The people were encouraged to become producers, especially in the matter of agriculture. This branch of industry was closely studied, and, considering the disadvantages labored under by the farmer in the absence of draft animals, was very successfully conducted. They appeared to understand the management of the ground, the dryness of which was relieved by irrigation.
The principal products of the farm were maize, cacao (chocolate), and a variety of garden vegetables--the food supply--while cotton and maguey furnished the material from which various kinds of cloth and paper were produced, and we are told the land teemed with an abundance thereof.
Slavery existed in various phases, the conditions being fixed according to the circumstances governing the case. Much of the labor was, of course, done by this class of persons.
The forests were carefully preserved and heavy penalties imposed to prevent their destruction.
The men were not permitted to pass their time in idleness, but were furnished employment by the government in the promotion of public improvements, such as the building of great aqueducts and highways, and expansive public edifices, palaces and temples, an example of public economy worthy of imitation by the more enlightened people of the world.
Polygamy was practiced according to the means and inclination of the individual. It was mostly confined to the nobility, however.
With all their severity the laws protected a man completely in his personal rights, not only as a proprietor and master, but as a slave.
The marriage relation was regarded with the greatest reverence and adhered to with fidelity.
The sovereign was especially protected in his marital affairs, death being visited upon the man who in the least degree usurped his place in the affections of a wife or one chosen to be a wife, and the woman concerned, we infer, was not held guiltless, but on the other hand was counted _particeps criminis_.
With these few references and the information with which the narrative abounds, the reader, we feel, will be enabled to proceed intelligently and with satisfaction in its perusal.
In a private and secluded apartment of his ancestral palace sat Huälc[=o]y[=o]tl,[1] the then reduced prince of Tezcuco, deeply engrossed in the mysteries of some hieroglyphical manuscript lying on a table before him. While thus engaged, his personal servant, Oz[=a], appeared at the door of his apartment, and paused in an attitude of waiting. The prince, happening to look up, saw him, and said: