CHAPTER II.

GENERAL VIEW OF THE CIVILIZED NATIONS.

THE AMERICAN CIVILIZATION OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY--ITS

DISAPPEARANCE--THE PAST, A NEW ELEMENT--DIVIDING LINE

BETWEEN SAVAGE AND CIVILIZED TRIBES--BOUNDS OF AMERICAN

CIVILIZATION--PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE COUNTRY--MAYA AND

NAHUA BRANCHES OF ABORIGINAL CULTURE--THE NAHUA

CIVILIZATION--THE AZTECS ITS REPRESENTATIVES--LIMITS OF THE

AZTEC EMPIRE--ANCIENT HISTORY OF ANÁHUAC IN OUTLINE--THE

TOLTEC ERA--THE CHICHIMEC ERA--THE AZTEC ERA--EXTENT OF THE

AZTEC LANGUAGE--CIVILIZED PEOPLES OUTSIDE OF

ANÁHUAC--CENTRAL AMERICAN NATIONS--THE MAYA CULTURE--THE

PRIMITIVE MAYA EMPIRE--NAHUA INFLUENCE IN THE SOUTH--YUCATAN

AND THE MAYAS--THE NATIONS OF CHIAPAS--THE QUICHÉ EMPIRE IN

GUATEMALA--THE NAHUAS IN NICARAGUA AND SALVADOR--ETYMOLOGY

OF NAMES.

In the preceding volume I have had occasion several times to remark

that, in the delineation of the Wild Tribes of the Pacific States, no

attempt is made to follow them in their rapid decline, no attempt to

penetrate their past or prophesy a possible future, no profitless

lingering over those misfortunes that wrought among them such swift

destruction. To us the savage nations of America have neither past nor

future; only a brief present, from which indeed we may judge somewhat

of their past; for the rest, foreign avarice and interference,

European piety and greed, saltpetre, steel, small-pox, and syphilis,

tell a speedy tale. Swifter still must be the hand that sketches the

incipient civilization of the Mexican and Central American

table-lands. For although here we have more past, there is still less

present, and scarcely any future. Those nations raised the highest by

their wealth and culture, were the first to fall before the invader,

their superior attainments offering a more shining mark to a rapacious

foe; and falling, they were the soonest lost,--absorbed by the

conquering race, or disappearing in the surrounding darkness. Although

the savage nations were rapidly annihilated, traces of savagism

lingered, and yet linger; but the higher American culture, a plant of

more delicate growth and more sensitive nature, withered at the first

rude touch of foreign interference. Instead of being left to its own

intuitive unfoldings, or instead of being fostered by the new-comers,

who might have elevated by interfusion both their own culture and that

of the conquered race, the spirit of progress was effectually stifled

on both sides by fanatical attempts to substitute by force foreign

creeds and polities for those of indigenous origin and growth. And now

behold them both, the descendants of conquerors and of conquered, the

one scarcely less denaturalized than the other, the curse inflicted by

the invaders on a flourishing empire returning and resting with

crushing weight on their own head. Scarce four centuries ago the

empire of Charles the Fifth, and the empire of Montezuma the Second,

were brought by the force of progress most suddenly and unexpectedly

face to face; the one then the grandest and strongest of the old world

as was the other of the new. Since which time the fierce fanaticism

that overwhelmed the New World empire, has pressed like an incubus

upon the dominant race, and held it fast while all the world around

were making the most rapid strides forward.

[Sidenote: THE PAST, A NEW ELEMENT.]

No indigenous civilization exists in America to-day, yet the effects

of a former culture are not altogether absent. The descendant of the

Aztec, Maya, and Quiché, is still of superior mind and haughtier

spirit than his roving brother who boasts of none but a savage

ancestry. Still, so complete has been the substitution of foreign

civil and ecclesiastical polities, and so far-reaching their influence

on native character and conduct; so intimate the association for three

and more centuries with the Spanish element; so closely guarded from

foreign gaze has been every manifestation of the few surviving sparks

of aboriginal modes of thought, that a study of the native condition

in modern times yields, by itself, few satisfactory results. This

study, however, as part of an investigation of their original or

normal condition, should by no means be neglected, since it may

furnish illustrative material of no little value.

Back of all this lies another element which lends to our subject yet

grander proportions. Scattered over the southern plateaux are heaps of

architectural remains and monumental piles. Furthermore, native

traditions, both orally transmitted and hieroglyphically recorded by

means of legible picture-writings, afford us a tolerably clear view of

the civilized nations during a period of several centuries preceding

the Spanish conquest, together with passing glances, through momentary

clearings in the mythologic clouds, at historical epochs much more

remote. Here we have as aids to this analysis,--aids almost wholly

wanting among the so-called savage tribes, antiquities, tradition,

history, carrying the student far back into the mysterious New World

past; and hence it is that from its simultaneous revelation and

eclipse, American civilization would otherwise offer a more limited

field for investigation than American savagism, yet by the

introduction of this new element the field is widely extended.

Nor have we even yet reached the limits of our resources for the

investigation of this New World civilization. In these relics of

architecture and literature, of mythology and tradition, there are

clear indications of an older and higher type of culture than that

brought immediately to the knowledge of the invaders; of a type that

had temporarily deteriorated, perhaps through the influence of

long-continued and bloody conflicts, civil and foreign, by which the

more warlike rather than the more highly cultured nations had been

brought into prominence and power. But this anterior and superior

civilization, resting largely as it does on vague tradition, and

preserved to our knowledge in general allusions rather than in detail,

may, like the native condition since the conquest, be utilized to the

best advantage here as illustrative of the later and better-known, if

somewhat inferior civilization of the sixteenth century, described by

the conqueror, the missionary, and the Spanish historian.

Antique remains of native skill, which have been preserved for our

examination, may also be largely used in illustration of more modern

art, whose products have disappeared. These relics of the past are

also of the highest value as confirming the truth of the reports made

by Spanish writers, very many, or perhaps most, of whose statements

respecting the wonderful phenomena of the New World, without this

incontrovertible material proof, would find few believers among the

sceptical students of the present day. These remains of antiquity,

however, being fully described in another volume of this work, may be

referred to in very general terms for present purposes.

[Sidenote: ORIGIN OF AMERICAN CIVILIZATION.]

Of civilization in general, the nature of its phenomena, the causes

and processes by which it is evolved from savagism, I have spoken

sufficiently in the foregoing chapter. As for the many theories

respecting the American civilization in particular, its origin and

growth, it is not my purpose to discuss them in this volume. No theory

on these questions could be of any practical value in the elucidation

of the subject, save one that should stand out among the rest so

preëminently well-founded as to be generally accepted among scientific

men, and no one of all the multitude proposed has acquired any such

preëminence. A complete résumé of all the theories on the subject,

with the foundations which support them, is given elsewhere in

connection with the ancient traditionary history of the aboriginal

nations. It is well, however, to remark that our lack of definite

knowledge about the origin of this civilization is not practically so

important as might appear at first thought. True, we know not for

certain whether it is indigenous or exotic; and if the former, whether

to ascribe its cradle to the north or south, to one locality or many;

or if the latter, whether contact with the old world was effected at

one or many points, on one occasion or at divers epochs, through the

agency of migrating peoples or by the advent of individual civilizers

and teachers. Yet the tendency of modern research is to prove the

great antiquity of the American civilization as well as of the

American people; and if either was drawn from a foreign source, it was

at a time probably so remote as to antedate any old-world culture now

existing, and to prevent any light being thrown on the offspring by a

study of the parent stock; while if indigenous, little hope is

afforded of following rationally their development through the

political convulsions of the distant past down to even a traditionally

historic epoch.

I may then dispense with theories of origin and details of past

history as confusing rather than aiding my present purpose, and as

being fully treated elsewhere in this work. Neither am I required in

this treatment of the civilized races to make an accurate division

between them and their more savage neighbors, to determine the exact

standard by which savagism and civilization are to be measured, or to

vindicate the use of the word civilized as applied to the American

nations in preference to that of semi-civilized, preferred by many

writers. We have seen that civilization is at best only a comparative

term, applied to some of the ever-shifting phases of human progress.

In many of the Wild Tribes already described some of its

characteristics have been observed, and the opposite elements of

savagism will not be wanting among what I proceed to describe as the

Civilized Nations. There is not a savage people between Anáhuac and

Nicaragua that has not been influenced in its institutions by

intercourse, warlike, social, or commercial, with neighbors of higher

culture, and has not exerted in its turn a reflex influence on the

latter. The difficulty of drawing division-lines between nations thus

mutually acting on each other is further increased in America by the

fact that two or three nations constitute the central figure of nearly

all that has been observed or written by the few that came in actual

contact with the natives. This volume will, therefore, deal rather

with the native civilization than with the nations that possessed it.

While, however, details on all the points mentioned, outside of actual

institutions found existing in the sixteenth century, would tend to

confusion rather than to clearness, besides leading in many cases to

endless repetition, yet a general view of the whole subject, of the

number, extent, location, and mutual relations of the nations

occupying the central portions of the continent at its discovery, as

well as of their relations to those of the more immediate past,

appears necessary to an intelligent perusal of the following pages. In

this general view I shall avoid all discussion of disputed questions,

reserving arguments and details for future volumes on antiquities and

aboriginal history.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: HOME OF THE AMERICAN CULTURE.]

That portion of what we call the Pacific States which was the home of

American civilization within historic or traditionally historic times,

extends along the continent from north-west to south-east, between

latitudes 22° and 11°. On the Atlantic side the territory stretches

from Tamaulipas to Honduras, on the Pacific from Colima to Nicaragua.

Not that these are definitely drawn boundaries, but outside of these

limits, disregarding the New Mexican Pueblo culture, this civilization

had left little for Europeans to observe, while within them lived few

tribes uninfluenced or unimproved by contact with it. No portion of

the globe, perhaps, embraces within equal latitudinal limits so great

a variety of climate, soil, and vegetation; a variety whose important

bearing on the native development can be understood in some degree,

and which would doubtless account satisfactorily for most of the

complications of progressional phenomena observed within the

territory, were the connection between environment and progress fully

within the grasp of our knowledge. All the gradations from a torrid to

a temperate clime are here found in a region that lies wholly within

the northern tropic, altitudinal variations taking the place of and

producing all the effects elsewhere attributable to latitude alone.

These variations result from the topography of the country as

determined by the conformation given to the continent by the central

cordillera. The Sierra Madre enters this territory from the north in

two principal ranges, one stretching along the coast of the Pacific,

while the other and more lofty range trends nearer the Atlantic, the

two again uniting before reaching the isthmus of Tehuantepec. This

eastern branch between 18° 40´ and 20° 30´ opens out into a table-land

of some seventy-five by two hundred miles area, with an altitude of

from six to eight thousand feet above the sea level. This broad

plateau or series of plateaux is known as the tierra fria, while the

lower valleys, with a band of the surrounding slopes, at an elevation

of from three to five thousand feet, including large portions of the

western lands of Michoacan, Guerrero, and Oajaca, between the two

mountain branches, constitute the tierra templada. From the surface of

the upper table-land rise sierras and isolated peaks of volcanic

origin, the highest in North America, their summits covered with

eternal snow, which shelter, temper, and protect the fertile plateaux

lying at their base. Centrally located on this table-land, surrounded

by a wall of lofty volcanic cliffs and peaks, is the most famous of

all the valley plateaux, something more than one hundred and sixty

miles in circuit, the valley of Mexico, Anáhuac, that is to say,

'country by the waters,' taking its name from the lakes that formerly

occupied one tenth of its area. Anáhuac, with an elevation of 7,500

feet, may be taken as representative of the tierra fria. It has a mean

temperature of 62°, a climate much like that of southern Europe,

although dryer, and to which the term 'cold' can only be comparatively

applied. The soil is fertile and productive, though now generally

presenting a bare and parched surface, by reason of the excessive

evaporation on lofty plains exposed to the full force of a tropical

sun, its natural forest-covering having been removed since the Spanish

conquest, chiefly, it is believed, through artificial agencies. Oak

and pine are prominent features of the native forest-growth, while

wheat, barley, and all the European cereals and fruits flourish side

by side with plantations of the indigenous maize, maguey, and cactus.

