Mexican archæology : $b an introduction to the archæology of the Mexican and Mayan civilizations of pre-Spanish AmericaJoyce, Thomas Athol
History
Mexican archæology : $b an introduction to the archæology of the Mexican and Mayan civilizations of pre-Spanish America
Joyce, Thomas Athol
Mayas -- Antiquities; Mexico -- Antiquities
jewels mounted in gold in the forms of birds and animals. On another
side beads and mirrors are sold, on another, feathers and plumes of
all colours for working designs on garments, and to wear in war or at
festivals. Further on, stone is worked to make razors and swords, a
remarkable thing which passes our understanding; of it they manufacture
swords and roundels. In other places they sell cloth and men’s dresses
of different designs; beyond, dresses for women, and in another part
footgear. A section is reserved for the sale of prepared hides of
deer and other animals; elsewhere are baskets made of hair, such as
all Indian women use. Cotton, grain which forms their food, bread of
all kinds, pastry, fowls, and eggs are sold in different sections;
and hard by they sell hares, rabbits, deer, quails, geese and ducks.
Elsewhere wines of all sorts are for sale, vegetables, pepper, roots,
medicinal plants, which are very numerous in this country, fruits of
all kinds, wood for building, lime and stone. In fact, each object has
its appointed place. Beside this great market-place there are in other
quarters other markets also where provisions may be bought.” Special
magistrates held courts in the market-places to settle disputes on the
spot, and there were market officials similar to our inspectors of
weights and measures. Falsification of the latter was visited with
severe punishment.
The judicial system at Mexico was elaborate and efficient; justice
was administered by a hierarchy of special officials, at the head
of whom stood the Ciuacoatl or Chief Justice. This office, however,
appears to have had its military aspect, in so far as the holder
acted as commander of the Mexican contingent when the confederate
forces went out to battle. The Tlacatecatl also acted as a high
judicial functionary. The judges were selected by the king and highest
officials from past students at the Calmecac, men of middle age full of
experience and of unimpeachable integrity, who were “neither drunkards,
nor amenable to bribes, nor liable to be influenced by favouritism nor
passion.” They received state maintenance, and if convicted of taking
bribes or of delivering unjust sentences were punished with death. Each
of the subject provinces maintained two judges at the three confederate
towns, to whom the rulers assigned lands and service, and the ordinary
courts opened in the morning, as soon as the judges had taken their
seats at the mat-covered tribunal. Their midday meals were brought to
them in court, and, after a short rest, they remained sitting until
two hours before sunset. The high court sat in an apartment in the
palace called Tlacxitlan, and dealt principally with high affairs of
state and matters affecting the higher ranks, though it also pronounced
sentences upon the cases sent up by the lower court. The latter,
composed of representatives of the calpulli, also sat in the palace,
in a room called Teccalli, and dealt with the affairs of the general
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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