Page:Mexico of the Mexicans.djvu/198

162 Aztecs still sacrifice their children to the rain-god Tlaloc by throwing them into the Lake of Tezcuco, and it is to be hoped that these tales have no real foundation in fact.

Nowhere, perhaps, can the Aztec race be better studied in its primitive condition than in the vicinity of the town of Tuxpam, in the State of Jalisco and its surrounding district. The people in this vicinity are of medium height, but scarcely of true Aztec physiognomy, and it is possible that there is some racial admixture. They are scrupulously clean in their habits, truthful, and, as a rule, honest, but extremely shy of strangers. They are, however, extremely poor, as the earning capacity of the males is only about 23 cents Mexican per diem. Their inordinate extravagance in the habit of giving feasts—a habit to which all Indians are prone—seems to make it impossible for them to save. The men, too, are sad drunkards, and it is nothing uncommon for them to fritter away their week's wages on a Sunday after having laboured strenuously throughout the week. Their favourite liquor is mescal, a peculiarly deadly compound, which often drives its victims into a frenzy. Indeed, were it not for the patience and industry of their womenkind, it would be difficult to say to what native humanity among the Aztecs of Tuxpam would be reduced. Frequently these wretched women have to toil to clothe both husband and children, and strict supervision and legislation is urgently necessary to lighten their burden. Vegetable gardening is one of the industries in which the Aztec excels. A great deal has been written about the floating gardens or chinampas of the ancient race at the time of the Conquest, and there is every reason to believe that the natives had brought gardening to a high pitch of perfection before the advent of the Spaniard. Indeed, the descriptions given by the conquerors of the wonderful gardens of Montecuhzoma repeatedly state that Spain could boast no such botanical display. The Aztecs, we know, had also a passion for flowers, a taste which is strongly shared by their modern representatives. The flower