From May to October of each year, corresponding nearly with the hot

season of the coast, rains or showers are frequent, but rarely occur

during the remaining months. Trees retain their foliage for ten months

in the year, and indeed their fading is scarcely noticeable. Southward

of 18°, as the continent narrows, this eastern table-land contracts

into a mountain range proper, presenting a succession of smaller

terraces, valleys, and sierras, in place of the broader plateaux of

the region about Anáhuac. Trending south-eastward toward the Pacific,

and uniting with the western Sierra Madre, the chain crosses the

isthmus of Tehuantepec at a diminished altitude, only to rise again

and expand laterally into the lofty Guatemalan ranges which stretch

still south-eastward to Lake Nicaragua, where for the second time a

break occurs in the continental cordillera at the southern limit of

the territory now under consideration. From this central cordillera

lateral subordinate branches jut out at right angles north and south

toward either ocean. As we go southward the vegetation becomes more

dense, and the temperature higher at equal altitudes, but the same

gradations of 'fria' and 'templada' are continued, blending into each

other at a height of 5,000 to 6,000 feet. The characteristics of the

cordillera south of the Mexican table-land are lofty volcanic peaks

whose lower bases are clothed with dense forests, fertile plateaux

bounded by precipitous cliffs, vertical fissures or ravines of immense

depth torn in the solid rock by volcanic action, and mountain torrents

flowing in deep beds of porphyry and forming picturesque lakes in the

lower valleys. Indeed, in Guatemala, where more than twenty volcanoes

are in active operation, all these characteristic features appear to

unite in their highest degree of perfection. One of the lateral ranges

extends north-eastward from the continental chain, forming with a

comparatively slight elevation the back-bone of the peninsula of

Yucatan.

[Sidenote: THE TIERRA CALIENTE.]

At the bases of the central continental heights, on the shores of

either ocean, is the tierra caliente, a name applied to all the coast

region with an elevation of less than 1,500 feet, and also by the

inhabitants to many interior valleys of high temperature. So abruptly

do the mountains rise on the Pacific side that the western torrid band

does not perhaps exceed twenty miles in average width for its whole

length, and has exerted comparatively little influence on the history

and development of the native races. But on the Atlantic or gulf coast

is a broad tract of level plain and marsh, and farther inland a more

gradual ascent to the interior heights. This region presents all the

features of an extreme tropical climate and vegetation. In the

latitude of Vera Cruz barren and sandy tracts are seen; elsewhere the

tierra caliente is covered with the densest tropical growth of trees,

shrubs, vines, and flowers, forming in their natural state an almost

impenetrable thicket. Cocoa, cotton, cacao, sugar-cane, indigo,

vanilla, bananas, and the various palms are prominent among the flora;

while the fauna include birds in infinite variety of brilliant

plumage, with myriads of tormenting and deadly insects and reptiles.

The atmosphere is deadly to all but natives. The moist soil, enriched

by the decay of vegetable substances, breathes pestilence and malaria

from every pore, except during the winter months of incessant winds,

which blow from October to March. Southern Vera Cruz and Tabasco, the

tierra caliente par excellence, exhibit the most luxuriant display of

nature's prodigality. Of alluvial and comparatively recent formation

this region is traversed by the Goazacoalco, Alvarado, Usumacinta, and

other noble rivers, which rise in the mountains of Guatemala, Chiapas,

and Tehuantepec. River-banks are crowded with magnificent

forest-trees, and the broad savanas farther back marked off into

natural plantations of the valuable dye-woods which abound there, by a

network of branch streams and canals, which serve both for irrigation

and as a medium of transport for the native products that play no

unimportant rôle in the world's commerce. Each year inundations are

expected between June and October, and these transform the whole

system of lagoons into a broad lake. Farther up the course of the

rivers on the foothills of the cordillera, are extensive forests of

cedar, mahogany, zapote, Brazil, and other precious woods, together

with a variety of medicinal plants and aromatic resins.

The whole of Yucatan may, by reason of its temperature and elevation

above the sea, be included in the tierra caliente, but its climate is

one of the most healthful in all tropical America. The whole north and

west of the peninsula are of fossil shell formation, showing that at

no very distant date this region was covered by the waters of the sea.

There are no rivers that do not dry up in winter, but by a wonderful

system of small ponds and natural wells the country is supplied with

water, the soil being moreover always moist, and supporting a rich and

vigorous vegetation.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: THE NAHUA AND MAYA ELEMENTS.]

Notwithstanding evident marks of similarity in nearly all the

manifestations of the progressional spirit in aboriginal America, in

art, thought, and religion, there is much reason for and convenience

in referring all the native civilization to two branches, the Maya and

the Nahua, the former the more ancient, the latter the more recent and

wide-spread. It is important, however, to understand the nature and

extent of this division, and just how far it may be considered real

and how far ideal. Of all the languages spoken among these nations,

the two named are the most wide-spread, and are likewise entirely

distinct. In their traditional history, their material relics, and,

above all, in their methods of recording events by hieroglyphics, as

well as in their several lesser characteristics, these two stocks show

so many and so clear points of difference standing prominently out

from their many resemblances, as to indicate either a separate culture

from the beginning, or what is more probable and for us practically

the same thing, a progress in different paths for a long time prior to

the coming of the Europeans. Very many of the nations not clearly

affiliated with either branch show evident traces of both cultures,

and may be reasonably supposed to have developed their condition from

contact and intermixture of the parent stocks with each other, and

with the neighboring savage tribes. It is only, however, in a very

general sense that this classification can be accepted, and then only

for practical convenience in elucidating the subject; since there are

several nations that must be ranked among our civilized peoples,

which, particularly in the matter of language, show no Maya nor Nahua

affinities. Nor is too much importance to be attached to the names

Maya and Nahua by which I designate these parallel civilizations. The

former is adopted for the reason that the Maya people and tongue are

commonly regarded as among the most ancient in all the Central

American region, a region where formerly flourished the civilization

that left such wonderful remains at Palenque, Uxmal, and Copan; the

latter as being an older designation than either Aztec or Toltec, both

of which stocks the race Nahua includes. The civilization of what is

now the Mexican Republic, north of Tehuantepec, belonged to the Nahua

branch, both at the time of the conquest and throughout the historic

period preceding. Very few traces of the Maya element occur north of

Chiapas, and these are chiefly linguistic, appearing in two or three

nations dwelling along the shores of the Mexican gulf. In published

works upon the subject the Aztecs are the representatives of the Nahua

element; indeed, what is known of the Aztecs has furnished material

for nine tenths of all that has been written on the American civilized

nations in general. The truth of the matter is that the Aztecs were

only the most powerful of a league or confederation of three nations,

which in the sixteenth century, from their capitals in the valley,

ruled central Mexico. This confederation, moreover, was of

comparatively recent date. These three nations were the Acolhuas, the

Aztecs, and the Tepanecs, and their respective capitals, Tezcuco,

Mexico, and Tlacopan (Tacuba) were located near each other on the lake

borders, where, except Mexico, they still are found in a sad state of

dilapidation. Within the valley, in general terms, the eastern section

belonged to Tezcuco, the southern and western to Mexico, and a limited

territory in the north-west to Tlacopan. At the time when the

confederation was formed, which was about one hundred years before the

advent of the Spaniards, Tezcuco was the most advanced and powerful of

the allies, maintaining her precedence nearly to the end of the

fifteenth century. Tlacopan was far inferior to the other two. Her

possessions were small, and according to the terms of the compact,

which seem always to have been strictly observed, she received but one

fifth of the spoils obtained by successful war. While keeping within

the boundaries of their respective provinces, so far as the valley of

Mexico was concerned, these three chief powers united their forces to

extend their conquests beyond the limits of the valley in every

direction. Thus under the leadership of a line of warlike kings

Mexico extended her domain to the shores of either ocean, and rendered

the tribes therein tributary to her. During this period of foreign

conquest, the Aztec kings, more energetic, ambitious, warlike, and

unscrupulous than their allies, acquired a decided preponderance in

the confederate councils and possessions; so that, originally but a

small tribe, one of the many which had settled in the valley of

Anáhuac, by its valor and success in war, by the comparatively broad

extent of its domain, by the magnificence of its capital, the only

aboriginal town in America rebuilt by the conquerors in anything like

its pristine splendor, and especially by being the people that came

directly into contact with the invaders in the desperate struggles of

the conquest, the Aztecs became to Europeans, and to the whole modern

world, the representatives of the American civilized peoples. Hence,

in the observations of those who were personally acquainted with these

people, little or no distinction is made between the many different

nations of Central Mexico, all being described as Aztecs. Indeed, many

of the lesser nations favored this error, being proud to claim

identity with the brave and powerful people to whose valor they had

been forced to succumb. While this state of things doubtless creates

some confusion by failing to show clearly the slight tribal

differences that existed, yet the difficulty is not a serious one,

from the fact that very many of these nations were unquestionably of

the same blood as the Aztecs, and that all drew what civilization they

possessed from the same Nahua source. I may therefore continue to

speak of the Aztecs in their representative character, including

directly in this term all the nations permanently subjected to the

three ruling powers in Anáhuac, due care being taken to point out such

differences as may have been noticed and recorded.

[Sidenote: THE AZTECS THE NAHUA REPRESENTATIVES.]

To fix the limits of the Aztec Empire with any approximation to

accuracy is exceedingly difficult, both by reason of conflicting

statements, and because the boundaries were constantly changing as

new tribes were brought under Aztec rule, or by successful revolt

threw off the Mexican yoke. Clavigero, followed by Prescott, gives to

the empire the territory from 18° to 21° on the Atlantic, and 14° to

19° on the Pacific, exclusive, according to the latter author, of the

possessions of Tezcuco and Tlacopan. But this extent of territory,

estimated at nearly twice that of the state of California, gives an

exaggerated idea of Anáhuac, even when that term is applied to the

conquered territory of the whole confederacy. The limits mentioned are

in reality the extreme points reached by the allied armies in their

successful wars, or rather, raids, during the most palmy days of Aztec

rule. Within these bounds were several nations that were never

conquered, even temporarily, by the arms of Anáhuac, as for example

the Tlascaltecs, the Tarascos, and the Chiapanecs. Many nations,

indeed most of those whose home was far from the central capitals,

were simply forced on different occasions by the presence of a

conquering army to pay tribute and allegiance to the Aztec kings, an

allegiance which they were not slow to throw off as soon as the

invaders had withdrawn. Such were the nations of northern Guatemala

and Soconusco, whose conquest was in reality but a successful raid for

plunder and captives; such the nations of Tehuantepec, such the

Miztecs and Zapotecs of Oajaca, the latter having completely regained

their independence and driven the Aztecs from their soil before the

coming of the Spaniards. Other nations were conquered only in the

years immediately preceding the Spanish conquest; instance the

Matlaltzincas just west of Anáhuac, and the Huastecs and Totonacs of

Vera Cruz. By their successful raids among these latter peoples, the

Aztecs only sealed their own doom, making inveterate foes of the coast

nations, whose services would have been most efficacious in resisting

the fatal progress of the Castilian arms. But other tribes less

warlike and powerful, or nearer the strongholds of their conquerors,

were, by means of frequent military expeditions made to check

outbreaking rebellion, kept nominally subject to the Aztecs during

fifty years, more or less, preceding the coming of the Spaniards,

paying their annual tribute with some regularity. Outside the rocky

barriers of their valley, the Mexicans maintained their supremacy only

by constant war; and even within the valley their sway was far from

undisputed, since several tribes, notably the Chalcas on the southern

lake, broke out in open rebellion whenever the imperial armies were

elsewhere occupied.

[Sidenote: EXTENT OF THE AZTEC EMPIRE.]

