Desire Charnay believes that he has found in the ruins of Tula the bones of swine, sheep, oxen, and horses, in a fossil state, indicating an immense antiquity.  The Toltecs possessed a pure and simple religion, like that of Atlantis, as described by Plato, with the same sacrifices of fruits and flowers; they were farmers; they raised and wove cotton; they cultivated fruits; they used the sign of the Cross extensively; they cut and engraved precious stones; among their carvings have been found representations of the elephant and the lion, both animals not known in America.  The forms of sepulture were the same as among the ancient races of the Old World; they burnt the bodies of their great men, and enclosed the dust in funeral urns; some of their dead were buried in a sitting position, others reclined at full length, and many were embalmed like the Egyptian mummies.

When we turn to Mexico, the same resemblances present themselves.

The government was an elective monarchy, like that of Poland, the king being selected from the royal family by the votes of the nobles of the kingdom.  There was a royal family, an aristocracy, a privileged priesthood, a judiciary, and a common people.  Here we have all the several estates into which society in Europe is divided.

There were thirty grand nobles in the kingdom, and the vastness of the realm may be judged by the fact that each of these could muster one hundred thousand vassals from their own estates, or a total of three millions.  And we have only to read of the vast hordes brought into the field against Cortez to know that this was not an exaggeration.

They even possessed that which has been considered the crowning feature of European society, the feudal system.  The nobles held their lands upon the tenure of military service.

But the most striking feature was the organization of the judiciary.  The judges were independent even of the king, and held their offices for life.  There were supreme judges for the larger divisions of the kingdom, district judges in each of the provinces, and magistrates chosen by the people throughout the country.

There was also a general legislative assembly, congress, or parliament, held every eighty days, presided over by the king, consisting of all the judges of the realm, to which the last appeal lay

“The rites of marriage,” says Prescott, “were celebrated with as much formality as in any Christian country; and the institution was held in such reverence that a tribunal was instituted for the sole purpose of determining questions relating to it.  Divorces could not be obtained until authorized by a sentence of the court, after a patient hearing of the parties.”

Slavery was tolerated, but the labors of the slave were light, his rights carefully guarded, and his children were free.  The slave could own property, and even other slaves.

Their religion possessed so many features similar to those of the Old World, that the Spanish priests declared the devil had given them a bogus imitation of Christianity to destroy their souls.  “The devil,” said they, “stole all he could.”