Note 529 — Chapter XIV · NAHUA LAWS AND LAW COURTS.
Reading edition
Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 138; Ortega, in Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. iii., p. 225; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., p. 381. Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. ccxiii., says that he who stole in the market-place was hanged there and then by order of the judges of the place, and in cap. cxv., he writes: 'El que en el mercado algo hurtava, era ley que luego publicamente alli en el mismo mercado lo matasen á palos.' Again in the same chapter he gives a law, for the authenticity of which he does not vouch, however, which reads as follows: 'el que en el mercado hurtava algo, los mismos del mercado tenian licencia para lo matar á pedradas.'