The Aztec empire proper, not restricting it to its original seat in

the valley of Mexico, nor including within its limits all the nations

which were by the fortunes of war forced at one time or another to pay

tribute, may then be said to have extended from the valley of Mexico

and its immediate environs, over the territories comprised in the

present States of Mexico (with its modern subdivisions of Hidalgo and

Morelos), Puebla, southern Vera Cruz, and Guerrero. Of all the nations

that occupied this territory, most of them, as I have said, were of

one blood and language with their masters, and all, by their character

and institutions, possessed in greater or less degree the Nahua

culture. Of many of the multitudinous nations occupying the vast

territory surrounding the valley of Mexico, nothing is known beyond

their names and their likeness, near or remote, to the Aztecs. For a

statement of their names and localities in detail, the reader is

referred to the Tribal Boundaries following the chapter on the Central

Mexicans in the first volume of this work. Let it be understood,

therefore, that the description of Aztec institutions contained in

this volume applies to all the nations of the empire as bounded above,

except where special limitation is indicated; besides which it has a

general application to a much wider region, in fact to the whole

country north of the isthmus of Tehuantepec.

[Sidenote: THE NAHUAS IN ANÁHUAC.]

In this connection, and before attempting a description of the

Mexican nations beyond the limits of the empire, nations more or less

independent of Aztec sway, a glance at ancient Mexican history seems

necessary, as well to throw light on the mutual relations of the

peoples of Anáhuac, as to partially explain the broad extent of the

Nahua civilization and of the Aztec idiom. The old-time story, how the

Toltecs in the sixth century appeared on the Mexican table-land, how

they were driven out and scattered in the eleventh century, how after

a brief interval the Chichimecs followed their footsteps, and how

these last were succeeded by the Aztecs who were found in

possession,--the last two, and probably the first, migrating in

immense hordes from the far north-west,--all this is sufficiently

familiar to readers of Mexican history, and is furthermore fully set

forth in the fifth volume of this work. It is probable, however, that

this account, accurate to a certain degree, has been by many writers

too literally construed; since the once popular theory of wholesale

national migrations of American peoples within historic times, and

particularly of such migrations from the north-west, may now be

regarded as practically unfounded. The sixth century is the most

remote period to which we are carried in the annals of Anáhuac by

traditions sufficiently definite to be considered in any proper sense

as historic records. At this period we find the Nahua civilization and

institutions established on the table-land, occupied then as at every

subsequent time by many tribes more or less distinct from each other.

And there this culture remained without intermixture of essentially

foreign elements down to the sixteenth century; there the successive

phases of its development appeared, and there the progressional spirit

continued to ferment for a period of ten centuries, which fermentation

constitutes the ancient Mexican history. During the course of these

ten centuries we may follow now definitely now vaguely the social,

religious, and political convulsions through which these aboriginals

were doomed to pass. From small beginnings we see mighty political

powers evolved, and these overturned and thrown into obscurity by

other and rival unfoldings. Religious sects in like manner we see

succeed each other, coloring their progress with frequent persecutions

and reformations, not unworthy of old-world mediæval fanaticism, as

partisans of rival deities shape the popular superstition in

conformity with their creeds. Wars, long and bloody, are waged for

plunder, for territory, and for souls; now, to quell the insurrection

of a tributary prince, now to repel the invasion of outer barbarian

hordes. Leaders, political and religious, rising to power with their

nation, faction, city, or sect, are driven at their fall into exile,

and thereby forced to seek their fortunes and introduce their culture

among distant tribes. Outside bands, more or less barbarous, but brave

and powerful, come to settle in Anáhuac, and to receive, voluntarily

or involuntarily, the benefits of its arts and science.

I have no disposition unduly to magnify the New World civilization,

nor to under-rate old world culture, but during these ten centuries of

almost universal mediæval gloom, the difference between the two

civilizations was less than most people imagine. On both sides of the

Dark Sea humanity lay floundering in besotted ignorance; the

respective qualities of that ignorance it is hardly profitable to

analyze. The history of all these complicated changes, so far as it

may be traced, separates naturally into three chronologic periods,

corresponding with what are known as the Toltec, the Chichimec, and

the Aztec empires. Prior to the sixth century doubtless there were

other periods of Nahua greatness, for there is little evidence to

indicate that this was the first appearance in Mexico of this

progressive people, but previous developments can not be definitely

followed, although affording occasional glimpses which furnish

interesting matter for antiquarian speculation.

At the opening then, of the historic times, we find the Toltecs in

possession of Anáhuac and the surrounding country. Though the

civilization was old, the name was new, derived probably, although not

so regarded by all, from Tollan, a capital city of the empire, but

afterward becoming synonymous with all that is excellent in art and

high culture. Tradition imputes to the Toltecs a higher civilization

than that found among the Aztecs, who had degenerated with the growth

of the warlike spirit, and especially by the introduction of more

cruel and sanguinary religious rites. But this superiority, in some

respects not improbable, rests on no very strong evidence, since this

people left no relics of that artistic skill which gave them so great

traditional fame; there is, however, much reason to ascribe the

construction of the pyramids at Teotihuacan and Cholula to the Toltec

or a still earlier period. Among the civilized peoples of the

sixteenth century, however, and among their descendants down to the

present day, nearly every ancient relic of architecture or sculpture

is accredited to the Toltecs, from whom all claim descent. In fact the

term Toltec became synonymous in later times with all that was

wonderful or mysterious in the past; and so confusing has been the

effect of this universal reference of all traditional events to a

Toltec source, that, while we can not doubt the actual existence of

this great empire, the details of its history, into which the

supernatural so largely enters, must be regarded as to a great extent

mythical.

[Sidenote: THE TOLTEC EMPIRE.]

There are no data for fixing accurately the bounds of the Toltec

domain, particularly in the south. There is very little, however, to

indicate that it was more extensive in this direction than that of the

Aztecs in later times, although it seems to have extended somewhat

farther northward. On the west there is some evidence that it included

the territory of Michoacan, never subdued by the Aztecs; and it

probably stretched eastward to the Atlantic, including the Totonac

territory of Vera Cruz. Of the tribes or nations that made up the

empire none can be positively identified by name with any of the later

peoples found in Anáhuac, though there can be little doubt that

several of the latter were descended directly from the Toltecs and

contemporary tribes; and indeed it is believed with much reason that

the semi-barbarous Otomís of Anáhuac, and several nations beyond the

limits of the valley, may date their tribal history back to a period

even preceding the Toltec era. During the most flourishing period of

its traditional five centuries of duration, the Toltec empire was

ruled by a confederacy similar in some respects to the alliance of

later date between Mexico, Tezcuco, and Tlacopan. The capitals were

Culhuacan, Otompan, and Tollan, the two former corresponding somewhat

in territory with Mexico and Tezcuco, while the latter was just beyond

the limits of the valley toward the north-west. Each of these capital

cities became in turn the leading power in the confederacy. Tollan

reached the highest eminence in culture, splendor, and fame, and

Culhuacan was the only one of the three to survive by name the bloody

convulsions by which the empire was at last overthrown, and retain

anything of her former greatness.

Long-continued civil wars, arising chiefly from dissensions between

rival religious factions, resulting naturally in pestilence and

famine, which in the aboriginal annals are attributed to the direct

interposition of irate deities, gradually undermine the imperial

thrones. Cities and nations previously held in subjection or

overshadowed by the splendor and power of Tollan, take advantage of

her civil troubles to enlarge their respective domains and to

establish independent powers. Distant tribes, more or less barbarous,

but strong and warlike, come and establish themselves in desirable

localities within the limits of an empire whose rulers are now

powerless to repel invasion. So the kings of Tollan, Culhuacan, and

Otompan lose, year by year, their prestige, and finally, in the middle

of the eleventh century, are completely overthrown, leaving the

Mexican table-land to be ruled by new combinations of rising powers.

Thus ends the Toltec period of ancient Anáhuac history.

The popular account pictures the whole Toltec population, or such part

of it as had been spared by war, pestilence, and famine, as migrating

en masse southward, and leaving Anáhuac desolate and unpeopled for

nearly a half century, to be settled anew by tribes that crowded in

from the north-west when they learned that this fair land had been so

strangely abandoned. This account, like all other national

migration-narratives pertaining to the Americans, has little

foundation in fact or in probability.

The royal families and religious leaders of the Toltecs were doubtless

driven into perpetual exile, and were accompanied by such of the

nobility as preferred, rather than content themselves with subordinate

positions at home, to try their fortunes in new lands, some of which

were perhaps included in the southern parts of the empire concerning

which so little is known. That there was any essential or immediate

change in the population of the table-land beyond the irruption of a

few tribes, is highly improbable. The exiled princes and priests, as I

have said, went southward, where doubtless they played an important

part in the subsequent history of the Maya-Quiché nations of Central

America, a history less fully recorded than that of Anáhuac. That

these exiles were the founders of the Central American civilization, a

popular belief supported by many writers, I cannot but regard as

another phase of that tendency above-mentioned to attribute all that

is undefined and ill-understood to the great and wonderful Toltecs;

nor do I believe that the evidence warrants such an hypothesis. If the

pioneer civilizers of the south, the builders of Palenque, Copan, and

other cities of the more ancient type, were imbued with or influenced

by the Nahua culture, as is not improbable, it certainly was not that

culture as carried southward in the eleventh century, but a

development or phase of it long preceding that which took the name of

Toltec on the Mexican plateaux. With the destruction of the empire the

term Toltec, as applied to an existing people, disappeared. This

disappearance of the name while the institutions of the nation

continued to flourish, may indicate that the designation of the

people--or possibly of the ruling family--of Tollan, was not applied

contemporaneously to the whole empire, and that in the traditions and

records of later times, it has incidentally acquired a fictitious

importance. Of the Toltec cities, Culhuacan, on the lake border,

recovered under the new political combinations something of her old

prominence; the name Culhuas applied to its people appears much more

ancient than that of Toltecs, and indeed the Mexican civilization as a

whole might perhaps as appropriately be termed Culhua as Nahua.

[Sidenote: THE CHICHIMEC EMPIRE.]

The new era succeeding the Toltec rule is that of the Chichimec

empire, which endured with some variations down to the coming of

Cortés. The ordinary version of the early annals has it, that the

Chichimecs, a wild tribe living far in the north-west, learning that

the fertile regions of Central Mexico had been abandoned by the

Toltecs, came down in immense hordes to occupy the land. Numerous

other tribes came after them at short intervals, were kindly received

and granted lands for settlement, and the more powerful of the new

comers, in confederation with the original Chichimec settlers,

developed into the so-called empire. Now, although this occupation of

the central table-lands by successive migrations of foreign tribes

cannot be accepted by the sober historian, and although we must

conclude that very many of the so-called new comers were tribes that

had occupied the country during the Toltec period,--their names now

coming into notice with their increasing importance and power,--yet it

is probable that some new tribes, sufficiently powerful to exercise a

great if not a controlling influence in building up the new empire,

did at this time enter Anáhuac from the immediately bordering regions,

and play a prominent part, in conjunction with the rising nations

within the valley, in the overthrow of the kings of Tollan. These

in-coming nations, by alliance with the original inhabitants, infused

fresh life and vigor into the worn-out monarchies, furnishing the

strength by which new powers were built up on the ruins of the old,

and receiving on the other hand the advantages of the more perfect

Nahua culture.

If one, and the most powerful, of these new nations was, as the annals

state, called the Chichimec, nothing whatever is known of its race or

language. The Chichimecs, their identity, their idiom, and their

institutions, if any such there were, their name even, as a national

appellation, were merged into those of the Nahua nations that

accompanied or followed them, and were there lost. The ease and

rapidity with which this tribal fusion of tongue and culture is

represented to have been accomplished would indicate at least that the

Chichimecs, if a separate tribe, were of the same race and language as

the Toltecs; but however this may be, it must be conceded that, while

they can not have been the wild cave-dwelling barbarians painted by

some of the historians, they did not introduce into Anáhuac any new

element of civilization.

[Sidenote: NO SUCH NATION AS THE CHICHIMEC.]

The name Chichimec at the time of the Spanish conquest, and

subsequently, was used with two significations, first, as applied to

the line of kings that reigned at Tezcuco, and second, to all the wild

hunting tribes, particularly in the broad and little-known regions of

the north. Traditionally or historically the name has been applied to

nearly every people mentioned in the ancient history of America. This

has caused the greatest confusion among writers on the subject, a

confusion which I believe can only be cleared up by the supposition

that the name Chichimec, like that of Toltec, never was applied as a

tribal or national designation proper to any people, while such people

were living. It seems probable that among the Nahua peoples that

occupied the country from the sixth to the eleventh centuries, a few

of the leading powers appropriated to themselves the title Toltecs,

which had been at first employed by the inhabitants of Tollan, whose

artistic excellence soon rendered it a designation of honor. To the

other Nahua peoples, by whom these leading powers were surrounded,

whose institutions were identical but whose polish and elegance of

manner were deemed by these self-constituted autocrats somewhat

inferior, the term Chichimecs, barbarians, etymologically 'dogs,' was

applied. After the convulsions that overthrew Tollan and reversed the

condition of the Nahua nations, the 'dogs' in their turn assumed an

air of superiority and retained their designation Chichimecs as a

title of honor and nobility.

