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"nose-moons" device,
102 and wore his hair bound in a tassel with a red ribbon.103 |
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Soldiers were honored by being made cuahchic warriors for taking many captives in battle104 and performing more than twenty brave deeds.105 This military order had higher status than the otontin, and several high-ranking military commandersthe cuauhnochteuctli, the tlacateccatl, and the tlacochcalcatlwere members.106 Their heads were entirely shorn except for a shock of hair above the left ear braided with a red ribbon. Half of the head was painted blue and the other half either red or yellow, and members wore a loincloth and an open-weave mantle of maguey fiber. |
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It has been suggested that the otontin were commoners, an interpretation supported by their lower status in relation to the cuahchicqueh, but other evidence argues against this view.107 In the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlan, for example, an otomitl warrior named Tzilacatzin played a prominent role in the defense. The use of the honorific -tzin and his attire, which included gold armbands, both strongly indicate a noble status.108 Moreover, the depictions of otomitl costumes do not seem to indicate skin suits but the feather ones typical of the noble tlahuiztli suits. Although particularly accomplished cuauhpipiltin may have been admitted to otomitl and cuahchic ranks, there is little evidence in support of this possibility. |
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All of the military orders had separate houses in the king's palace, including one for commoners who had achieved the status of military orders. These groups provided the nucleus for action, even when Tenochtitlan was quiescent. The house of the eagle and jaguar military orders, the cuauhcalli, also served as the meeting place of the war council where military matters were discussed and decided,109 presided over by the king.110 Similarly, in Tetzcoco the council rooms were in the king's palace, as were the rooms of his bravest captains and soldiers and the armory.111 The cuahchic (but apparently not the otomitl) warriors also met in the cuauhcalli, but they did not form a cohesive organization that played a role in decisions of state. Their roles were more individual and more strictly martial in nature.112 That the cuahchic warriors met in the cuauhcalli suggests they were also eagle and jaguar warriors, the latter being a prerequisite for the former. The same was probably true of the otontin warriors, but this is unclear. In any case they, like the cuahchicqueh and the tiachcahuan, were supported from state revenues.113 Given the evidence that the otontin were nobles, the slight |
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