They employed another tool, made of itztli, or obsidian, a dark
transparent mineral, exceedingly hard, found in abundance in their
hills. They made it into knives, razors, and their serrated swords. It
took a keen edge, though soon blunted. With this they wrought the
various stones and alabasters employed in the construction of their
public works and principal dwellings. I shall defer a more
particular account of these to the body of the narrative, and will
only add here, that the entrances and angles of the buildings were
profusely ornamented with images, sometimes of their fantastic
deities, and frequently of animals. The latter were executed with
great accuracy. "The former," according to Torquemada, "were the
hideous reflection of their own souls. And it was not till after
they had been converted to Christianity, that they could model the
true figure of a man." The old chronicler's facts are well founded,
whatever we may think of his reasons. The allegorical phantasms of his
religion, no doubt, gave a direction to the Aztec artist, in his
delineation of the human figure; supplying him with an imaginary
beauty in the personification of divinity, itself. As these
superstitions lost their hold on his mind, it opened to the influences
of a purer taste; and, after the Conquest, the Mexicans furnished many
examples of correct, and some of beautiful portraiture.
Sculptured images were so numerous, that the foundations of the
cathedral in the Plaza Mayor, the great square of Mexico, are said
to be entirely composed of them.
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