owards proving a more or less remote connection
between the inhabitants of the two continents.

There is another side to the question, however, as has been stated
already. How could the Mexicans have had these traditions and customs
from the Old World, and not have got the knowledge of some of the
commonest arts of life from the same source? As I have said, they do
not seem to have known the proper way of putting the handle on to a
stone-hammer; and, though they used bronze, they had not applied it to
making such things as knives and spear-heads. They had no beasts of
burden; and, though there were animals in the country which they
probably might have domesticated and milked, they had no idea of
anything of the kind. They had oil, and employed it for various
purposes, but had no notion of using it or wax for burning. They
lighted their houses with pine-torches; and in fact the Aztec name for
a pine-torch--_ocotl_--was transferred to candles when they were
introduced.

Though they were a commercial people, and had several substitutes for
money--such as cacao-grains, quills of gold-dust, and pieces of tin of
a particular shape, they had no knowledge of the art of weighing
anything, but sold entirely by tale and measure. This statement, made
by the best authorities, their language tends to confirm. After the
Conquest they made the word _tlapexouia_ out of the Spanish "peso," and
also gave the meaning of weighing to two other words which mean properly
_to measure_ and _to divide equally_. Had they had a proper word of
their own for the process, we should find it. The Mexicans scarcely ever
adopted a Spanish word even for Spanish animals or implements, if they
could possibly make their own language serve. They called a sheep an
_ichcatl_, literally a "_thread-thing_," or "_cotton_": a gun a
"_fire-trumpet_:" and sulphur "_fire-trumpet-earth_." And yet, a people
ignorant of some of the commonest arts had extraordinary knowledge of
astronomy, and even knew the real cause of eclipses,[21] and represented
them in their sacred dances.

Set the difficulties on one side of the question against those on the
other, and they will nearly balance. We must wait for further evidence.

Our friend Don Jose Miguel Cervantes, the President of the
Ayuntamiento, took us one day to see the great prison of Mexico, the
Acordada. As to the prison itself, it is a great gloomy building, with
its rooms and corridors arranged round two courtyards,