The names of the tribes represented as entering Anáhuac after the

Chichimecs, but respecting the order of whose coming there is little

agreement among authors, are the following: Matlaltzincas, Tepanecs,

Acolhuas, Teo-Chichimecs (Tlascaltecs), Malinalcas, Cholultecs,

Xochimilcas, Chalcas, Huexotzincas, Cuitlahuacs, Cuicatecs, Mizquicas,

Tlahuicas, Cohuixcas, and Aztecs. Some of these, as I have said, may

have entered the valley from the immediate north. Which these were I

shall not attempt to decide, but they were nearly all of the same race

and language, all lived under Nahua institutions, and their

descendants were found living on and about the Aztec plateau in the

sixteenth century, speaking, with one or two exceptions, the Aztec

tongue.

In the new era of prosperity that now dawned on Anáhuac, Culhuacan,

where some remnants even of the Toltec nobility remained, under

Chichimec auspices regained to a great extent its old position as a

centre of culture and power. Among the new nations whose name now

first appears in history, the Acolhuas and Tepanecs soon rose to

political prominence in the valley. The Acolhuas were the Chichimecs

par excellence, or, as tradition has it, the Chichimec nation was

absorbed by them, giving up its name, language, and institutions. The

capitals which ruled the destinies of Anáhuac down to the fifteenth

century, besides Culhuacan, were Tenayocan, Xaltocan, Coatlychan,

Tezcuco, and Azcapuzalco. These capitals being governed for the most

part by branches of the same royal Chichimec family, the era was one

of civil intrigue for the balance of power and for succession to the

throne, rather than one of foreign conquest. During the latter part of

the period, Tezcuco, the Acolhua capital under the Chichimec kings

proper, Azcapuzalco the capital of the Tepanecs, and Culhuacan held

the country under their sway, sometimes allied to meet the forces of

foreign foes, but oftener plotting against each other, each, by

alliance with a second against the third, aiming at universal

dominion. At last in this series of political manoeuvres Culhuacan

was permanently overthrown, and the Chichimec ruler at Tezcuco was

driven from his possessions by the warlike chief of the Tepanecs, who

thus for a short time was absolute master of Anáhuac.

But with the decadence of the Culhua power at Culhuacan, another of

the tribes that came into notice in the valley after the fall of the

Toltecs, had been gradually gaining a position among the nations. This

rising power was the Aztecs, a people traditionally from the far

north-west, whose wanderings are described in picture-writings shown

in another part of this volume. Their migration is more definitely

described than that of any other of the many who are said to have come

from the same direction, and has been considered by different writers

to be a migration from California, New Mexico, or Asia. Later

researches indicate that the pictured annals are intended simply as a

record of the Aztec wanderings in the valley of Mexico and its

vicinity. Whatever their origin, by their fierce and warlike nature

and bloody religious rites, from the first they made themselves the

pests of Anáhuac, and later its tyrants. For some centuries they

acquired no national influence, but were often conquered, enslaved,

and driven from place to place, until early in the fourteenth century,

when Mexico or Tenochtitlan was founded, and under a line of able

warlike kings started forward in its career of prosperity unequaled in

the annals of aboriginal America. At the fall of Culhuacan, Mexico

ranked next to Tezcuco and Azcapuzalco, and when the armies of the

latter prevailed against the former, Mexico was the most powerful of

all the nations that sprang to arms, and pressed forward to humble the

Tepanec tyrant, to reïnstate the Acolhua monarch on his throne, and to

restore Tezcuco to her former commanding position. The result was the

utter defeat of the Tepanecs, and the glory of Azcapuzalco departed

forever.

[Sidenote: THE AZTEC ERA.]

Thus ended in the early part of the fifteenth century the Chichimec

empire,--that is, it nominally ended, for the Chichimec kings proper

lost nothing of their power,--and, by the establishment of the

confederacy already described, the Aztec empire was inaugurated. Under

the new dispensation of affairs, Mexico, by whose aid chiefly

Azcapuzalco had been humbled, received rank and dominion at least

equal to that of Tezcuco, while from motives of policy, and in order,

so far as possible, to conciliate the good will of a strong though

conquered people, Tlacopan, under a branch of the Tepanecs, with a

less extensive domain, was admitted to the alliance. The terms of the

confederacy seem, as I have said, never to have been openly violated;

but in the first years of the sixteenth century the Aztecs had not

only excited the hatred of the most powerful nations outside the

bounds of Anáhuac by their foreign raids, but by their arrogant

overbearing spirit had made themselves obnoxious at home. Their aim

at supreme power was apparent, and both Tezcuco and the independent

republic of Tlascala began to tremble at the dangerous progress of

their mighty neighbor. A desperate struggle was imminent, in which the

Aztecs, pitted against all central Mexico, by victory would have

grasped the coveted prize of imperial power, or crushed as were the

Tepanecs before them by a coalition of nations, would have yielded

their place in the confederacy to some less dangerous rival. At this

juncture Cortés appeared. This renowned chieftain aided Montezuma's

foes to triumph, and in turn fastened the shackles of European

despotism on all alike, with a partial exception in favor of brave

Tlascala. The nations which formed the Aztec empire proper, were the

tribes for the most part that have been named as springing into

existence or notice in Anáhuac early in the Chichimec period, and the

names of most of them have been preserved in the names of modern

localities. It will be seen, in treating of the languages of the

Pacific States, that the Aztec tongue, in a pure state, in distinct

verbal or grammatical traces, and in names of places, is spread over a

much wider extent of territory than can be supposed to have ever been

brought under subjection to Anáhuac during either the Toltec,

Chichimec, or Aztec phases of the Nahua domination. To account for

this we have the commercial connections of the Aztecs, whose traders

are known to have pushed their mercantile ventures far beyond the

regions subjected by force of arms; colonies which, both in Toltec and

Aztec times, may be reasonably supposed to have sought new homes; the

exile of nobles and priests at the fall of the Toltec empire, and

other probable migrations, voluntary and involuntary, of princes and

teachers; the large detachments of Aztecs who accompanied the

Spaniards in the expeditions by which the continent was brought under

subjection; and finally, if all these are not sufficient, the unknown

history and migrations of the Nahua peoples during the centuries

preceding the Toltec era.

[Sidenote: THE TARASCOS OF MICHOACAN.]

I will now briefly notice the civilized nations beyond the limits of

Anáhuac, and more or less independent of the Aztec rule, concerning

whose institutions and history comparatively little or nothing is

known, except what is drawn from the Aztec annals, with some very

general observations on their condition made by their Spanish

conquerors. Westward of the Mexican valley was the flourishing

independent kingdom of Michoacan, in possession of the Tarascos, whose

capital was Tzintzuntzan on Lake Patzcuaro. Their country, lying for

the most part between the rivers Mexcala and Tololotlan, is by its

altitude chiefly in the tierra templada, and enjoys all the advantages

of a tropical climate, soil, and vegetation. Topographically it

presents a surface of undulating plains, intersected by frequent

mountain chains and by the characteristic ravines, and well watered by

many streams and beautiful lakes; hence the name Michoacan, which

signifies 'land abounding in fish.' The lake region of Patzcuaro, the

seat of the Tarasco kings, is described as unsurpassed in picturesque

beauty, while in the variety of its agricultural products and in its

yield of mineral wealth, Michoacan was equaled by few of the states of

New Spain.

If we may credit the general statements of early authors, who give us

but few details, in their institutions, their manners, wealth, and

power, the Tarascos were at least fully the equals of the Aztecs, and

in their physical development were even superior. That they

successfully resisted and defeated the allied armies of Anáhuac is

sufficient proof of their military prowess, although they yielded

almost without a struggle to the Spaniards after the fall of Mexico.

With respect to their civilization we must accept the statements of

their superiority as the probably correct impression of those who came

first in contact with this people, notwithstanding which I find no

architectural or artistic relics of a high culture within their

territory. All that is known on the subject indicates that their

civilization was of the Nahua type, although the language is

altogether distinct from the Aztec, the representative Nahua tongue.

The history of Michoacan, in the form of any but the vaguest

traditions, does not reach back farther than the thirteenth century;

nevertheless, as I have said, there is some reason to suppose that it

formed part of the Toltec empire. The theory has even been advanced

that the Tarascos, forming a part of that empire, were not disturbed

by its fall, and were therefore the best representatives of the oldest

Nahua culture. Their reported physical superiority might favor this

view, but their distinct language on the contrary would render it

improbable. A careful study of all that is known of this people

convinces me that they had long been settled in the lands where they

were found, but leaves on the mind no definite idea of their earlier

history. Their later annals are made up of tales, partaking largely of

the marvelous and supernatural, of the doings of certain demi-gods or

priests, and of wars waged against the omnipresent Chichimecs.

Branches of the great and primitive Otomí family are mentioned as

having their homes in the mountains, and there are traditions that

fragments of the Aztecs and other tribes which followed the Chichimecs

into Anáhuac, lingered on the route of their migration and settled in

the fertile valleys of Michoacan. Between the Tarascos and the Aztecs,

speaking a language different from either but allied more or less

intimately with the former, were the Matlaltzincas, whose capital was

in the plateau valley of Toluca, just outside the bounds of Anáhuac.

This was one of the tribes that have already been named as coming

traditionally from the north-west. For a long time they maintained

their independence, but in the last quarter of the fifteenth century

were forced to yield to the victorious arms of Axayacatl, the Aztec

warrior king.

Immediately below the mouth of the Mexcala, on the border of the

Pacific, were the lands of the Cuitlatecs, and also the province or

kingdom of Zacatollan, whose capital was the modern Zacatula. Of these

two peoples absolutely nothing is known, save that they were tributary

to the Aztec empire, the latter having been added to the domain of

Tezcuco in the very last years of the fifteenth century.

The provinces that extended south-westward from Anáhuac to the ocean,

belonging chiefly to the modern state of Guerrero and included in what

I have described as the Aztec empire proper, were those of the

Tlahuicas, whose capital was Cuernavaca, the Cohuixcas, capital at

Acapulco, the Yoppi on the coast south of Acapulco, and the province

of Mazatlan farther inland or north-east. The name Tlapanecs is also

rather indefinitely applied to the people of a portion of this

territory in the south, including probably the Yoppi. Of the names

mentioned we have met those of the Tlahuicas and Cohuixcas among the

tribes newly springing into notice at the beginning of the Chichimec

period. It is probable that nearly all were more or less closely

allied in race and language to their Mexican masters, their political

subjection to whom dates from about the middle of the fifteenth

century.

[Sidenote: MIZTECS AND ZAPOTECS.]

The western slope of the cordillera still farther south-west,

comprising in general terms the modern state of Oajaca, was ruled and

to a great extent inhabited by the Miztecs and Zapotecs, two powerful

nations distinct in tongue from the Aztecs and from each other.

Western Oajaca, the home of the Miztecs, was divided into Upper and

Lower Miztecapan, the latter toward the coast, and the former higher

up in the mountains, and sometimes termed Cohuaixtlahuacan. The

Zapotecs in eastern Oajaca, when first definitely known to history,

had extended their power over nearly all the tribes of Tehuantepec,

besides encroaching somewhat on the Miztec boundaries. The Miztecs,

notwithstanding the foreign aid of Tlascaltecs and other eastern foes

of the Aztec king, were first defeated by the allied forces of Anáhuac

about 1458; and from that date the conquerors succeeded in holding

their stronger towns and more commanding positions down to the

conquest, thus enforcing the payment of tribute and controlling the

commerce of the southern coast, which was their primary object.

