ect women; yet a few words
concerning the chief features of the Aztec civilization are absolutely
necessary to the understanding of our subject. The Aztecs--in which
general title, for convenience, are included the Tezcucans, though there
were differences of civilization, the Tezcucans being in many respects
superior to their neighbors--the Aztecs present in nearly every way the
greatest racial mystery that has ever come under the notice of the
student of comparative ethnology. Their very origin is unknown; it is
impossible to discover how much of their civilization they owed to their
traditions, how much may have been of gradual growth, and how much may
have come to them as a legacy from the still more mysterious Toltecs,
later probably known as Mayas, of whom remain wonderful monuments and
traditional narratives preserved by the Aztecs. This people appeared in
the Anahuac Valley in the sixth or seventh century, and founded their
chief town, Tula, about fifty miles north of Mexico City. Their name is
said to signify "builders," and tradition ascribes to them an advanced
knowledge of arts and a remarkable culture. The supremacy of the Toltecs
in the Anahuac Valley lasted till the twelfth century, when they
abandoned Tula and mysteriously disappeared. Among the traditions
preserved, the most conspicuous concerning the Toltec women is that of
Xochitl, queen of one of the later chiefs, or "kings."

Huemac II. began to reign in Mexico about 995, in what is called the
Toltec period. Xochitl, accompanied by her father, a nobleman, went to
the court of Huemac, carrying with her as an offering to the king a
beverage which she had invented. The king tasted the wine, and desired
to have more. Later, Xochitl returned to the court, and Huemac, who
already was fascinated with the girl, caused her to be retained, and
sent a message to her father that he had placed her in the care of his
court ladies and would complete her education. Shortly afterward his
queen died, and Huemac immediately made Xochitl his queen.

The labors of Don Mariano Veytia in his _Historia Antigua_, and the
researches of more modern scholars, furnish us with some fragmentary
history of the Aztecs before the coming of Cortes; but these fragments,
in relation to the status of womanhood in those days, cannot be joined
into a coherent whole, and consideration will therefore be here given to
some aspects of Aztec civilization as found by the conqueror rather than
t