e of gold and copper, and produced a good quality of pottery. They
had learned the art of decorating the pottery, and their temples also
were done in colors and in bas-relief. They had developed a language
of merit and had a hieroglyphic expression of the same. They had a
distinct mythology, comprising myths of the sun and of the origin of
various tribes, the origin of the earth and of man. They had developed
the idea of charity, and had a system of caring for the poor, with
hospitals for the sick. Notwithstanding this altruistic expression,
they offered human sacrifices of maidens to their most terrible god.

As before stated, there were many tribes, consequently many languages,
although some of them were near enough alike that members of different
tribes could be readily understood. Also the characteristic traits
varied in different tribes. It is not known whence they came, although
their tradition points to the origin of the northwest. Undoubtedly,
each tribe had a myth of its own origin, but, generally speaking, they
all came from the northwest. Without doubt, at the time of the coming
of the Spaniards, the tribes were non-progressive except in {192}
government. The coming of the Spaniards was a rude shock to their
civilization, and with a disintegration of the empire, the spirit of
thrift and endeavor was quenched. They became, as it were, slaves to a
people with so-called higher civilization, who at least had the tools
with which to conquer if they had not higher qualities of human
character than those of the conquered.

_The Earliest Centres of Civilization in Mexico_.--Prior to the
formation of the empire of the Aztecs, conquered by the Spaniards,
there existed in Mexico centres of development of much greater
antiquity. The more important among these were Yucatan and Mitla. A
large number of the ruins of these ancient villages have been
discovered and recorded. The groups of people who developed these
contemporary civilizations were generally known as Toltecs. The Maya
race, the important branch of the Toltecs, which had its highest
development in Yucatan, was supposed to have come from a territory
northeast of Mexico City, and traces of its migrations are discovered
leading south and east into Yucatan. It is not known at what period
these developments began, but probably their beginnings might have been
traced back to 15,000 years, although the oldest known tablet found
gives a record of 202 ye