Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/64

58 confirmed dyspeptic, which may in part account for his gloomy views of life at this time.

The Mexicans seem to have had no written laws. It is said that in early times their laws were so few that everybody knew them by heart. In later days a record was kept of suits in law, and the decisions given in these cases served as precedents. Thus was established a common law founded on long usage. The despotic decrees of the council were often given after consulting the priests, who were the oracles of the tribe. When the gods had decided, there was no appeal. A number of such cases occurred in the troublous times when the Aztecs were at war with the Spaniards. It is said that all the wisdom of the great Hungry Fox could not avail in a controversy with these priests. The chief loathed the worship of Humming-Bird and sought to bring his people back to the altars of the Toltecs. But in vain. The oracles declared that all the troubles in which the tribe were then plunged were due to the neglect of human sacrifices, and it was decided that henceforth the cruel war-god should have his fill of them.

The punishment of crime was most severe. Every petty theft was punished by the temporary enslavement of the culprit to the person he had wronged, or by death. Stealing a tobacco-pouch or twenty ears of corn or pilfering in the market-place was thus atoned for. In the latter case the thief was clubbed to death on the spot. Any one who was guilty of stealing gold offended Xipe, the patron god of those who worked in the precious metals; he was therefore doomed to be skinned alive before the altar of this deity. The effect of these severe laws against robbery was everywhere seen in treasures being left unguarded. A man who died drunk was dressed for