Every Different Commodity Had Its
Own Particular Place, Which Was Distinguished By An Appropriate Sign Or
Emblem.
There were dealers in gold, silver, feathers, jewels, mantles,
chocolate, skins both dressed and undressed, sandals, manufactures of the
roots and fibres of _nequen_, and so forth.
In one place great numbers of
male and female slaves were exposed for sale, most of whom were fastened
by the neck in leather collars to long poles. The market for provisions
was amply stocked with fowls, game, dogs, vegetables, fruit, articles of
food ready dressed, salt, bread, honey, sweet pastry or confectionary of
various kinds, and many other articles. Other parts of the great square
were appropriated for the sale of earthen ware, wooden furniture, such as
tables and benches, fire-wood, paper, hollow canes filled with tobacco and
liquid amber ready for smoking, copper axes, working tools of various
kinds, wooden vessels richly painted, and the like. In another part many
women sold fish, and small loaves of a kind of mud taken out of the lake
resembling cheese. The makers of stone blades were employed in shaping
them out of the rough materials. The dealers in gold had the native metal
in grains as it comes from the mines, in transparent tubes or quills, so
that it could easily be seen; and the gold was valued at so many mantles,
or so many xiquipils of cocoa nuts, in proportion to the size of the
quills. The great square was enclosed all round by piazas, under which
there were great stores of grain, and shops for various kinds of goods.
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