Fig. 29.—The education of children.
Left. Girl learning to spin, and boy being shown the use of fishing-implements; age 7 years; daily ration a loaf and a half.
Right. Girl being punished with aloe-spines (age 9 years, omitted); boy being held over a fire of pepper (age 11 years, omitted). Same daily ration.
(Mendoza MS., Oxford)
The birth of a child was awaited with great expectancy, and the prospective mother was carefully guarded from all material and supernatural dangers. The steam-bath was an important institution in promoting ease of delivery, and invocations were made to the gods presiding over birth and creation. The child born, the midwife raised the triumph-cry of the warriors, since the woman who bore a child was regarded as the feminine counterpart of such, and congratulatory visits were paid by friends and relations. A fire was lighted in the house and kept burning for four days; great care was observed that no light from this should be taken outside the house, since it was believed that the luck of the household would follow it, and a number of other precautions were observed. The horoscope of the infant, a most important matter, was cast by a priest, and a day appointed for the baptismal ceremony, a lucky date being carefully selected. This ceremony consisted in sprinkling the infant with water, and giving it a name. Although the water was supposed to have the effect of purifying the child and fortifying it against the perils of life, yet the Mexicans held no doctrine of “original sin,” in fact, the midwife addressed the newly born in the terms, “When you were created and sent into this world you were made without stain, and your father and mother Quetzalcoatl formed you even as a precious stone and as a jewel of gold of great price.” In the case of a boy, miniature weapons were prepared for the ceremony, as an indication that he was born a warrior, while for a girl a small set of weaving-utensils was made, the symbols of her future status as a housewife. Sahagun states that some ancestral name was given by the midwife, and other accounts allege that the name was first pronounced by certain small children invited for the purpose. Calendrical names, taken from the child’s birthday, were very common, especially among the Mixtec, but names of animals were often conferred upon boys, of flowers upon girls. Animal names were especially common among the Tarascans. Children, no matter what their rank, were usually nursed by the mother for three or four years, but in cases of inability, a wet-nurse was carefully chosen. Children were educated with great care and according to certain rules. One manuscript shows the progress of children of both sexes, together with the number of bread-cakes allowed for their diet, from the ages of three to fifteen (Fig. [29]). The punishments applicable to each year are also shown, starting with a warning, and proceeding to pricking with aloe-spines, beating, holding over a fire on which pepper had been thrown, and tying hand and foot. Parents were in the habit of preaching long homilies to their children, which, however interesting they may be as illustrating the extremely high moral tone of Mexican educational ideas, must have been excessively boring to the child. The Mexicans were greatly addicted to moral discourses, as may be seen from the work of Sahagun, whole pages of which are devoted to the quotation in full of the orations appropriate to particular occasions of public and private interest. Boys as a rule followed the profession of their father, while girls received a thorough training in the domestic arts, such as spinning and weaving and the preparation of food. The part played by the institutions Calmecac and Telpochcalli in the education of the young has already been mentioned.
Marriage took place at about the age of twenty in the case of men, girls being a trifle younger. Inter-marriage was allowed between cousins, but forbidden in the case of nearer relatives. The service of female go-betweens was employed by the parents of the man, and it was not considered consonant with a proper dignity for the woman’s family to show too much haste in consenting to the match. On the appointed day, selected owing to the auspicious nature of its sign, the go-between carried the bride to the house of the bridegroom, where, after offering incense, the two were seated side by side on a mat, and their garments knotted by a priest. The inevitable homily followed, and then a feast, and the couple observed a fast for four or more days, at the end of which the marriage might be consummated. In some cases a couple might live in concubinage by consent of their parents, and in the event of a child being born, either a marriage was celebrated or the woman returned to the house of her parents with the infant, which was regarded as belonging to her family. Otherwise children belonged to the man and inherited from him, those of the chief wife (for polygamy, limited by the man’s means, was practised) having precedence. It was usual for the eldest son in these cases to make some provision for his brothers and their families. When a man married he left the educational establishment where he formerly lived, after asking permission of his superiors and making certain gifts. As a rule widows could not remarry, except with a brother-in-law; divorce was possible with the consent of a magistrate, and the couple could under no circumstances be reunited. Among the Otomi divorce was allowed after the first night of married life, but not later. The Chichimec practised monogamy, and no intermarriage could take place between individuals who were related. Among the Tarascans however, especially those of rank, different ideas prevailed, and endogamy was the rule. Even among commoners, if a girl had given herself to a man against the will of her parents, the union was regarded as legal only if he belonged to the same ward as herself. In normal cases the girl was simply handed over to her suitor by the priest, together with the gift of a wood-cutting axe and the necessary mats and cord for wood-carrying, and a feast followed. The difference between the marriage rules of the Tarascans and Aztec seems accompanied by another sociological divergence, in so far as there are indications that among the former the children were regarded as belonging to the mother’s family. The Mixtec ceremony was more like that of the Aztec, but besides the tying together of the garments of the couple, it included also the cutting of part of their hair. Polygamy was also practised in this region.
Much of the time of the more settled peoples of Mexico was devoted to agriculture, and even a few of the Chichimec tribes, who had absorbed something of the culture of their more advanced neighbours, reared a little maize which was tended by serfs. The Otomi also practised agriculture to some extent. Maize was the most important product of cultivation, and the respect in which it was held is seen in the superstition that if a man saw maize-grains lying on the ground and failed to pick them up, they would cry to the gods for vengeance upon him. Circumstances, chief of which must be reckoned the restriction of territory when they first became settled, led to the development of intensive cultivation among the Aztec, and the invention of the celebrated “floating gardens.” These were osier rafts, piled with earth and lake mud, which, so it is said, moved about the surface of the lake until they were finally anchored by the roots of the trees which sprang up on their surface. The properties of manure were known to this people, and it was carefully collected for use in the plantations. The implements of agriculture were simple, consisting of a hoe or a spade and a basket. The heavy work, such as preparing the fields, planting and reaping, was performed by the men, while the women assisted in winnowing the crop and weeding. The fields on the mainland were surrounded with adobe walls or aloe hedges, and the crop was stored in wooden granaries. The Mixtec had the habit, when rain was expected, of breaking the maize-stalks so that the heads hung downward; in this position they were protected by the leaves from excessive moisture, and were easily dried by the sun and wind. Next to maize, cotton, cacao, aloe, pepper, and the grain called chia were the most important plants, though the first three could be grown only in districts where the climate was hot. Hunting, both individually and in communal drives, was practised by all the tribes, and the Mexicans generally were expert trackers and huntsmen. We hear of one drive organized for the Spaniards in which eleven thousand Otomi beaters took part, embracing a circle of fifteen miles. The chief weapons employed were bows, darts, blow-guns, nets and snares. Fishing was equally important, in fact more so among the tribes in the neighbourhood of lakes, nets and tridents being the principal appliances used. The invention of these was attributed to the god Opochtli, one of the Tlaloque. Fowling also gave employment to a large number of the population and contributed greatly to the food-supply.
Fig. 30.—Tlaxtli-court and players.