Page:Mexican Archæology.djvu/204

164 children were regarded as belonging to the mother's family. The Mixtec ceremony was more like that of the Aztec, but besides the tying together of the garments of the couple, it included also the cutting of part of their hair. Polygamy was also practised in this region.

Much of the time of the more settled peoples of Mexico was devoted to agriculture, and even a few of the Chichimec tribes, who had absorbed something of the culture of their more advanced neighbours, reared a little maize which was tended by serfs. 'The Otomi also practised agriculture to some extent. Maize was the most important product of cultivation, and the respect in which it was held is seen in the superstition that if a man saw maize-grains lying on the ground and failed to pick them up, they would cry to the gods for vengeance upon him. Circumstances, chief of which must be reckoned the restriction of territory when they first became settled, led to the development of intensive cultivation among the Aztec, and the invention of the celebrated "floating gardens." These were osier rafts, piled with earth and lake mud, which, so it is said, moved about the surface of the lake until they were finally anchored by the roots of the trees which sprang up on their surface. The properties of manure were known to this people, and it was carefully collected for use in the plantations. The implements of agriculture were simple, consisting of a hoe or a spade and a basket. The heavy work, such as preparing the fields, planting and reaping, was performed by the men, while the women assisted in winnowing the crop and weeding. The fields on the mainland were surrounded with adobe walls or aloe hedges, and the crop was stored in wooden granaries. The Mixtec had the habit, when rain was expected, of breaking the maize-stalks so that the heads hung downward; in this position they were protected by the leaves from excessive moisture, and