avine on the margin of the road, he sees
their depths glowing with the rich blooms and enameled vegetation of the
tropics." This contrast arises from the height he has now gained above
the hot coast region.

The climate on the table-land is only cold in a relative sense, being
mild to Europeans, with a mean temperature at the capital of 60 deg., seldom
lowered to the freezing-point. The "temperate" slopes form the "Paradise
of Mexico," from "the balmy climate, the magnificent scenery, and the
wealth of semitropical vegetation."

The Aztec and Tescucan laws were kept in state records, and shown
publicly in hieroglyphs. The great crimes against society were all
punished with death, including the murder of a slave. Slaves could hold
property, and all their sons were freedmen. The code in general showed
real respect for the leading principles of morality.

In Mexico, as in ancient Egypt,

the soldier shared with the priest the highest consideration. The
king must be an experienced warrior. The tutelary deity of the
Aztecs was the god of war. A great object of military expeditions
was to gather hecatombs of captives for his altars. The soldier who
fell in battle was transported at once to the region of ineffable
bliss in the bright mansions of the sun.... Thus every war became
a crusade; and the warrior was not only raised to a contempt of
danger, but courted it--animated by a religious enthusiasm like
that of the early Saracen or the Christian crusader.

The officers of the armies wore rich and conspicuous uniforms--a
tight-fitting tunic of quilted cotton sufficient to turn the arrows of
the native Indians; a cuirass (for superior officers) made of thin
plates of gold or silver; an overcoat or cloak of variegated
feather-work; helmets of wood or silver, bearing showy plumes, adorned
with precious stones and gold ornaments. Their belts, collars,
bracelets, and earrings were also of gold or silver.

Southey, in his poem, makes his Welsh prince, Madoc, thus boast:

Their mail, if mail it may be called, was woven
Of vegetable down, like finest flax,
Bleached to the whiteness of new-fallen snow,
... Others of higher office were arrayed
In feathery breastplates, of more gorgeous hue
Than the gay plumage of the mountain-cock,
Than the pheasants' glittering pride. But what were these
Or what the thin gold hauberk, when opposed
To arms like ours in battle?