Tehuantepec and Soconusco yielded some years after to the conquering

Axayacatl, and Zapotecapan still later to his successor Ahuitzotl; but

in the closing years of the fifteenth century the Zapotecs recovered

their country with Tehuantepec, leaving Socunusco, however,

permanently in Aztec possession. The history of the two nations takes

us no farther back than the fourteenth century, when they first came

into contact with the peoples of Anáhuac; it gives a record of their

rulers and their deeds of valor in wars waged against each other,

against the neighboring tribes, and against the Mexicans. Prior to

that time we have a few traditions of the vaguest character preserved

by Burgoa, the historian of Oajaca. These picture both Miztecs and

Zapotecs as originally wild, but civilized by the influence of

teachers, priests, or beings of supernatural powers, who came among

them, one from the south, and others from the direction of Anáhuac.

Their civilization, however received, was surely Nahua, as is shown by

the resemblances which their institutions, and particularly their

religious rites, bear to those of the Aztecs. Being of the Nahua type,

its origin has of course been referred to that inexhaustible source,

the dispersion of the Toltecs, or to proselyting teachers sent

southward by that wonderful people. Indeed, the Miztec and Zapotec

royal families claimed a direct Toltec descent. It is very probable,

however, that the Nahua element here was at least contemporaneous in

its introduction with the same element known as Toltec in Anáhuac,

rather than implanted in Oajaca by missionaries, voluntary or

involuntary, from Tollan. I have already remarked that the presence

of Nahua institutions in different regions is too often attributed to

the Toltec exiles, and too seldom to historical events preceding the

sixth century. The Oajacan coast region or tierra caliente, if we may

credit the result of researches by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, was

sometimes known as Anáhuac Ayotlan, as the opposite coast of Tabasco

was called Anáhuac Xicalanco. Both these Anáhuacs were inhabited by

enterprising commercial peoples, whose flourishing centres of trade

were located at short intervals along the coast. Material relics of

past excellence in architecture and other arts of civilization abound

in Oajaca, chief among which stand the remarkable structures at Mitla.

[Sidenote: NATIONS OF TEHUANTEPEC.]

Although Tehuantepec in the later aboriginal times was subject to the

kings of Zapotecapan, yet within its limits, besides the Chontales,--a

name resembling in its uncertainty of application that of Chichimecs

farther north,--were the remnants of two old nations that still

preserved their independence. These were the Mijes, living chiefly by

the chase in the mountain fastnesses of the north, and the Huaves, who

held a small territory on the coast and islands of the lagoons just

east of the city of Tehuantepec. The Mijes, so far as the vague

traditions of the country reveal anything of their past, were once the

possessors of Zapotecapan and the isthmus of Tehuantepec, antedating

the Zapotecs and perhaps the Nahua culture in this region, being

affiliated, as some believe, in institutions and possibly in language,

with the Maya element of Central America. While this connection must

be regarded as somewhat conjectural, we may nevertheless accept as

probably authentic the antiquity, civilization, and power of this

brave people. The Huaves were traditionally of southern origin, having

come to Tehuantepec by sea from Nicaragua or a point still farther

south. In navigation and in commerce they were enterprising, as were

indeed all the tribes of this southern-coast Anáhuac, and they took

gradually from the Mijes, whom they found in possession, a large

extent of territory, which as we have seen they were finally forced to

yield up to their Zapotec conquerors.

Crossing now to the Atlantic or Gulf shores we have from the past

nothing but a confused account of Olmecs, Xicalancas, and Nonohualcas,

who may have been distinct peoples, or the same people under different

names at different epochs, and who at some time inhabited the lowlands

of Tehuantepec and Vera Cruz, as well as those of Tabasco farther

south. At the time of the conquest we know that this region was

thickly inhabited by a people scarcely less advanced than those of

Anáhuac, and dotted with flourishing towns devoted to commerce. But

neither in the sixteenth nor immediately preceding centuries can any

one civilized nation be definitely named as occupying this Anáhuac

Xicalanco. We know, however, that this country north of the

Goazacoalco River formed a portion of the Aztec empire, and that its

inhabitants spoke for the most part the Aztec tongue. These provinces,

known as Cuetlachtlan and Goazacoalco, were conquered, chiefly with a

view to the extension of the Aztec commerce, as early as the middle of

the fifteenth century, notwithstanding the assistance rendered by the

armies of Tlascala.

[Sidenote: THE TLASCALTECS.]

The plateau east of Anáhuac sometimes known as Huitzilapan was found

by the Spaniards in the possession of the independent republics, or

cities, of Tlascala, Huexotzinco, and Cholula. The people who occupied

this part of the table-land were the Teo-Chichimecs, of the same

language and of the same traditional north-western origin as the

Aztecs, whom they preceded in Anáhuac. Late in the thirteenth century

they left the valley of Mexico, and in several detachments established

themselves on the eastern plateau, where they successfully maintained

their independence of all foreign powers. As allies of the Chichimec

king of Tezcuco they aided in overturning the Tepanec tyrant of

Azcapuzalco; but after the subsequent dangerous development of Aztec

ambition, the Tlascaltec armies aided in nearly every attempt of other

nations to arrest the progress of the Mexicans toward universal

dominion. Their assistance, as we have seen, was unavailing except in

the final successful alliance with the forces of Cortés; for, although

secure in their small domain against foreign invasion, their armies

were often defeated abroad. Tlascala has retained very nearly its

original bounds, and the details of its history from the foundation of

the city are, by the writings of the native historian Camargo, more

fully known than those of most other nations outside of Anáhuac. This

author, however, gives us the annals of his own and the surrounding

peoples from a Tlascaltec stand-point only. Before the Teo-Chichimec

invasion of Huitzilapan, Cholula had already acquired great prominence

as a Toltec city, and as the residence of the great Nahua apostle

Quetzalcoatl, of which era, or a preceding one, the famous pyramid

remains as a memento. Outside of Cholula, however, the ancient history

of this region presents but a blank page, or one vaguely filled with

tales of giants, its first reputed inhabitants, and of the mysterious

Olmecs, from some remaining fragments of which people the Tlascaltecs

are said to have won their new homes. These Olmecs seem to have been a

very ancient people who occupied the whole eastern region, bordering

on or mixed with the Xicalancas in the south; or rather the name Olmec

seems to have been the designation of a phase or era of the Nahua

civilization preceding that known as the Toltec. It is impossible to

determine accurately whether the Xicalancas should be classed with the

Nahua or Maya element, although probably with the former.

The coast region east of Tlascala, comprising the northern half of the

state of Vera Cruz, was the home of the Totonacs, whose capital was

the famous Cempoala, and who were conquered by the Aztecs at the close

of the fifteenth century. They were probably one of the ancient

pre-Toltec peoples like the Otomís and Olmecs, and they claimed to

have occupied in former times Anáhuac and the adjoining territory,

where they erected the pyramids of the sun and moon at Teotihuacan.

Their institutions when first observed by Europeans seem to have been

essentially Nahua, and the abundant architectural remains found in

Totonac territory, as at Papantla, Misantla, and Tusapan, show no

well-defined differences from Aztec constructions proper. Whether this

Nahua culture was that originally possessed by them or was introduced

at a comparatively late period through the influence of the

Teo-Chichimecs, with whom they became largely consolidated, is

uncertain. The Totonac language is, however, distinct from the Aztec,

and is thought to have some affinity with the Maya.

North of the Totonacs on the gulf coast, in the present state of

Tamaulipas, lived the Huastecs, concerning whose early history nothing

whatever is known. Their language is allied to the Maya dialects. They

were a brave people, looked upon by the Mexicans as semi-barbarous,

but were defeated and forced to pay tribute by the king of Tezcuco in

the middle of the fifteenth century.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: NATIONS OF CENTRAL AMERICA.]

The difficulties experienced in rendering to any degree satisfactory a

general view of the northern nations, are very greatly augmented now

that I come to treat of the Central American tribes. The causes of

this increased difficulty are many. I have already noticed the

prominence of the Aztecs in most that has been recorded of American

civilization. During the conquest of the central portions of the

continent following that of Mexico, the Spaniards found an advanced

culture, great cities, magnificent temples, a complicated system of

religious and political institutions; but all these had been met

before in the north, and consequently mere mention in general terms of

these later wonders was deemed sufficient by the conquerors, who were

a class of men not disposed to make minute observations or comparisons

respecting what seemed to them unimportant details. As to the priests,

their duty was clearly to destroy rather than to closely investigate

these institutions of the devil. And in the years following the

conquest, the association between the natives and the conquerors was

much less intimate than in Anáhuac. These nations in many instances

fought until nearly annihilated, or after defeat retired in national

fragments to the inaccessible fastnesses of the cordillera, retaining

for several generations--some of them permanently--their independence,

and affording the Spaniards little opportunity of becoming acquainted

with their aboriginal institutions. In the south, as in Anáhuac,

native writers, after their language had been fitted to the Spanish

alphabet, wrote more or less fully of their national history; but all

such writings whose existence is known are in the possession of one or

two individuals, and, excepting the Popol Vuh translated by Ximenes as

well as Brasseur de Bourbourg, and the Perez Maya manuscript, their

contents are only vaguely known to the public through the writings of

their owners. Another difficulty respecting these writings is that

their dependence on any original authority more trustworthy than that

of orally transmitted traditions, is at least doubtful. The key to the

hieroglyphics engraved on the stones of Palenque and Copan, and

painted on the pages of the very few ancient manuscripts preserved, is

now practically lost; that it was possessed by the writers referred to

is, although not impossible, still far from proven. Again, chronology,

so complicated and uncertain in the annals of Anáhuac, is here,

through the absence of legible written records, almost entirely

wanting, so that it is in many cases absolutely impossible to fix even

an approximate date for historical events of great importance. The

attempts of authors to attach some of these events, without sufficient

data, to the Nahua chronology, have done much to complicate the

matter still further.

The only author who has attempted to treat of the subject of Central

American civilization and antiquity comprehensively as a whole is the

Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg. The learned abbé, however, with all his

research and undoubted knowledge of the subject, and with his

well-known enthusiasm and tact in antiquarian engineering, by which he

is wont to level difficulties, apparently insurmountable, to a grade

which offers no obstruction to his theoretical construction-trains,

has been forced to acknowledge at many points his inability to

construct a perfect whole from data so meagre and conflicting. Such

being the case, the futility must be apparent of attempting here any

outline of history which may throw light on the institutions of the

sixteenth century. I must be content, for the purposes of this

chapter, with a mention of the civilized nations found in possession

of the country, and a brief statement of such prominent points in

their past as seem well-authenticated and important.

[Sidenote: THE ANCIENT MAYA EMPIRE.]

Closely enveloped in the dense forests of Chiapas, Guatemala, Yucatan,

and Honduras, the ruins of several ancient cities have been

discovered, which are far superior in extent and magnificence to any

seen in Aztec territory, and of which a detailed description may be

found in the fourth volume of this work. Most of these cities were

abandoned and more or less unknown at the time of the conquest. They

bear hieroglyphic inscriptions apparently identical in character; in

other respects they resemble each other more than they resemble the

Aztec ruins--or even other and apparently later works in Guatemala and

Honduras. All these remains bear evident marks of great antiquity.

Their existence and similarity, in the absence of any evidence to the

contrary, would indicate the occupation of the whole country at some

remote period by nations far advanced in civilization, and closely

allied in manners and customs, if not in blood and language.

Furthermore, the traditions of several of the most advanced nations

point to a wide-spread civilization introduced among a numerous and

powerful people by Votan and Zamná, who, or their successors, built

the cities referred to, and founded great allied empires in Chiapas,

Yucatan and Guatemala; and moreover, the tradition is confirmed by the

universality of one family of languages or dialects spoken among the

civilized nations, and among their descendants to this day. I deem the

grounds sufficient, therefore, for accepting this Central American

civilization of the past as a fact, referring it not to an extinct

ancient race, but to the direct ancestors of the peoples still

occupying the country with the Spaniards, and applying to it the name

Maya as that of the language which has claims as strong as any to be

considered the mother tongue of the linguistic family mentioned. As I

have said before, the phenomena of civilization in North America may

be accounted for with tolerable consistency by the friction and

mixture of this Maya culture and people with the Nahua element of the

north; while that either, by migrations northward or southward, can

have been the parent of the other within the traditionally historic

past, I regard as extremely improbable. That the two elements were

identical in their origin and early development is by no means

impossible; all that we can safely presume is that within historic

times they have been practically distinct in their workings.

