unding in Michoacan, for which
"wheat" is the best equivalent I can give. European wheat was, of
course, unknown in the country until after the Conquest.]

[16: The _meson_ of Mexico is a lineal descendant of the Eastern
Caravanserai, and has preserved its peculiarities unchanged for
centuries. It consists of two court-yards, one surrounded by stabling
and the other by miserable rooms for the travellers, who must cook
their food themselves, or go elsewhere for it.]

[17: The Aztecs were accustomed, before the Conquest, to perform dances
as part of the celebration of their religious festivals, and the
missionaries allowed them to continue the practice after their
conversion. The dance in a church, described by Mr. Bullock in 1822,
was a much more genuine Indian ceremony than the one which we saw.

Church-dancing may be seen in Europe even at the present day. The
solemn Advent dances in Seville cathedral were described to me, by an
eyewitness, as consisting of minuets, or some such stately
old-fashioned dances, performed in front of the high altar by boys in
white surplices, with the greatest gravity and decorum.]

[18: This assertion must be qualified by a remark of the Abbe Brasseur
de Bourbourg, who tells us that in some places the Indians still use
lancets of obsidian to bleed themselves with. I believe there is
nothing of the kind to be found in the part of Mexico which we
visited.]

[19: The Aztecs had but one word to denote both gold and silver, as
they afterwards made one serve for both iron and copper. This curious
word _teocuitlatl_ we may translate as "Precious Metal," but it means
literally "Dung of the Gods." Gold was "Yellow Precious Metal," and
silver "White Precious Metal." Lead they called _temetztli_,
"Moon-stone;" and when the Spaniards showed them quicksilver, they gave
it the name of _yoli amuchitl_, "Live Tin."]

[20: It is curious that these latter resemblances (as far as I have
been able to investigate the subject) disappear in the signs of the
Yucatan calendar, though its arrangement is precisely that of the
Mexican. Any one interested in the theory of the Toltecs being the
builders of Palenque and Copan will see the importance of this point.
If the Toltecs ever took the original calendar, with the traces of its
Asiatic origin fresh upon it, down into Yucatan with them, it is at
any rate not to be found there now.]

[21: The Aztec name for an eclipse of the sun is worthy of remark. They
c