tically extinct. Yet before that catastrophe
it may well be that her lot will have been ameliorated, that she will
have emerged from the degradation which even now is the condition of the
greater part of her race and sex, that she will at least have regained
the status which was hers before the encroachments of a new and more
powerful civilization than that which she knew altered for the worse
every condition of her existence. Even this is the less to be hoped for
in that the Eastern tribes, which were most cultured in nearly all
respects, have now fallen by the wayside in nearly all instances, while
the remnants of the Western nations are less adapted to the reception of
higher conditions, since they have behind them few or no traditions
which make for the best tendencies in this wise. None can safely
prophesy of this matter; but, while hope is always permissible, he would
be a rash oracle who would foretell the establishment of the Amerind
woman upon a plane befitting her sex or even the best traditions of her
race.

CHAPTER II

THE WOMEN OF MEXICO

THE story of the women of Mexico, as that country is known to-day,
presents few distinctive features. If that story were confined to the
status of woman as found in the present inhabitants of the country of
the _conquistadores_, there would be but little to tell, since from the
time of the first coming of the Spaniards to the present day there has
been but little change of consequence in the matter with which we are
directly concerned. But the very mention of the name of the Spanish
conquerors recalls a civilization which preceded that which we now
know--a civilization which in various forms has remained impressed upon
the characteristics of Mexico, and one which is therefore of some
importance as well as of the greatest interest to us in our study of the
progress of women in America. That civilization is, of course, that of
the Aztecs, that wonderful race which held Mexico from time
immemorial--or, more strictly, indeterminate--up to the hour when Cortes
and his followers penetrated to their capital and began the work, to
know completion in a few short years, of destroying not only a nation
but a civilization, and one that was in many ways the most remarkable of
which there is record.

It is in no way needful to enter into the detail of general Aztec
sociology. In this work the principal interest is connected with those
social aspects and influences which aff