Aztecs
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Aztecs. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
az'teks, a tribe of Mexican Indians. The name is used not infrequently to include all Mexican Indians, but, speaking strictly, it applies to a single tribe only. The Indian name has been interpreted to mean "heron place," and refers to some former home, or else the clan name of the tribe. The first date that can be given positively is 1325. In that year the Aztecs occupied some islands in a salty lagoon where the outlet of two smaller lakes flows into a larger one. By means of dikes, causeways, and walls, they built up these islands into a stronghold which they named Tenochtitlan. This old time Indian Venice is the modern city of Mexico. About a hundred years later the Aztecs formed a league with related tribes. This was in no sense an Aztec kingdom, or empire, but simply a robbers' league. The tribes composing the Aztec Confederacy agreed to make raids in common and to divide the spoils of war systematically. They subjugated eight or nine thousand square miles of territory, extending east and southeast. There were no roads in the modern sense of the term. The plundering warriors made their way out and home again by the merest mountain trails. The Aztecs lived in large buildings of many rooms, each building housing perhaps several hundred persons. Sometimes a number of these buildings were erected contiguously in order to accommodate an entire clan. A separate building was put up in which the chiefs might convene. Business was transacted here. The buildings were made of adobe or of stone. They seem in many respects to have been like the pueblos of our southwestern Indians. The Aztec Confederacy ruled some thirty pueblo towns. When Cortez invaded Mexico in 1519 the native ruler of the Aztecs was Montezuma. The Spaniards were much surprised to find a people so advanced. Their previous conception of the American Indians had been gained from contact with the natives of the West Indies and of southern coasts. The Aztecs had made considerable progress. Both men and women were expected to marry, and, in fact, were required to do so. The land belonged to the clan, but each householder was given his own garden plot as long as he made use of it. Irrigation was practiced. Some progress had been made in the cultivation of fruits and vegetables. It is claimed that floating gardens, towed by canoes from one part of the lake to another, were constructed by the Aztecs and still supply the City of Mexico with a part of its fruit and vegetables. They dug the soil with copper mattocks and made holes for their seed corn with sticks pointed and hardened in the fire. In each field a man in an elevated tower kept watch with stones and a sling to defend the crops, garden, and orchard, against parrots, toucans, grosbeaks, and sparrows,--a duty still necessary. Stone granaries, believed to have been constructed prior to the Spanish Conquest, are still used for storage. Dogs, turkeys, quails, ducks, deer, rabbits, fishes, and the axolot1 were raised for meat. Cattle, goats, and chickens were not known in the Old World. People of leisure went hunting with bows, nets, traps, and blow guns. Black beans, corn meal cakes, and chocolate were articles of diet and drink. The Aztecs had no butter and milk, but tapioca, sago, sweet potatoes, onions, palm tree wine, salt, pepper, tomatoes, and squashes were well known. They sat at meat on low benches about a mat on which regular meals were served. Cotton cloth served for scanty clothing. In tanning furs and bird skins they excelled. Their furniture was simple. Rush mats served for beds with a block of wood for a pillow. To obtain a fire, two pieces of dry wood were rubbed together, or fire might be brought from a temple in which it was never allowed to go out. Pine torches took the place of candles, and the pulp of a certain root was used for soap. The homes of the more wealthy Aztecs appear to have been adorned with unusual skill. Gaily colored tapestries of fine needlework were hung in the doorways. The women excelled in making ornamental featherwork, and, in particular, mantles formed from the skins of humming birds. Among the articles of domestic manufacture or of plunder brought home by the warriors from their raids were colored feathers, sacks of chocolate, cougar skins, birds' wings, ingots of gold, sacks of cochineal, vases of gold dust, necklaces of emeralds, pieces of amber, rock crystal, earrings, rubber, building bamboo, arrows, aromatic woods, measures of honey, vases of ochre, copper hatchets, precious turquoises, writing paper, parchment, gourds, mats, lime, posts, birds, eagles, and beasts. Truth compels addition of the fact, however, that the prizes most highly valued were prisoners of war. The Aztecs were cannibals. The prisoners were first sacrificed, then distributed, to be eaten at feasts. Referring to this feature of Aztec life, the author of a very able article in the Americana writes: "The people were cannibals, and their religion was of the most hideous character; albeit with regularly organized priesthood and temples and altars. On one side the society touched the South Sea Islands, on the