Note 505 — Chapter XIV · NAHUA LAWS AND LAW COURTS.

Prescott, Mex., vol. i., p. 33, says: 'The paintings were executed with so much accuracy, that, in all suits respecting real property, they were allowed to be produced as good authority in the Spanish tribunals, very long after the Conquest; and a chair for their study and interpretation was established at Mexico in 1553, which has long since shared the fate of most other provisions for learning in that unfortunate country.' Boturini thus describes the paper used by the Aztecs: 'El Papel Indiano se componìa de las pencas del Maguèy, que en lengua Nacional se llama Mètl, y en Castellano Pita. Las echaban à podrir, y lavaban el hilo de ellas, el que haviendose ablandado estendian, para componer su papel gruesso, ò delgado, que despues bruñian para pintar en èl. Tambien hacian papel de las hojas de Palma, y Yo tengo algunos de estos delgados, y blandos tanto como la seda.' Catálogo, in Id., Idea, pp. 95-6.