[Allen Johnson]

Though a bit off the norm for here I thought I'd share this little bit of info I came across. Looking at some images of meso-american codexes I noticed some familiar guards and wards for sword and shield/buckler. It looks very similar to alot of euro techniques we are familiar with. That and with the obvious chopping nature of their swords (wooden clubs with sharpened pieces of obsidian lodged in them) its easy to see why Cortez had a time with them and often praised them on their warfare. If nothing else, it's beautiful artwork.

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/aztec-warfare.htm

many parts missing from the body at the bottom- either a testament to the incredible effectiveness of the weapon or the aztec version of the Mac Bible :
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/aztecs/battle-iii-f-3v.jpg

depiction of open guard and bottom shows use of grappling or kicks or some kind of take down in battle:
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/aztecs/war-viii-f-34r.jpg

[Gordon Frye]

Bernal Diaz del Castillo notes in his "True History of the Conquest of New Spain" (he was there as a participant) that in the combat against the Tlaxcalans (whom the Spaniards had to beat before they would enter into an alliance against Mexico) one of the Tlaxcalan warriors beheaded a beautiful war mare in the course of a battle. The Spaniards were of course rather perplexed at this, and Diaz goes into detail about the wonderful attributes and lineage of this mare, far moreso than with any of the Spaniards killed But they were pretty impressed with that blow, too! Takes some serious cutting power to behead an equine with one blow, which obviously the Mezo-American swords, and swordsmen, possessed. (Thus a good reason for fitting your horse with a crinolet!)

What is interesting though is that the Mexican warriors would stand against artillery fire and take it, but charging horses totally wigged them out. And as long as the Spaniards kept their cavalry squadrons together in a tight unit, the Aztecs and others could do little damage to them, but should they manage to separate a horse and rider from the unit, they were dead meat. (The Aztecs perportedly actually sacrificed a couple of captured horses in their ceremonies, along with captured Spaniards... I guess they held them in pretty high esteem!)

Gordon Frye