There are also some rather vague traditions of the first appearance of

the Nahua civilization in the regions of Tabasco and Chiapas, of its

growth, the gradual establishment of a power rivalling that of the

people I call Mayas, and of a struggle by which the Nahuas were

scattered in different directions, chiefly northward, to reappear in

history some centuries later as the Toltecs of Anáhuac. While the

positive evidence in favor of this migration from the south is very

meagre, it must be admitted that a southern origin of the Nahua

culture is far more consistent with fact and tradition than was the

north-western origin, so long implicitly accepted. There are no data

by which to fix the period of the original Maya empire, or its

downfall or breaking-up into rival factions by civil and foreign wars.

The cities of Yucatan, as is clearly shown by Mr Stephens, were, many

of them, occupied by the descendants of the builders down to the

conquest, and contain some remnants of wood-work still in good

preservation, although some of the structures appear to be built on

the ruins of others of a somewhat different type. Palenque and Copan,

on the contrary, have no traces of wood or other perishable material,

and were uninhabited and probably unknown in the sixteenth century.

The loss of the key to what must have been an advanced system of

hieroglyphics, while the spoken language survived, is also an

indication of great antiquity, confirmed by the fact that the Quiché

structures of Guatemala differed materially from those of the more

ancient epoch. It is not likely that the Maya empire in its integrity

continued later than the third or fourth century, although its cities

may have been inhabited much later, and I should fix the epoch of its

highest power at a date preceding rather than following the Christian

era. A Maya manuscript fixes the date of the first appearance in

Yucatan of the Tutul Xius at 171 A. D. The Abbé Brasseur therefore

makes this the date of the Nahua dispersion, believing, on apparently

very slight foundation, the Tutul Xius to be one of the Nahua

fragments. With the breaking-up of this empire into separate nations

at an unknown date, the ancient history of Central America as a whole

ceases, and down to a period closely preceding the conquest we have

only an occasional event preserved in the traditions of two or three

nations.

[Sidenote: MAYA NATIONS OF YUCATAN.]

Yucatan was occupied in the sixteenth century by the Mayas proper, all

speaking the same language, and living under practically the same

institutions, religious and political. The chief divisions were the

Cocomes, Tutul Xius, Itzas, and Cheles, which seem to have been

originally the designations of royal or priestly families, rather than

tribal names proper of the peoples over whom they held sway. Each of

these had their origin-traditions of immigrating tribes or teachers

who came in the distant past to seek new homes, escape persecution, or

introduce new religious ideas, in the fertile Maya plains. Some of

these stranger apostles of new creeds are identified by authors with

Toltec missionaries or exiles from Anáhuac. The evidence in favor of

this identity in any particular case is of course unsatisfactory, but

that it was well-founded in some cases is both probable,--commercial

intercourse having undoubtedly made the two peoples mutually

acquainted with each other,--and is supported by the presence of Nahua

names of rulers and priests, and of Nahua elements in the Yucatec

religion, the same remark applying to all Central America. The ancient

history of Yucatan is an account of the struggles, alliances, and

successive domination of the factions mentioned. To enumerate here, in

outline even, these successive changes so vaguely and confusedly

recorded would be useless, especially as their institutions, so far as

can be known, were but slightly affected by political changes among

people of the same blood, language, and religion.

The Cocomes were traditionally the original Maya rulers of the land,

and the Tutul Xius first came into notice in the second century, the

Itzas and Cheles appearing at a much later date. One of the most

prosperous eras in the later history of the peninsula of Yucatan is

represented to have followed the appearance of Cuculcan, a mysterious

stranger corresponding closely in his teachings, as in the etymology

of his name, with the Toltec Quetzalcoatl. He became the head of the

Cocome dynasty at Mayapan, and ruled the country as did his successors

after him in alliance with the Tutul Xius at Uxmal, the Itzas at

Chichen Itza, and the Cheles at Izamal. But later the Cocomes were

overthrown, and Mayapan destroyed by a revolution of the allies. The

Tutul Xius now became the leading power, a position which they held

down to the time, not long before the conquest, when the country was

divided by war and civil dissensions into numerous petty domains, each

ruled by its chief and independent of the rest, all in a weak and

exhausted condition compared with their former state, and unable to

resist by united effort the progress of the Spanish invaders whom

individually they fought most bravely. Three other comparatively

recent events of some importance in Yucatec history may be noticed.

The Cocomes in the struggle preceding their fall called in the aid of

a large force of Xicalancas, probably a Nahua people, from the

Tabascan coast region, who after their defeat were permitted by the

conquerors to settle in the country. A successful raid by some foreign

people, supposed with some reason to be the Quichés from Guatemala, is

reported to have been made against the Mayas with, however, no

important permanent results. Finally a portion of the Itzas migrated

southward and settled in the region of Lake Peten, establishing their

capital city on an island in the lake. Here they were found, a

powerful and advanced nation, by Hernan Cortés in the sixteenth

century, and traces of their cities still remain, although it must be

noted that another and older class of ruins are found in the same

region, dating back perhaps to a time when the glory of the Maya

empire had not wholly departed.

[Sidenote: CHIAPAS AND GUATEMALA.]

Chiapas, politically a part of the Mexican Republic, but belonging

geographically to Central America, was occupied by the Chiapanecs,

Tzendales, and Quelenes. The Tzendales lived in the region about

Palenque, and were presumably the direct descendants of its builders,

their language having nearly an equal claim with the Maya to be

considered the mother tongue. The Chiapanecs of the interior were a

warlike tribe, and had before the coming of the Spaniards conquered

the other nations, forcing them to pay tribute, and successfully

resisting the attacks of the Aztec allies. They also are a very old

people, having been referred even to the tribes that preceded the

establishment of Votan's empire. Statements concerning their history

are numerous and irreconcilable; they have some traditions of having

come from the south; their linguistic affinity with the Mayas is at

least very slight. The Quelenes or Zotziles, whose past is equally

mysterious, inhabited the southern or Guatemalan frontier.

Guatemala and northern Honduras were found in possession of the Mames

in the north-west, the Pocomams in the south-east, the Quichés in the

interior, and the Cakchiquels in the south. The two latter were the

most powerful and ruled the country from their capitals of Utatlan and

Patinamit, where they resisted the Spaniards almost to the point of

annihilation, retiring for the most part after defeat to live by the

chase in the distant mountain gorges. Guatemalan history from the Votan

empire down to an indefinite date not many centuries before the

conquest is a blank. It recommences with the first traditions of the

nations just mentioned. These traditions, as in the case of every

American people, begin with the immigration of foreign tribes into the

country as the first in the series of events leading to the establishment

of the Quiché-Cakchiquel empire. Assuming the Toltec dispersion from

Anáhuac in the eleventh century as a well-authenticated fact, most

writers have identified the Guatemalan nations, except perhaps the

Mames by some considered the descendants of the original inhabitants,

with the migrating Toltecs who fled southward to found a new empire. I

have already made known my scepticism respecting national American

migrations in general, and the Toltec migration southward in

particular, and there is nothing in the annals of Guatemala to modify

the views previously expressed. The Quiché traditions are vague and

without chronologic order, much less definite than those relating to

the mythical Aztec wanderings. The sum and substance of the Quiché and

Toltec identity is the traditional statement that the former people

entered Guatemala at an unknown period in the past, while the latter

left Anáhuac in the eleventh century. That the Toltecs should have

migrated en masse southward, taken possession of Guatemala,

established a mighty empire, and yet have abandoned their language for

dialects of the original Maya tongue is in the highest degree

improbable. It is safer to suppose that the mass of the Quichés and

other nations of Guatemala, Chiapas, and Honduras, were descended

directly from the Maya builders of Palenque, and from contemporary

peoples. Yet the differences between the Quiché-Cakchiquel structures,

and the older architectural remains of the Maya empire indicate a new

era of Maya culture, originated not unlikely by the introduction of

foreign elements. Moreover, the apparent identity in name and

teachings between the early civilizers of the Quiché tradition and the

Nahua followers of Quetzalcoatl, together with reported resemblances

between actual Quiché and Aztec institutions as observed by Europeans,

indicate farther that the new element was engrafted on Maya

civilization by contact with the Nahuas, a contact of which the

presence of the exiled Toltec nobility may have been a prominent

feature. After the overthrow of the original empire we may suppose the

people to have been subdivided during the course of centuries by civil

wars and sectarian struggles into petty states, the glory of their

former greatness vanished and partially forgotten, the spirit of

progress dormant, to be roused again by the presence of the Nahua

chiefs. These gathered and infused new life into the scattered

remnants; they introduced some new institutions, and thus aided the

ancient people to rebuild their empire on the old foundations,

retaining the dialects of the original language.

[Sidenote: NICARAGUANS AND PIPILES.]

In addition to the peoples thus far mentioned, there were undoubtedly

in Nicaragua, and probably in Salvador, nations of nearly pure Aztec

blood and language. The former are known among different authors as

Nicaraguans, Niquirans, or Cholutecs, and they occupied the coast

between lake Nicaragua and the ocean, with the lake islands. Their

institutions, political and religious, were nearly the same as those

of the Aztecs of Anáhuac, and they have left abundant relics in the

form of idols and sepulchral deposits, but no architectural remains.

These relics are moreover hardly less abundant in the territory of the

adjoining tribes, nor do they differ essentially in their nature;

hence we must conclude that some other Nicaraguan peoples, either by

Aztec or other influence, were considerably advanced in civilization.

The Nahua tribes of Salvador, the ancient Cuscatlan, were known as

Pipiles, and their culture appears not to have been of a high order.

Both of these nations probably owe their existence to a colony sent

southward from Anáhuac; but whether in Aztec or pre-Aztec times, the

native traditions, like their interpretation by writers on the

subject, are inextricably confused and at variance. For further

details on the location of Central American nations I refer to the

statement of tribal boundaries at the end of Chapter VII., Volume I.,

of this work.

* * * * *

I here close this general view of the subject, and if it is in some

respects unsatisfactory, I cannot believe that a different method of

treatment would have rendered it less so. To have gone more into

detail would have tended to confuse rather than elucidate the matter

in the reader's mind, unless with the support of extensive quotations

from ever-conflicting authorities, which would have swollen this

general view from a chapter to a volume. As far as antiquity is

concerned, the most intricate element of the subject, I shall attempt

to present--if I cannot reconcile--all the important variations of

opinion in another division of this work.

In the treatment of my subject, truth and accuracy are the principal

aim, and these are never sacrificed to graphic style or glowing

diction. As much of interest is thrown into the recital as the

authorities justify, and no more. Often may be seen the more striking

characteristics of these nations dashed off with a skill and

brilliance equaled only by their distance from the facts; disputed

points and unpleasing traits glossed over or thrown aside whenever

they interfere with style and effect. It is my sincere desire, above

all others, to present these people as they were, not to make them as

I would have them, nor to romance at the expense of truth;

nevertheless, it is to be hoped that in the truth enough of interest

will remain to command the attention of the reader. My treatment of

the subject is essentially as follows: The civilized peoples of North

America naturally group themselves in two great divisions, which for

convenience may be called the Nahuas and the Mayas respectively; the

first representing the Aztec civilization of Mexico, and the second

the Maya-Quiché civilization of Central America. In describing their

manners and customs, five large divisions may be made of each group.

The first may be said to include the systems of government, the order

of succession, the ceremonies of election, coronation, and anointment,

the magnificence, power, and manner of life of their kings; court

forms and observances; the royal palaces and gardens. The second

comprises the social system; the classes of nobles, gentry, plebeians

and slaves; taxation, tenure, and distribution of lands; vassalage and

feudal service; the inner life of the people; their family and private

relations, such as marriage, divorce, and education of youth; other

matters, such as their dress, food, games, feasts and dances,

knowledge of medicine, and manner of burial. The third division

includes their system of war, their relations with foreign powers,

their warriors and orders of knighthood, their treatment of prisoners

of war and their weapons. The fourth division embraces their system

of trade and commerce, the community of merchants, their sciences,

arts, and manufactures. The fifth and last considers their judiciary,

law-courts, and legal officials. I append as more appropriately placed

here than elsewhere, a note on the etymological meaning and

derivation, so far as known, of the names of the Civilized Nations.

