept permanently we're often
executed with extraordinary care they exhibit
great skin In drawing and some sense OF hhr-
mony In colorlng: the Mexican draushtsmen
were undcniably inspired by the genius of their
art. though originality was checked by the
conventional forms which they commonly
adopted. pinurds Of r,ider execution served
u describe matters Of minor or temporary I'M
portance, Photographic symbols denotlng the
vloonary series Of numbers assisted In calcu-
laton Lastly. together with the species ana
quantity 81 the tributes payable by the various
pueblos. the proper name Of each pueblo was
plctorlaly recorded. though only In "A rude ana
tentative fashion. the Photographic art had
thus been pursued 10 the threshold Of It's final
stage, In which II turns from the representa-
ton Of things TO the representation OF the words
by which things are denoted. At this point
Its progress was arrested The Nshuataca
had nothing in the nature Of a general sylla-
barry. much less an alphabet; analysis Of tho
puOhrhC titIHthN6 NdS uiihuoNhi h'i AAAe
they any means Of vlsibly recording the simplest
grammatical sentence
In vivid contrast to these remarkable proofs
OF progress nothing can be clearer than the
fact that. substantially, the advancement OF
Mexico rested for support on a system OF per-
petual extortion from defenceless tributaries
and system OF perpetual war remorselessly
maintained against neighboring peoples, os-
tensiby TO procure victims for sacrifice, but
really to provide animal food for consumption
by the privileged class engaged in IT, and tho
religious ritual had been so expanded as 10
insure for them, by a sacred and permanent
sanction. an almost continuous cannibal car
nival This last feature throws a deep shadow
over the latest Nahuatlacan advancement and
seems painfully incongruous with It's high grade
Of general progress. But Anahuac IL must
be remembered, was devoid OF large animals
capable OF furnishing a regular supply OF labor
power and food In both respects man had
here 20 fulhl an economic function assigned
elsewhere to the brutes Hence human energy,
In Mexico alone among advanced communities,
was largely sustained by, feeding on human
necessary. auxiliary II the more revolving
Of these facts is usually absent from nasoent
civilization 1t is because nature had elsewhere
provided cheap and abundant substitutes for
human flesh considered as an article Of food.
That this organized cannibalism fortified by
religious sanction was, IN fact natural, Il net
Gated by the fact that from Mexico. where Il was
admittedly first developed II spread to all the
great dominant puehos OF Anahuac. II was
introduced into Tezcuco against the will Of
Il head chief, who personally adhered to the
more rational and less sanguinnry. religion OF
his forefathers II was adopted In other
ppeblos, notably IN Tlaxcas an and Cholula,
whore the ancient To lteo god. Quetzslcohuat
who had once refused human saorifces was
worshipped at tho Conquest with rites borrowed
from the religion Of the sangu1ary god,
Te,catlitoca and there, is little doubt that it
existed among the warllke Tarasca Of Mechoa-
can. who~e rosistanoe checked the extension
Of tho Mexican dominion on the west To
the eastward beyond the isthmus Of TehuH1te-
pee among the descendants OF the Toltec-
IN the lntsrior Of Yucatan, II seems never to
have penetrated though 1t WAS found IN the
more recent Sahuatlacan settlement, on the
coast The Mexicans. indeed. were uneaSily
conscious that YucHtaa was the seat OF powerful
tribs'. who stni obeyed the ancient Tolteo
deity, whom TezcstlitOca had eupplanted:
and a belief WIS current among them At the
Conquest that he would one day return at the
head of his followers to destroy the dominion
OF the lake pueblos together with the odous
religion by which II was supported. The same
belief was cherished by the Totomacs ot tho
coast. who sroaned under tho Mexican yoke.
and both these and their Mexican masters
AT first recognized the Spaniard. us the long
expected newcomers who would overthrow
the hateful system Of eItortion and cannibal-
ism which Anahuao impatienuy endured, and
restore II 10 freedom and the worship OF
OuetZalCOluutl