Note 534 — Chapter XIV · NAHUA LAWS AND LAW COURTS.
Reading edition
'L'omicida pagava colla propria vita il suo delitto, quantunque l'ucciso fosse uno schiavo.' Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 130. The manner of putting the murderer to death is differently stated: 'El homicidio, bien fuese ejecutado por noble ó plebeyo, bien por hombre ó muger, se castigaba con pena de muerte, depedazando al homicida.' Ortega, in Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. iii., p. 226. 'Al que mataba à otro, hacian degollar.' Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i., p. 166. 'Al matador lo degollaban.' Vetancvrt, Teatro Mex., pt ii., p. 33. Other writers merely say that the murderer suffered death, without stating the manner of execution. See, Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. ccxiii.; Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. ix., p. 387; Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 136. Diego Duran, in his inedited 'History of New Spain,' asserts that the murderer did not suffer death, but became the slave for life of the wife or relatives of the deceased. Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. viii., pp. 240-1.