ernment, and certain branches of astronomical and natural science.

In the education of their children the Mexican community were very
strict, but from a letter preserved by one of the Spanish historians, we
can not doubt the womanly affection of a mother who thus wrote to her
daughter:

My beloved daughter, very dear little dove, you have already heard
and attended to the words which your father has told you. They are
precious words, which have proceeded from the bowels and heart in
which they were treasured up; and your beloved father well knows
that you, his daughter, begotten of him, are his blood and his
flesh; and God our Lord knows that it is so. Although you are a
woman, and are the image of your father, what more can I say to you
than has already been said?... My dear daughter, whom I tenderly
love, see that you live in the world in peace, tranquillity, and
contentment--see that you disgrace not yourself, that you stain not
your honor, nor pollute the luster and fame of your ancestors....
May God prosper you, my first-born, and may you come to God, who is
in every place.[10]

[Footnote 10: Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva Espana, vi, 19.]

Some trace of a "natural piety," which will probably surprise our
readers, is also found in the ceremony of Aztec baptism, as described by
the same writer. After the head and lips of the infant were touched with
water and a name given to it, the goddess Cioacoatl was implored "that
the sin which was given to us before the beginning of the world might
not visit the child, but that, cleansed by these waters, it might live
and be born anew." In Sahagun's account we read:

When all the relations of the child were assembled, the midwife,
who was the person that performed the rite of baptism, was
summoned. When the sun had risen, the midwife, taking the child in
her arms, called for a little earthen vessel of water.... To
perform the rite, she placed herself _with her face toward the
west_, and began to go through certain ceremonies.... After this
she sprinkled water on the head of the infant, saying, "O my child!
receive the water of the Lord of the world, which is our life, and
is given for the increasing and renewing of our body. It is to wash
and to purify." ... [After a prayer] she took the child in both
hands, and lifting him toward heaven said, "O Lord, thou see