In the first week of October, indigenous officials began to move through the neighborhoods of the city, house by house, collecting the tax, or as much of it as they could. The city’s women now worked into the night, spinning yarn and thread. This work that had been their badge of honor during the time of their city’s power, when they did not have to do it and could buy the cloth if they chose, or demand it as tribute, now became a dire necessity.
