Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Notes |
CHAPTER XX: OF THE PLAZAS AND MARKET-PLACES [p.65]
THERE are in the city of Temistitan, México, very large and beautiful plazas where they sell all of the things which the natives use. There was especially the great plaza46 which they call the Tutelula [Tlatelolco], which may be three times the size of the great square of Salamanca. All around it are porticos where every day from twenty to twenty-five thousand people come to buy and sell. But on the market day there are assembled as many as forty or fifty thousand. This plaza has a system of its own, for each class of merchandise has its own place. On one side of the square are those who sell gold [in quills], and on another those who sell [precious] stones of divers classes mounted in gold shapes of various birds and animals. In another part they sell beads and mirrors, in another feathers and tufted crests [of [66] birds], of all colors to adorn the cloths they wear in war and holidays. Further on they are busy turning stones into knives and swords, which is a marvelous thing to see, and of which we here [in Spain] have no idea, and with them they make swords and bucklers. In one part they sell cloths and garments of various classes for men and in another the habiliments of women. In another place they sell sandals, in another the tanned skins of deer and other animals, and finery for the head made out of hair, which all the Indian women wear.47 Here they sell cotton, there the grains which they use for food, further on bread of divers sorts, then pastry, then hens, chickens, and eggs. Near them are hares, rabbits, deer, quail, geese, and ducks. Soon we arrive at a place where they sell wines of various classes, and then we find all sorts of vegetables. In this street they lay out the peppers, in that medicinal roots and herbs, of which the natives know an infinite variety. In another street they have various fruits, and [67] further on fire-wood for houses, near-by lime, and following it, [building] stones. In fact each thing is by itself and in order. In addition to this plaza there are others, and markets for food in different parts of the city. |