other it almost rose to ancient Egypt and was above Homeric Greece." The accounts given of the Aztecs by the Spanish chroniclers are not trustworthy. The following statement, however, is too good not to be true: "Children were taught a useful occupation and were kept busy and out of mischief. Some of the doctrines taught the Aztec youth were: "Revere and salute thy elders. Mock not at old men, my son, nor at deformed people. "When one speaks, hear with attention and respect. "When thou talkest with anyone, take not hold of his garment. "Talk not too much, and interrupt not others. "If not silent, weigh thy words. "When at table, eat not too fast. "Live by thy work. "If thou growest rich, become not insolent. "Lie not, for it is a sin." A recent traveler says, "All at once a bamboo cabin, surrounded by sharp-leaved yuccas, and shaded by banana trees, appears on the edge of the stream. A man of medium height, with a copper colored skin, a flat nose, a gentle look, coarse thick hair, and a beardless chin, stands at the threshold. Children of both sexes entirely naked, their stomachs distended, run and hide behind a woman who is occupied in grinding maize on a block of lava. Her rather gross body is covered only by a petticoat scarcely reaching to the knees. You look with surprise at these Indians, descendants of the powerful race whom Cortez conquered and who, though humble and timid, have for the last three centuries obstinately repelled everything of European origin." See Montezuma ; Cortez ; Indian They (the Aztecs) manufactured for writing purposes a thick coarse paper from the leaves of the agave plant by a process of maceration and pressure. An Aztec book closely resembles one of our quarto volumes. It is made of a single sheet, 12 to 15 inches wide, and often 60 or 70 feet long, and is not rolled, but folded either in squares or zigzags in such a manner that on opening there are two pages exposed to view. Thin wooden boards are fastened to each of the outer leaves, so that the whole presents as neat an appearance, remarks Peter Martyr, as if it had come from the shop of a skillful book binder. . . . Immense masses of such documents were stored in the imperial archives of ancient Mexico. Torquemada asserts that five cities alone yielded to the Spanish governor on one requisition no less than 16,000 volumes or scrolls. Every leaf was destroyed. Indeed, so thorough and wholesale was the destruction of these memorials, now so precious in our eyes, that hardly enough remain to whet the wits of antiquaries. In the libraries of Paris, Dresden, Pesth, and the Vatican are, however, a sufficient number to make us despair of deciphering them, had we for comparison all which the Spaniards destroyed.-D. G. Brinton, The Myths of the New World. 2026 Editor's Note: The island city on the salt lagoon the entry describes is now buried beneath Mexico City — which slowly sinks as the old lakebed is drained. Cortés destroyed the Aztec empire in 1521, but its memory endures: the eagle perched on a cactus devouring a snake, the Aztec sign for where to found their capital, is the emblem on Mexico's flag. The great Templo Mayor was rediscovered under downtown streets in 1978. (Ed: BR 2026-07-21)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a race of people who settled in Mexico early in the 14th century, ultimately extended their dominion over a large territory, and were still extending their supremacy at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards, by whom they were speedily subjugated. Their political organization, termed by the Spanish writers an absolute monarchy, appears to have consisted of a military chief exercising important, but not unlimited, power in civil affairs, in which the council of chiefs and periodic assemblies of the judges had also a voice. Their most celebrated ruler was Montezuma, who was reigning when the Spaniards arrived. Slavery and polygamy were both legitimate, but the children of slaves wore regarded as free. Although ignorant of the horse, ox, etc., they had considerable knowledge of agriculture, maize AZTEC ALTAR PIECE IN THE TEMPLE AT PALENQUE and the agave being the chief produce. Silver, lead, tin, and copper were obtained from mines, and gold from the surface of river beds, but iron was unknown to them, their tools being of bronze and obsidian. In metal-work, feather-work, weaving and pottery they possessed a high degree of skill. To record events they used an unsolved hieroglyphic writing, and their lunar calendars were of unusual accuracy. Two special deities claimed their reverence. HINTZILOPOCHTLI, AZTEC GOD OF WAR Hintzilopochtli, the god of war, propitiated with human sacrifices; and Quetzalcoatl, the beneficent god of light and air, with whom at first the Aztecs were AZTEC PALACE AT MITLA, MEXICO disposed to identify Cortez. Their temples, with large, terraced, pyramidal bases, were in charge of an exceedingly large priesthood, with whom lay the education of the young. As a civilization of apparently independent origin, yet closely resembling in many features the archaic Oriental civilizations, the Aztec civilization is of the first interest. Some of the Aztec descendants still retain their ancient language.