ing were practised. Musical instruments were also made of clay.
Trade was conducted in ancient Mexico in great fairs or marketplaces,
not in shops, and indeed this custom is still that preferred by the
Mexican natives of the _peon_ class to-day. The currency consisted of
quills of gold-dust, small pieces of tin, and stamped copper, and
barter was a principal mode of transaction. The merchants were an
important class, carrying on extensive operations and expeditions far
beyond the borders of the empire, under armed escorts, and they
occupied often a position of political, and even diplomatic nature,
such as was a peculiar feature of Aztec civilisation.

Social conditions showed much of quiet civilisation and tolerance. The
women were never employed in the fields; and they took equal part with
the men in social matters. They were modest and not unattractive,
traits which remain to this day among the peasant class of Mexico. The
_menage_ of Aztec homes, method of feasting, foods, napery, ablutions,
and other matters, as recorded by the historians show a marked stage of
refinement, except for the abominable practice of cannibalism.
Chocolate and _pulque_ were the favourite drinks.

Any survey of the Aztec customs shows a remarkable fact--they seem to
have received their civilisation and customs from more than one source.
For among the most refined habits and methods the most barbarous and
disgusting acts are found. A refined and humane spirit of culture
seems, by some method, or at some time, to have been grafted on to a
spirit of primitive savagery, and each to have retained its character
and practices. But their social system was not an unhappy one for their
people. It was an epoch of handiwork, where all were employed and all
were fed; and if there were few comforts and enlightenments in their
life, there was, at least, little misery, such as is so freely
encountered in the life of modern civilisation.

But destiny was now to compass the end of the Aztec _regime_, for from
the shores of the stormy waters of the seas towards the sunrise, came
rumours of strange white men. Who were they? asked the Aztec emperor
and his advisers, in solemn conclave. Were they not those heralded by
the long-expected Quetzalcoatl? If so, of what use was it to defy the
fates, which had set forth long ago that the land should be ruled, some
day, by a white race coming from the East? And when a fleet of great
"water-houses," with white wings,