Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/69

Rh quilted cotton tunic two fingers thick was so much like a coat of mail that the Spaniards were very glad to borrow the cheap and useful fashion. A chief wore his hair cropped above his ears, and a wooden helmet, over which he often stretched the skin of some wild bird or animal, the grinning teeth and fierce eyes of a bear or a tiger surmounting the painted face. The head of an eagle with hooked beak was a favorite device to represent the spirit of the wearer or the name he had won in battle. Lip pendants, ear-rings and other gewgaws were worn if the soldier's means permitted such extravagance. The chief of-men and his associate wore their hair tied with strips of leather colored red with cochineal. The towering plume of green feathers on the helmet was a mark of the highest rank which no other warrior dared to assume. A green stone hung from the bridge of the nose, and the ear-and lip-rings were of wrought gold. Bands of exquisite feather-work encircled the arms, wrists and ankles of the chief. On the field of battle a long tress of feather-work hung from the crown to the girdle. From this was suspended a small drum or horn, which the chief used in making signals to his men. As habits of luxury increased among the Aztecs their chief went out in a splendid litter. Gayly-dressed pages carried a gorgeous canopy over his head; and if obliged to alight, he was supported by chiefs of the highest rank. Cortez declares that these Indian chiefs came out to meet him in battle as they would go to some holiday parade, and that even the hardy Tlascalans had in this respect declined from their republican simplicity.

The army was readily prepared for a march. The common soldier carried his own provision. He had in his pouch corn-cake baked very hard, ground beans and