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68 rattle, which they sounded in token of rejoicing that they were the fathers of such braves. Along the road were erected bowers decked with the choicest flowers to be gathered in that flowery land.

In 1497 a great army was sent out by the confederated tribes. It went far southward to Tehuantepec, and came back loaded with plunder and with multitudes of captives. Some of the ruined cities now found in those solitudes may then have been laid waste, but no record remains to tell of the scenes of carnage and rapine which must have marked this campaign. The confederates afterward ravaged all the Totonac region as far east as the Gulf coast, swept it clean and recolonized it with their own people.

The victors in the tribal wars cared not to change the customs or the laws of a subjugated people; all they asked was tribute, and the question was often settled in one battle. When this was concluded by the burning of the teocallis—the signal of surrender—the amount and kind of articles of tribute and the time when this was to be paid were immediately arranged. The vanquished party were henceforth watched with jealous care by a taxgatherer appointed by the victor; a house was set apart for his use and as a place of storage for the tribute until it should be sent away. Some tribes paid their tribute every eighty days, and others once a year. This tribute money was sometimes borne to the capital on the backs of human victims who had been chosen by lot to suffer for the tribe on the altars of the conqueror. These sad processions must have been a common sight even in the few peaceful days known among these war-loving people.

After each fresh conquest the Aztecs adorned their city with a new temple, bearing the name of the conquered