ETYMOLOGY OF NAMES.

ACOLHUAS;--Possibly from _coloa_, 'to bend,' meaning with the prefix

_atl_, 'water-colhuas,' or 'people at the bend of the water.' Not from

_acolli_, 'shoulder,' nor from _colli_, 'grandfather.' _Buschmann_,

_Ortsnamen_, pp. 85, 89. '_Coloa_, encoruar, o entortar algo, o rodear

yendo camino.' '_Acolli_, ombro.' '_Culhuia_, lleuar a otro por rodeos

a alguna parte.' _Molina_, _Vocabulario_. _Colli_, 'grand-father,'

plural _colhuan_. _Colhuacan_, or _Culiacan_, may then mean 'the land

of our ancestors.' _Gallatin_, in _Amer. Ethno. Soc., Transact._, vol.

i., pp. 204-5. 'El nombre de _aculhuas_, ó segun la ortografía

mexicana, _aculhuaque_, en plural, y no _aculhuacanes_, ni

_aculhues_.' _Dicc. Univ._, tom. i., p. 39. 'Col, chose courbe,

faisant _coloa_, _colua_, ou _culhua_, nom appliqué plus tard dans le

sens d'ancêtre, parce que du _Colhuacan_ primitif, des îles de la

Courbe, vinrent les émigrés qui civilisèrent les habitants de la

vallée d'Anahuac.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Quatre Lettres_, p. 407.

'_Colhua_, ou _culhua_, _culua_, de _coltic_, chose courbée. De là le

nom de la cité de _Colhuacan_, qu'on traduit indifféremment, ville de

la courbe, de choses recourbées (des serpents), et aussi des aïeux, de

_coltzin_, aïeul.' _Id._, _Popol Vuh_, p. xxix.

AZTECS;--From _Aztlan_, the name of their ancient home, from a root

_Aztli_, which is lost. It has no connection with _azcatl_, 'ant,' but

may have some reference to _iztac_, 'white.' _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_,

pp. 5-6. 'De _Aztlan_ se deriva el nacional _Aztecatl_.' _Pimentel_,

_Cuadro_, tom. i., p. 158. '_Az_, primitif d'_azcatl_, fourmi, est le

mot qui désigne, à la fois, d'une manière générale, la vapeur, le gaz,

ou toute chose légère, comme le vent ou la pluie; c'est l'aile,

_aztli_ qui désigne aussi la vapeur, c'est le héron dans _aztatl_. Il

se retrouve, avec une légère variante, dans le mot nahuatl composé,

_tem-az-calli_, bain de vapeur, dans _ez-tli_, le sang ou la lave;

dans les vocables quichés _atz_, bouffée du fumée, épouvantail,

feu-follet.... Ainsi les fourmis de la tradition haïtienne, comme de

la tradition mexicaine, sont à la fois des images des feux intérieurs

de la terre et de leurs exhalaisons, comme du travail des mines et de

l'agriculture. Du même primitif _az_ vient _Aztlan_ "le Pays sur ou

dans le gaz, _az-tan_, _az-dan_, la terre sèche, soulevée par les gaz

ou remplie de vapeurs."' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Quatre Lettres_, p.

311.

CHALCAS;--'Il nome _Chalcho_ vale, Nella gemma. Il P. Acosta dice, che

_Chalco_ vuol dire, Nelle bocche.' _Clavigero_, _Storia Ant. del

Messico_, tom. ii., p. 253. Buschmann believes Acosta's definition 'in

the mouths' to be more correct. _Ortsnamen_, p. 83. 'Chalca, Ce qui

est le calcaire; c'est l'examen de tous les vocables mexicains,

commençant en _chal_, qui m'a fait découvrir le sens exact de ce mot;

il se trouve surtout dan _chal-chi-huitl_, le jade, littéralement ce

qui est sorti du fond du calcaire.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Quatre

Lettres_, pp. 403, 406.

CHELES;--'Le _Chel_ dans la langue maya est une espèce d'oiseaux

particuliers à cette contrée.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat.

Civ._, tom. ii., p. 19.

CHIAPANECS;--_Chiapan_, 'locality of the chia' (oil-seed).

_Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 187. '_Chiapanèque_, du nahuatl

_chiapanecatl_, c'est-à-dire homme de la rivière Chiapan (eau douce),

n'est pas le nom véritable de ce peuple; c'est celui que lui donnèrent

les Mexicains.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii.,

p. 87.

CHICHIMECS;--'_Chichi_, perro, o perra.' _Molina_, _Vocabulario_.

_Chichi_, 'dog'; perhaps as inhabitants of _Chichimecan_, 'place of

dogs.' _Mecatl_ may mean 'line,' 'row,' 'race,' and _Chichimecatl_,

therefore 'one of the race of dogs.' _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, pp. 79,

81. 'Chichimèque veut dire, à proprement parler, homme sauvage.... Ce

mot désigne des hommes qui mangent de la viande crue et sucent le sang

des animaux; car _chichiliztli_ veut dire, en mexicain, sucer;

_chichinaliztli_, la chose que l'on suce, et _Chichihualli_,

mamelle.... Toutes les autres nations les redoutaient et leur

donnaient le nom de Suceurs, en mexicain, _Chichimecatechinani_. ...

Les Mexicains nomment aussi les chiens chichime, parce qu'ils lèchent

le sang des animaux et le sucent.' _Camargo_, _Hist. Tlaxcallan_, in

_Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, 1843, tom. xcviii., p. 140.

'_Teuchichimecas_, que quiere decir _del todo barbados_, que por otro

nombre se decian Cacachimecas, ó sea hombres silvestres.' _Sahagun_,

_Hist. Gen._, tom. iii., p. 116. '_Chichimec_ ou _chichimetl_, suceur

de maguey, et de là les Chichimèques.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist.

Nat. Civ._, tom. i., pp. 171, 56. Other derivations are from

_Chichen_, a city of Yucatan, and from _chichiltic_ 'red,' referring

to the color of all Indians. _Id._, _Popol Vuh_, p. lxiii. '_Chi_ ...

selon Vetancourt, c'est une préposition, exprimant ce qui est tout en

bas, au plus profond, comme _aco_ signifie ce qui est au plus haut....

_Chichi_ est un petit chien (_chi-en_), de ceux qu'on appelle de

Chihuahua, qui se creusent des tanières souterraines.... _Chichi_

énonce tout ce qui est amer, aigre ou âcre, tout ce qui fait tache: il

a le sens de sucer, d'absorber; c'est la salive, c'est le poumon et la

mamelle. Si maintenant ... j'ajoute _me_, primitif de _metl_, aloès,

chose courbée, vous aurez _Chichime_, choses courbes, tortueuses,

suçantes, absorbantes, amères, âcres ou acides, se cachant, comme les

petits chiens terriers, sous le sol où elles se concentrent, commes

des poumons ou des mamelles.... Or, puisqu'il est acquis, d'après ces

peintures et ces explications, que tout cela doit s'appliquer à une

puissance tellurique, errante, d'ordinaire, comme les populations

nomades, auxquelles on attacha le nom de _Chichimeca_.' _Id._, _Quatre

Lettres_, pp. 111-12.

CHOLULTECS;--From _choloa_, meaning 'to spring,' 'to run,' 'to flee,'

or 'place where water springs up,' 'place of flight,' or 'fugitives.'

_Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 100. 'C'est du lieu d'où ils étaient

sortis primitivement, ou plutôt à cause de leur qualité actuelle

d'exilés, qu'ils prirent ensuite le nom de _Cholutecas_.'

'_Cholutecas_, mieux _Cholultecas_, c'est-à-dire, Exilés, et aussi,

Habitants de Cholullan.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._,

tom. ii., p. 79.

CHONTALES;--'_Chontalli_, estrangero o forastero.' _Molina_,

_Vocabulario_; _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, p. 21; _Buschmann_,

_Ortsnamen_, p. 133; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom.

iii., p. 47.

COCOMES;--'_Cocom_ signifie écouteur, croyant.' _Landa_, _Rel. de las

Cosas de Yucatan_, p. 39. 'Cocom est un nom d'origine nahuatl; il est

le pluriel de cohuatl, serpent.... Dans la langue maya, le mot cocom a

la signification d'écouteur, celui qui entend; cette étymologie nous

paraît plus rationnelle que la première.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_,

_Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., p. 78.

COHUIXCAS;--Ayala translates the name of their province Cuixca,

'tierra de lagartijas.' _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, p. 48.

CUITLAHUACS;--'_Cuitlatl_, excremento, y genéricamente cosa sucia.'

_Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, p. 47. '_Cuitlahuac_, Dans celui qui a

les Excréments, de cuitlatl, excrément, déjection de l'homme ou de

l'animal, mais que le chroniste mexicain applique ici aux déjections

du volcan voisin de la Grande-Base ... de là le nom de _teo-cuitlatl_,

excréments divins, donné aux métaux précieux, l'or avec l'adjectif

jaune, l'argent avec l'adjectif blanc.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_,

_Quatre Lettres_, p. 407. Cuitlatlan, 'locality of dirt.' _Buschmann_,

_Ortsnamen_, p. 15. '_Cuitlatl_, mierda.' _Molina_, _Vocabulario_. The

name of the Cuitlatecs seems to have no separate etymological meaning.

CULHUAS;--See Acolhuas. The two people are not supposed to have been

the same, but it is probable that they are identical in the derivation

of their names.

HUASTECS;--'_Huaxtlan_ es una palabra mexicana que significa, "donde

hay, ó abunda el _huaxi_," fruto muy conocido en México con el nombre

castellanizado de _guaje_. Compónese aquella palabra de _huaxin_,

perdiendo _in_ por contraccion, muy usada en mexicano al componerse

las palabras, y de _tlan_, partícula que significa "donde hay, ó

abunda algo," y que sirve para formar colectivos. De _huaxtlan_ es de

donde, segun parece, viene el nombre gentilicio _huaxtecatl_, que los

españoles convirtieron en _huaxteca_ ó _huaxteco_.' _Pimentel_,

_Cuadro_, tom. i., pp. 5-6; _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, pp. 12-13. 'El

que es inhábil ó tosco, le llaman ... _cuextecatl_.' From the name of

their ruler, who took too much wine. 'Así por injuria, y como alocado,

le llamaban de Cuextecatl.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iii., lib.

x., pp. 134-5, 143-4.

HUEXOTZINCAS;--Diminutive of _huexotla_, 'willow-forest.' _Buschmann_,

_Ortsnamen_, p. 100.

ITZAS;--From the name of Zamná, the first Yucatan civilizer. 'Le

llamaban tambien Ytzamná, y le adoraban por Dios.' _Cogolludo_, _Hist.

de Yucathan_, p. 196. '_Itzmat-ul_, que quiere dezir el que recibe y

posee la gracia, ó rozio, ó sustancia del cielo.' '_Ytzen caan, ytzen

muyal_, que era dezir yo soy el rozio ó sustancia del cielo y nubes.'

_Lizana_, in _Landa_, _Rel. de las Cosas de Yucatan_, p. 356. 'Suivant

Ordoñez, le mot itza est composé de itz, doux, et de hà, eau.'

_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 15.

MALINALCAS;--'_Malina_, nitla, torcer cordel encima del muslo.'

'_Malinqui_, cosa torcida.' _Molina_, _Vocabulario_. '_Malinal_ est

le nom commun de la liane, ou des cordes tordues.' '_Malina_, tordre,

qui fait _malinal_, liane ou corde. Ou bien plus littéralement de

choses tournées, percée à jour, de _mal_, primitif de _mamali_, percer,

tarauder, et de _nal_, de part en part, tout autour.' _Brasseur de

Bourbourg_, _Quatre Lettres_, pp. 407-8.

