in the tribute sent by the dependent cities. If after a few fights the would-be warrior had still failed to secure a prisoner, he was disgraced, and usually retired into private life rather than continue to wear the novice's lock, but he was for ever debarred from wearing garments of cotton or ornamenting his clothes with embroidery. Proved warriors were permitted to wear their hair in a lock on one side which they brushed so as to stand upright, while those of higher rank wore the lock above the forehead encircled by an ornamental band (see Pl. IX, 4 and 5).
The distinguishing weapon of the Aztec was the bow, and it was no doubt the possession of this arm which contributed substantially to their success in their fights with the early population of the valley. Manuscripts relating the wanderings of the people before they reached their final home show the Aztec, skin-clad and armed with the bow, fighting with the valley-dweller clothed in cotton and armed with the macquauitl, or wooden sword edged with obsidian. The Chichimec were also wielders of the bow, as well as the Tarascans, but this weapon was especially associated with Uitzilopochtli, who was supposed to have given it to the Mexicans, saying "All that flies on high do the Mexicans know how to hit with the arrow." The bow was plain and of no great dimensions; the arrows were headed with fish or mammal bone or with flint or obsidian, and, to judge from the manuscripts, each had two feathers attached with the flat sides against the shaft. The macquauitl, a broad-bladed club along the edges of which were set flakes of obsidian set in resin, was carried by the ordinary soldier, and, wielded by an expert, was capable of decapitating a horse at one blow; however, it soon lost its edge. The early Nahua and the valley-dwellers seem to have employed the atlatl, or spear-thrower, rather than the ow. This implement, which is found both in North and South America, consists of a staff armed at the
