Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/68

62 same kind of men in war-time. We can readily believe in the savage orgies held in the splendid square of Tlatililco when we remember the impurity and cruelty of old Rome when her warriors, builders and poets, her historians and statesmen, were moulding a civilization which made her the mistress of the world.

When the great snake-drum on the temple sounded the call to arms, the warriors from fifteen years old and upward gathered at the armory or house of darts belonging to their calpulli, where the weapons of their clan were kept. We have pictures of the armor they wore which correspond with the descriptions given by Cortez and his soldiers. The spear was their main weapon. It was made of hard and elastic cane, with flint points fastened into a slit at the end with gum and the strong fibres of the maguey. The spear sometimes had several of these flint tips. Their swords were made of tough wood, with grooves cut along the edge, in which was inserted a hard stone whose sharp edge was easily broken, but which cut like a blade of the finest steel. The bow was made of cane, and the arrows were carried in a quiver on the shoulder. They also had slings for throwing stones, which they used very skillfully. Shields were made of canes netted together, [sic]inwoven with cotton, encased with gilded boards and decorated with feathers. These were carried on the left arm, and were so hard that the Spaniards found that nothing but the arrows from their crossbows could pierce them.

Every warrior, from the chief-of-men down to the rank and file, was painted. The common soldier sometimes had scarcely any other dress than the colors of his clan, fancifully applied to face and body; at best, he went to the field with head, feet and arms bare. A