Toltec (toltek)

[Mex.] A member of a race of Mexico which, according to tradition, coming from the north, ruled the country from the seventh to the eleventh century, their power pa ing later to the Aztecs. The remains of Mexican architecture which have been ascribed to them consist principally of colo al pyramidal structures of adobe bricks-temples and buildings of great size and rude plan corresponding to the needs of a communal state of society. The last, which are elaborately decorated with rude sculpture in high relief, seem to show that the Toltecs were a people of some civilization; and there is reason to believe that they were acquainted with the arts of weaving, pottery, hieroglyphic writing, and perhaps with that of working metals. Their religion is said to have been mild, and their laws just. Their civilization was overlain by that of the Aztecs, who ingrafted on it many bloody religious rites and childish social practices.