Land without chimneys; or, the byways of Mexico

by Alfred Oscar Coffin

The invisible God, the Cause of Causes, was represented by no image and was confined by no temple. The adjoining sanctuary was dedicated to a milder deity who stood next to God. This was Tezcatlipoca, the creator of the world. His image was represented by a young man, richly garnished with gold ornaments and holding a shield, burnished like a mirror, and in it he saw reflected the doings of the world. In a golden platter he received the bleeding hearts of the sacrifice as his offering. Before these altars burn perpetual fires, attended by Vestal Virgins who took their training in the temple, and whose heads were the price of unchastity. At the birth of a female child, its parents dedicated it to the service of some divinity, and Tepantlohuatzin, the superior general of that district, took charge of her education. Two months after birth she was taken to the temple, and a passion flower, a small censer and a little incense were placed in her hand as a symbol of her future occupation. At five years of age she was placed in the seminary to learn the intricacies of the religion, and those who took the vow had to sacrifice their hair.

Boys dedicated to the priesthood were consecrated to Quetzaleoatl, god of the air. At two years of age, the superior made an incision in the breast, which was a sign of consecration. If a priest was guilty of unchastity, he was beaten to death, and his limbs were cut off and presented to his successor as a warning.

Thirty miles from the city was Teotihuacan, the hill of the gods, where stand the pyramid to Tonateuh the sun, and one to Meztle, the moon. Here kings and priests were elected, ordained and buried, and hither flocked pilgrims from every direction to consult the oracles, to worship in the temples of the sun and moon, and to place sacrificial offerings on the altars of their deities.

The priests were separated by several hierarchical degrees. The first of the supreme pontiffs bore the title of Teoteucli “Divine Lord,” and the next was Hueitcopixqui “High Priest,” and was conferred upon those only of illustrious birth. These high priests were oracles, and war was never undertaken without consulting them. Then came the superior-general of the seminary, the steward of the sanctuary, the hymn-laureate of the feast, sacrificers, diviners and chanters.

Four times a day were the priests required to incense the altars, and burn incense to the sun four times a day and five times at night, The perfumes were liquid styrax, (Liquidambar styraciflua), and copal resin (rhus copallina). The custom of human sacrifice, however, was not always a trait of the Aztec. According to the picture-writing of the Aztecs, the race began its existence somewhere in the misty past, but when and where the deponent sayeth not. It was in 648 A.D., that seven of the Nahuatl tribes left their fatherland, and the other six tribes covered the valley with kingdoms, while the Aztecs in the year 1160, came, in their wanderings, to the shores of the lakes, and stopped at different places, cultivating the soil and building reed huts, but having no place to permanently locate their city. In 1216 they reached Tzompango, (place of bones) which city they afterwards gave the name of Mexicatl, their war-god, and changed their own name from Aztecs to Mexicatls.

Xolotl, king of the Chicimecs, seeing he had nothing to fear from them, permitted them to sojourn in his territory. Not long afterwards an Aztec priest carried off a daughter of a Chicimec general, and they were compelled to leave the country. They fled to the land of the Colhuas, where now stands the castle of Chapultepec. A few years afterwards the Colhuas demanded tribute, and, being unable to pay, the Colhuas reduced them to abject slavery. The Colhuas were soon afterwards conquered by the Xochimilcos, and in desperation called upon their Aztec slaves for assistance. Animated with the hope of their own freedom, the Aztecs completely conquered the Xochimilcos, and celebrated their victory with human sacrifice. The Colhuas, alarmed at the prowess and future possibilities of their slaves, gave them their liberty, and bade them depart from the country. Happy to regain their liberty, they once more set out and settled near the lakes, Tezcoco, Xochimilco, Chalco, and Xaltocan, from which they were never to depart.

Tenoch, their chief, saw a cactus growing upon a rock in an island, and on the cactus an eagle perched, and holding in his talons a serpent. Thinking this a propitious sign they immediately founded a city (1325) and called it Tenochtitlan, “stone and cactus,” and to this day the emblem and coat of arms of Mexico is the eagle on a cactus and holding a serpent in his talons. Here they erected a temple to their war god and went out in search of a victim to sacrifice to offer upon the altar. The only animal found was a Colhuan Indian, and, recognizing in him only one of their old oppressors, they tore out his heart and offered it upon the altar. This led to a war of retaliation and expiation which for two hundred years stained the new capital with blood.

Shut in upon the island, and cut off from the mainland by their enemies, the Aztecs, having no land to cultivate, no textures to make clothing, went naked and ate fish and aquatic plants. In their extremity they made rafts and floored them with reeds, and dug up the mud from the lake and spread it upon the reeds and began the cultivation of flowers and the necessities of life upon these chinampas or floating gardens, which are to be seen to this day. Towed by his canoe, the Aztec gardener could move his farm whenever a quarrelsome neighbor made life a burden.

That was six hundred years ago, when the Mexican nation was small, but they soon outgrew the confines of the island, and, driven to desperation, resolved to conquer the mainland. In 1357 there were thirty powerful cities in the valley, united by a sort of feudal bond, each striving to get the mastery, which was finally gained by the Colhuas. The Mexicans now elected a warrior king, Huitzilihuitl “feather of the humming bird,” who was unmarried. Being a politician, he went to Azcapozalco, (now a suburb of the capital) the capital of the Tepanecs, and asked the king of the Tepanecs for his daughter in marriage, and the formation of an offensive and defensive alliance. This the Tepanec king was glad to do, as he knew the fighting quality of the Mexican. No sooner was this accomplished than the Mexican king went to the principal chiefs in the valley and married into all their families, and the Aztec supremacy had its birth.

Released from the islands, the Mexicans secured cotton cloth for their naked bodies, and carried on a rapid commerce. In 1427, the Mexicans won a naval battle over their enemies on lake Chalco, and built the great causeway across the lake as a military road to Tlacotalpan which exists today. Then they resolved to conquer the city of Azcapozalco, the capital of the Tepanecs, and to do so allied themselves with the Acolhuas in 1428, and in a battle which lasted two days the Mexicans completely subjugated the Tepanecs, and made them allies, subject to the order of their masters.