Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/189

 

How the great Montezuma looked, how he dined, his arsenals, his craftsmen and craftswomen, his gardens, aviary, beasts of prey; how we viewed the great market place and what else we saw when we ascended the chief temple.

mighty Montezuma may have been at this time about forty years of age. He was tall and had a slender body of beautiful proportion, and a complexion not very brown but approaching the Indians' in color. He did not wear his hair long, but only so as to cover his ears, and his beard was scanty. His face was rather long, but cheerful, and he had fine eyes which reflected his moods of tenderness and gravity. He was particularly neat in his person and bathed every afternoon. The clothes that he had on one day he did not put on again till after four days.

In halls entering his apartments he had always a guard of over two hundred men, with whom, however, he held no conversation, except to give or receive some intelligence. Whenever they went to speak to him they had first to take off their rich cloaks and put on others of little value, though these