ARTS AND CUSTOMS OF THE AZTECS.

Temuka Leader, Volume I, Issue 89, 23 October 1878, Page 3

ARTS AND CUSTOMS OF THE AZTECS.

The records of the country were kept in a kind of picture-writing not unlike the Egyptian hieroglyphics. In addition to these picture-writings and the aid of tradition, history was preserved by old men, whose duty it was to keep important events, genealogies, &c., in their memory, and to draw upon it whenever required by the exigencies of the State, or of private individuals authorised to call upon these primitive historians. They had orators and prose writers, and picture writing ever aimed at the perpetuation of the effort of the Aztec poets. They had also national music, and a variety of musical instruments, such as trumpets, whistles of bone and clay, horns of large sea-shells, flutes, drums, and stringed instruments. Theatrical performances were given in the open air, the stage being covered with the foliage of trees. All the performers wore masks, as they still do in China and at the 11 medicine feasts ” of the present North American aborigines, and all the theatrical performances were connected with religious. rites. Occasionally the merchants would give performances at the Temple disguised as beetles, frogs, birds, butterflies, &c. — the play being usually pantomimic, mingled with recitations, the whole masquerade ending in a dance. . . . Mining, metallurgy, casing, engraving, chasing, and carving on wood and metal were arts in which tlie Aztecs were most expert ; while in looms of the simplest construction they manufactured cotton cloth of exquisite fineness, and interwove it with rabbit fur and feathers^—which supplies the place of silk—and painted or dyed the fabric in gay colors. The garments made of this fabric were magnificent to a degree beyond any made in America. Buying and selling were carried on in the public square, there being no shops. Earthenware was manufactured extensively, and some of what still remains is painted in showy colours and designs. There being no beasts of burden in Mexico, everything was carried on men’s backs or in vessels on the lakes, where the number of boats and ships of every description is said to have been marvellous.