"some commending the feast, and others
condemning the bad taste or extravagance of their host, in the same
manner as with us."

While the home discipline of children, like that in the public schools,
was of a very severe type, the relations of the Aztec maiden to her
parents, after she had arrived at maturity, were of the closest and
tenderest description. They enjoined upon her, with loving solicitude
for her well-being and felicity, simplicity of manners and conversation,
personal neatness, modesty of demeanor, and reverence for her husband
when she became a wife. They showed her an affection and consideration
which were in conformity with the highest type of social culture, and in
return were regarded and treated with respect and love.

When the maiden finally attained the dignity of wifehood, her condition
was hardly changed. She received from her husband the utmost respect of
demeanor, and she was--of course we are considering the women of the
upper classes--freed from all obligation of service. She had maidens to
wait upon her and to do the tasks of the household, over which she ruled
much as did a feudal chatelaine in the days of chivalry in Europe; and a
favorite amusement with the Aztec wives consisted in listening to their
maidens rehearse traditionary tales and ballads. When there came to her
the further dignity of motherhood, she was the recipient of
congratulatory visits from her friends and neighbors--male as well as
female--from whom she received gifts of dresses, ornaments, or flowers,
in token of sympathy and regard. These visits of ceremony were regulated
by a code, unwritten but as thoroughly understood and binding as that
which regulates similar forms in our own social world. In short, the
Aztec woman, whether as maiden, wife, or mother, received universal
acknowledgment of her rightful place in the structure of society and was
in almost all respects the peer of her Caucasian sister in status and
indeed in civilization. Most of what has thus far been written is
applicable to the women of the lower classes as well as to their richer
and more cultured countrywomen, at least so far as concerns the
estimation in which they were held and their place in the household and
in their appropriate society. Of course, even as with us, the women of
the lower classes labored; but their labors were as a rule not severe.
The Aztecs were primarily an agricultural people, and their women
assisted in the toil necessary