local courts of limited jurisdiction, from which cases of any importance were sent to the capital for trial, and there existed besides in the capitals a number of small courts, such as the market court, which dealt summarily with small offences, but from which appeal could be made to the higher courts. In the case of offenders of high rank the case was sometimes tried in the home of the criminal who, if found guilty, was executed there in private. Important tributary towns, as stated above, were often allowed considerable independence as regards judicial matters, and the rulers were allowed to judge their own people according to the local laws. Below the judges were a number of minor officials, apparitors and the like, as well as a military town-watch which kept order at night. Penalties varied in proportion to the gravity of the offence, from fines, payable in textiles, and flogging, to mutilation and death by the rod, the strangling-cord or by stoning. At Tezcoco a celebrated code, invented by the king Nezahualcoyotl, was in force, and the Mexican and Tacuban codes were based on this to a large extent; moreover, cases were often sent to Tezcoco for trial. Condemned criminals were shut up in cages to await execution, which usually took place upon some day considered appropriate, such as I. quiauitl or 4. eecatl. Theft was punished in various ways; in unimportant cases the thief was compelled to make restitution, in cases more grave he became the slave of the complainant; if he had stolen gold or jewels, he was sacrificed to Xipe at the goldsmiths' festival. Stealing corn from the fields was punished with death, and though this sentence may seem severe, the crime was the less excusable because corn was planted along the roadsides for the use of wayfarers. The death penalty was also inflicted for wrongful assumption of the insignia belonging to the highest offices, for murder, adultery (by stoning), sorcery (by sacrifice), disobedience or desertion in war, injury to a
