Page:Mexican Archæology.djvu/166

128 and face unwashed, except at intervals of eighty days, during their absence. They started out in a large body, merchants from various towns combining to form a caravan, as far as Tochtepec. There they divided, some going to Anauac Ayotlan, others to Anauac Xicalanco (southern Vera Cruz and Tabasco). When they returned, often after years of absence, they awaited a favourable day to enter their city, such as 1. calli, or 7. calli, when their home-coming was celebrated by a banquet and various religious ceremonies. Each merchant carried a staff, which was regarded as the image of the god Yacatecutli, and received offerings in his name. When on the march, the company of merchants at night tied their staves together, and offered incense before them, at the same time making blood-offerings from their ears and tongues.

The extraordinary facility with which nomadic hunting tribes adopt a trading profession has many parallels in Africa, where the interests of the wandering merchant are similarly guarded. Just as violence against one of the Pochteca inevitably resulted in a punitive expedition, so in times past the murder of a Bushongo trader by a Basongo Meno village would result in the extermination of the latter, and, at the present day, the death of a Badjok merchant would be similarly avenged by his compatriots. Mexican trade was for the most part carried on by means of direct exchange, and the result provides many difficulties to the archæologist. Once a town became famous for any kind of manufacture, the work of its artisans became spread far and wide, so that the discovery of objects of a particular style in a certain locality can by no means be taken necessarily to indicate that that style is characteristic of the site. Even pottery, which provides such valuable evidence in other parts, is not exempt from suspicion, since the ware of Cholula constituted an important article of export from that town. Certain articles