ulture, and the arts of government.
Prescott remarks that

he was doubtless one of those benefactors of their species who have
been deified by the gratitude of posterity.

There was a remarkable tradition of Quetzalcoatl, preserved among the
Mexicans, that he had been a king, afterward a god, and had a temple
dedicated to his worship at Cholula[16] when on his way to the Mexican
Gulf. Embarking there, he bade his people a long farewell, promising
that he and his descendants would revisit them. The expectation of his
return prepared the way for the success of the tall white-skinned
invaders.

[Footnote 16: The ruins were referred to in chap, iv, (_v._ p. 84, also
130.)]

In the Aztec agriculture, the staple plant was of course the _maize_ or
Indian corn. Humboldt tells us that at the conquest it was grown
throughout America, from the south of Chile to the River St. Lawrence;
and it is still universal in the New World. Other important plants on
the Aztec soil were the _banana_, which (according to one Spanish
writer) was the forbidden fruit that tempted our poor mother Eve; the
_cacao_, whose fruit supplies the valuable chocolate; the _vanilla_,
used for flavoring; and most important of all, the _maguey_, or Mexican
aloe, much valued because its leaves were manufactured into paper, and
its juice by fermentation becomes the national intoxicant, "pulque." The
_maguey_, or great Mexican aloe, grown all over the table-land, is
called "the miracle of nature," producing not only the _pulque_, but
supplying _thatch_ for the cottages, _thread_ and _cords_ from its tough
fiber, _pins_ and _needles_ from the thorns which grow on the leaves, an
excellent _food_ from its roots, and _writing-paper_ from its leaves.
One writer, after speaking of the "pulque" being made from the "maguey,"
adds, "with what remains of these leaves they manufacture excellent and
very fine cloth, resembling holland or the finest linen."

The _itztli_, formerly mentioned as being used at the sacrifices by the
officiating priest, was "obsidian," a dark transparent mineral, of the
greatest hardness, and therefore useful for making knives and razors.
The Mexican sword was serrated, those of the finest quality being of
course edged with itztli. Sculptured figures abounded in every Aztec
temple and town, but in design very inferior to the ancient specimens of
Egypt and Babylonia, not to mention Greece. A remarkable collection of
their sculptured i