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 AZOTUS

169

AZTECS

voted to vineyards is about 9500 acres (nearly 15 square miles), producing nearly 1,000,000 gallons of «ine annually. Wheat and a large variety and abundance of fruits are grown in the valleys. Some 6000 men are emploj^ed in the fisheries, and the value of their annual catch amoimts to about .?175,000. The populations of Terceira, Sao Jorge, and Graciosa, numbering about 72,000, manufacture cheese, butter, soap, linens, -n-oolens, bricks, and tiles; in Fayal, Pico, Flores, and Corvo a population of 58,000 are chiefly engaged in basket- weaving and the fashioning of small fancy articles from the pith of the fig tree. The latest available statistics give the total of ship- ping annually clearing and entering all the ports of the Azores as 2,052,792 tons, with a total value of exports and imports §1,050,000.

The people are, with rare exceptions. Catholics. Werner (Orbis Terrarum Catholicus, s. v.) says that there are only about 100 Protestants and 30 Jews in the whole Diocese of Angra. This diocese contains 110 parishes and many subsidiary churches and chapels; the cathedral of Angra, under the invocation of the Saviour (Sao Salvador) has its full staff of dignitaries and a chapter of twelve canons, and there is a seminary which prepares 120 students for the priesthood. The secular clergy mmiber 353 besides which there are eight religious houses in Terceira and fifteen, including four convents of female re- ligious, in Sao Miguel. The population of the cathe- dral city is about 11,000, that of Punta Delgada, in Sao Miguel, exceeding it by about 6000.

Welte in Kirchentex., I, 1776: Werner, Orb. Terr. Cath.; Grande Enc. s. v. A(ores; Enc. Brt(annica(1902). Ill and XXVI; Mees, Hist, de la decouverU des lies Fortunees (Paris, 1901). E. M.\CPHERSON.

Azotus. (Heb. Ashdodh; m Sept. "Afwros.) (1) One of the five great cities of the Philistines (Jos., xiii, 3), the modern Esdud, situated three miles from the Mediterranean Sea, about half-way between Gaza and Jaffa. The temple of Dagon, whither the Ark of the Covenant was carried by the Philistines, was situated here (I K., v, 1-5; I Mach., x, 83; xi, 4). Azotus, like other Philistine cities, sufferer; varying fortunes in the wars with Israel, Assyria, and Egypt. Ozias fought against it (II Paral., xxvi, 6), Sargon besieged and took it (Isaias, xx, 1; Schrader, "Kei- Unschriftliche Bibliothck ", II 66-67), and Sennache- rib did likewise (Schrader, op. cit., II, 90-91). According to Herodotus, Psammetichus besieged the city for twenty years. In 163 b. c. Judas Machabeus cleared Azotus of idols (I Mach., v, 68), and in 148 B. c. Jonathan and Simon burnt the temple of Dagon (I Mach., x, 83-84). To-day Esdud is a modern village, with many ruins attesting its glorious past. In the New Testament Azotus is mentioned in connexion with Philip's return from Gaza (.\cts, viii, 40). (2) The mountain to which Bacchides pursued the Jews in battle (I Mach., ix, 15). F. X. E. Albert.

Azotus, a titular see of Palestine, near the sea- coast, between Jaffa and Ascalon. Its episcopal list (325-536) is given in Gams (452). It is the Ashdod of the Book of Josue (xv, 47), was one of the five principal cities of the Philistines, and the chief seat of the worslup of their god Dagon (I Sam., V, 1-7). Herodotus mentions it (II, 157) as having withstood King Psammetichus of Egypt in a siege of twenty-nine years, the longest then known.

I.F.yuiES, Oriena Chritt. (17401, III. 059-662; Robertson, Bihlieal Researches, II, 368; Vigouroux in Diet, de la Bible, 8. V. Azot,

Thomas J. Sh.\h.vn.

Aztecs, probably from Azlatl (heron), and Tlacatl (man), "people of the heron ", in the Nahuatl, or Mexican, language of Mexico, a surname applied to the tribe of the Mexica, or Chichimeca Mexitin (whence Mexico and Mexicans), a ramification of

the Nahuatl linguistic stock which occupied aboriginal Mexico, in more or less contiguous groups, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, when the Span- iards first came into contact with them. The Mexica proper held only a group of islands about the centre of Lake Tezcuco, and one or two minor settlements on the shore. In 1519 the tribe numbered about thirty thousand souls of all ages and sexes, and was able to put into the field eight thousand warriors. By far the greater part of the population was concen- trated in the central settlement called Tenochtitlan (from tetl, "stone ", nocktli, "prickly pear ", and Uan, "place", or "site"), which was founded, as is gener- ally admitted, about the year A. D. 1325. Until their settlement upon the lake, the history of the Me.xican tribe is uncertain. Data, in the shape of picture-wTitings, are fragmentary, except such as were executed in the sixteenth century by Indians, under the impulse of the viceroys or of ecclesi- astics. These documents record constant shiftings of the tribe from points which are as yet undeter- mined, like .\ztlan (Place of the Heron) and Chico- moztoc (Seven Caves). These places are by most authorities located north of Mexico, and some colour is given to the assumption by the relationship traced between the Nahuatl language of Mexico and Nica- ragua and the Shoshonian idioms of the North-west.

The Mexicans were the last of the Nahuatl-speaking Indians to reach the shore of the great Lake of Mexico. They found the valley occupied by several tribes of the same stock, and were received by these as intrusive destitutes. Thrust back and forth among these tribes for a number of years, and ex- posed to great sufferings, the feeble remnants of the Mexicans finally sought refuge on some sandy patches that protruded into the middle of the lake, and here they found, if not ab-solute, at least comparati\e, security. While in the beginning they had to sub- sist on aquatic food (fish and insects), they began to slowly increase in numbers. There being little space for tillage, they imitated a device in use among the tribe of Chalco; the construction of rafts which they covered with soil, and thus secured vegetable diet. Timber being obtainable only on the main- land, they resorted to adobe for the construction of shelters, and a settlement was gradually built up which gave promise of stability. Soon after their establishment in the lake, the Mexican tribe was composed of two groups; one of these was Tenoch- titlan, the other bore the name of Tlaltelolco. Each of them having its own government, hostilities be- came inevitable, resulting in the defeat of the Tlaltelolco people. For some time after, the latter were held in a kind of servitude, imtil mutual re- sentment commenced to wear off. The overthrow of Tlaltelolco took place at the beginning of the fifteenth century, which is as near a date as we ven- ture to assign, too close precision in dates previous to the conriuest not being advisable as yet.

In the meantime, the other tribes speaking the Nahuatl idiom, who were established on the main- land (Tezcuco, Tlacopan, Atzcapozalco, Xochimilco, Chalco, etc.), alternately at peace and at war with each other, had not paid much attention to the Mexicans. About the time of the overthrow of Tlaltelolco, the Tecpanecas of Atzcapozalco obtained decidedly the upper hand and exacted tribute and servitude of their neighbours. They finally attempted to overrun the Aztecs also, and were successful for a short time, but the latter, directed by their war- chief, Moctecuzoma Ilhuicamina, and his colleague, the C^ihuacohuatl Tlacaellel, formed an alliance with the tribes of Tezcuco and defeated the Tecpanecas, reducing them to a minimum of influence in the valley. Out of this alliance arose, in the middle of the fifteenth century, a formal league between the Me.xicans, the tribe of Tezcuco, and that of Tlacopan,