MAMES;--'El verdadero nombre de la lengua y de la tribu es mem, que

quiere decir tartamudos porque los pueblos que primero les oyeron

hablar, encontraron semejanza entre los tardos para pronunciar, y la

manera con que aquellos decian su lengua.' _Orozco y Berra_,

_Geografía_, p. 24. 'A esta lengua llaman _Mame_, é indios _mames_ á los

de esta sierra, porque ordinariamente hablan y responden con esta

palabra _man_, que quiere decir _padre_.' _Reynoso_, in _Pimentel_,

_Cuadro_, tom. i., pp. 83-4. '_Mem_ veut dire bègue et muet.' '"Mem",

mal à propos défiguré dans Mame par les Espagnols, servit depuis

généralement à désigner les nations qui conservèrent leur ancienne

langue et demeurèrent plus ou moins indépendantes des envahisseurs

étrangers.' Mam 'veut dire ancien, vieillard.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_,

_Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 119. Mam sometimes means grand-son.

_Id._, _Popol Vuh_, p. 41.

MATLALTZINCAS;--'El nombre _Matlalcincatl_, tomóse de _Matlatl_ que es

la red con la cual desgranaban el maiz, y hacian otras cosas....

Tambien se llaman _Matlatzincas_ de hondas que se dicen _tlematlate_,

y así _Matlatzincas_ por otra interpretacion quiere decir, honderos ó

fondibularios; porque los dichos _Matlatzincas_ cuando muchachos,

usaban mucho traer las hondas, y de ordinario las traían consigo, como

los _Chichimecas_ sus arcos, y siempre andaban tirando con ellas.

Tambien les llamaban del nombre de red por otra razon que és la mas

principal, porque cuando à su idolo sacrificaban alguna persona, le

echaban dentro en una red, y allí le retorcian y estrujaban con la

dicha red, hasta que le hacian echar los intestinos. La causa de

llamarse _coatl_ (Ramirez) dice que "debe leerse _cuaitl_ (cabeza).

Coatl significa culebra," cuando es uno, y _qüaqüatas_ cuando son

muchos és, porque siempre traían la cabeza ceñida con la honda; por lo

cual el vocablo se decia _qüa_ por abreviatura, que quiere decir

_quaitl_ que es la cabeza, _yta_ que quiere decir _tamatlatl_ (Molina

says 'Honda para tirar es _tematlatl, tlatematlauiloni_') ques es la

honda, y así quiere decir _quatlatl_ hombre que trae la honda en la

cabeza por guirnalda: tambien se interpreta de otra manera, que quiere

decir hombre de cabeza de piedra.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iii.,

lib. x., p. 128, and _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, pp. 29-30.

'_Matlatzinia_, dar palmadas.' '_Matlatepito_, red pequeña.' _Molina_,

_Vocabulario_. From _matlatl_, 'net', meaning therefore 'small place

of nets'. _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 13. 'De _Matlatl_, le filet,

les mailles.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Quatre Lettres_, p. 408.

'_Matlatzinco_ es una palabra mexicana que significa "lugarcito de las

redes", pues se compone de _matlat_, red, y la partícula _tzinco_ que

expresa diminucion. Fácilmente se comprende, pues, que _matlatzinca_

viene de _matlatzinco_, y que la etimología exige que estas palabras

se escriban con _c_ (mejor _k_) y no con _g_ como hacen algunos

autores', _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. i., p. 500.

MAYAS;--'"_Mai_", une divinité ou un personnage des temps antiques,

sans doute celui à l'occasion duquel le pays fut appelé _Maya_.'

_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, in _Landa_, _Rel. de las Cosas de Yucatan_,

p. 42. '_Maya_ ou _Maïa_, nom antique d'une partie du Yucatan, paraît

signifier aussi la terre.' _Id._, p. lxx. 'Maayhà, non adest aqua,

suivant Ordoñez, c'est-à-dire, Terre sans eau.' _Id._, _Hist. Nat.

Civ._, tom. i., p. 76. The terminations _a_ and _o_ of this name are

Spanish. _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. ii., p. 35.

MIZQUICAS;--'_Mizquitl_, arbol de goma para tinta.' _Molina_,

_Vocabulario_. _Mizquitl_, a tree yielding the pure gum arabic, a

species of acacia. _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 104.

MIZTECS;--'La palabra mexicana _Mixtecatl_, es nombre nacional,

derivado de _mixtlan_, lugar de nubes ó nebuloso, compuesto de

_mixtli_, nube, y de la terminacion _tlan_.' _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_,

tom. i., p. 39. _Mixtlan_, 'place of clouds.' _Buschmann_,

_Ortsnamen_, p. 18. '_Mixtecapan_ ... pays des brouillards.' _Brasseur

de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., p. 146.

NAHUAS;--'Todos los que hablan claro la lengua mexicana que les llaman

_nahóas_, son descendientes de los Tultecas.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._,

tom. iii., lib. x., p. 114. '_Nahoatl_ ó _nahuatl_, segun el diccionario

de Molina, significa _cosa que suena bien_, de modo que viene à ser un

adjetivo que aplicado al sustantivo _idioma_, creo que puede traducirse

por _armonioso_.' _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. i., p. 158. Something of

fine, or clear, or loud sound; _nahuatlato_ means an interpreter;

_nahuati_, to speak loud; _nahuatia_, to command. The name has no

connection whatever with _Anáhuac_. _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, pp. 7-8.

'Molina le traduit par Ladino, instruit, expert, civilisé, et lui

donne aussi un sens qui se rapporte aux sciences occultes. On n'en

trouve pas, toutefois, la racine dans le mexicain. La langue quichée

en donne une explication parfaite: il vient du verbe _Nao_ ou _Naw_,

connaître, sentir, savoir, penser; _Tin nao_, je sais; _Naoh_, sagesse,

intelligence. Il y a encore le verbe radical _Na_, sentir, soupçonner.

Le mot _Nahual_ dans son sens primitif et véritable, signifie donc

littéralement "qui sait tout"; c'est la même chose absolument que le

mot anglais _Know-all_, avec lequel il a tant d'identité. Le Quiché et

le Cakchiquel l'emploient fréquemment aussi dans le sens de

mystérieux, extraordinaire, merveilleux.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_,

_Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., pp. 101-2, 194.

NONOHUALCAS;--The Tutul-Xius, chiefs of a Nahuatl house in Tulan, seem

to have borne the name of _Nonoual_, which may have given rise to

_Nonohualco_ or _Onohualco_. '_Nonoual_ ne serait-il pas une

altération de _Nanaual_ ou _Nanahuatl_?' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, in

_Landa_, _Rel. de las Cosas de Yucatan_, p. 420.

OLMECS;--Olmecatl was the name of their first traditionary leader.

_Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., p. 152.

_Olmecatl_ may mean an inhabitant of the town of _Olman_; but as

_mecatl_ is also used for 'shoot', 'offspring', 'branch', the word

probably comes from _olli_, and means 'people of the gum'.

_Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 16.

OTOMÍS;--'El vocablo _Otomitl_, que es el nombre de los _Otomies_,

tomáronlo de su caudillo, el cual se llamaba _Oton_.' _Sahagun_,

_Hist. Gen._, tom. iii., lib. x., p. 122. Not a native word, but

Mexican, derived perhaps from _otli_, 'road', and _tomitl_, 'animal

hair', referring possibly to some peculiar mode of wearing the hair.

_Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, pp. 18-19. '_Otho_ en la misma lengua othomí

quiere decir _nada_, y _mi_, quieto, ó sentado, de manera que

traducida literalmente la palabra, significa nada-quieto, cuya idea

pudiéramos expresar diciendo _peregrino_ ó _errante_.' _Pimentel_,

_Cuadro_, tom. i., p. 118; _Náxera_, _Disertacion_, p. 4. 'Son

étymologie mexicaine, Otomitl, signifie la flèche d'Oton.' _Brasseur

de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., p. 158.

PIPILES;--A reduplication of _pilli_, which has two meanings, 'noble'

and 'child', the latter being generally regarded as its meaning in the

tribal name. _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, pp. 137-8. So called because

they spoke the Mexican language with a childish pronunciation.

_Juarros' Hist. Guat._, p. 224.

POKOMAMS;--'_Pokom_, dont la racine _pok_ désigne une sorte de tuf

blanc et sablonneux.... La termination _om_ est un participe présent.

De _Pokom_ vient le nom de Pokomam et de Pokomchi, qui fut donné à ces

tribus de la qualité du sol où ils bâtirent leur ville.' _Brasseur de

Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 122.

QUICHÉS;--'La palabra _quiché_, _kiché_, ó _quitze_, significa _muchos

árboles_.' _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. ii., p. 124. 'De _quï_ beaucoup,

plusieurs, et de _che_, arbre, ou de _queche_, _quechelah_,

_qechelah_, la forêt.' _Ximenez_, in _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol

Vuh_, p. cclxv.

TARASCOS;--'Tarasco viene de _tarhascue_, que en la lengua de

Michoacan significa suegro, ó yerno segun dice el P. Lagunas en su

Gramática.' _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. i., p. 273. '_Taras_ en la

lengua mexicana se dice _Mixcoatl_, que era el dios de los

_Chichimecas_.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iii., lib. x., p. 138.

'Á quienes dieron el nombre de tarascos, por el sonido que les hacian

las partes genitales en los muslos al andar.' _Veytia_, _Hist. Ant.

Mej._, tom. ii., p. 105; _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. des Nat.

Civ._, tom. iii., p. 57.

TEPANECS;--_Tepan_, 'stony place', from _tetl_, or _tecpan_, 'royal

palace'. _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 92. '_Tecpantlan_ signifie

auprès des palais.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. cx.

'Cailloux roulés sur la roche, _te-pa-ne-ca_, littéralement ce qui est

mêlé ensemble sur la pierre; ou bien _te-pan-e-ca_, c'est-à-dire avec

des petites pierres sur la roche ou le solide, _e_, pour _etl_, le

haricot, frijol, étant pris souvent dans le sens d'une petite pierre

sur une surface, etc.' _Id._, _Quatre Lettres_, p. 408.

TLAHUICAS;--From _tlahuitl_, 'cinnabar', from this mineral being

plentiful in their country. _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 93.

_Tlahuilli_, 'poudres brillantes.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Quatre

Lettres_, p. 422. '_Tlauia_, alumbrar a otros con candela o hacha.'

_Molina_, _Vocabulario_.

TLAPANECS;--'Y llámanlos tambien tlapanecas que quiere decir _hombres

almagrados_, porque se embijaban con color.' _Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._,

tom. iii., lib. x., p. 135. From _tlalpantli_, 'ground'; may also come

from _tlalli_, 'land'. _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 162. _Tlapallan_,

'terre colorée'. _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Popol Vuh_, p. lxiii. Tla,

'feu'. _Id._, _Quatre Lettres_, p. 416. '_Tlapani_, quebrarse algo, o

el tintorero que tiñe paños.' _Molina_, _Vocabulario_. Probably a

synonym of Yoppi, q. v. _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, pp. 26-7.

TLASCALTECS;--'_Tlaxcalli_, tortillas de mayz, o pan generalmente.'

_Molina_, _Vocabulario_. _Tlaxcalli_, 'place of bread or tortillas',

the past participle of _ixca_, 'to bake or broil'. _Buschmann_,

_Ortsnamen_, p. 93.

TOLTECS;--'_Toltecayotl_, maestria de arte mecanica. _Toltecatl_,

official de arte mecanica. _Toltecauia_, fabricar o hazer algo el

maestro.' _Molina_, _Vocabulario_. 'Los _tultecas_ todos se nombraban

_chichimecas_, y no tenian otro nombre particular sino este que

tomaron de la curiosidad, y primor de las obras que hacian, que se

llamaron obras _tultecas_ ó sea como si digesemos, oficiales pulidos y

curiosos como ahora los de Flandes, y con razon, porque eran sutiles y

primorosos en cuanto ellos ponian la mano, que todo era muy bueno.'

_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iii., lib. x., p. 107. Toltecs, 'people

of Tollan'. Tollan, 'place of willows or reeds', from _tolin_,

'willow, reed.' _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 76. '_Toltecatl_ était le

titre qu'on donnait à un artiste habile.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_,

_Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., p. 194. Tollan: 'Elle est frappante ... par

l'identité qu'elle présente avec le nom de _Metztli_ ou le Croissant.

En effet, ce qu'elle exprime, d'ordinaire, c'est l'idée d'un "pays

recourbé" ou incliné. Sa première syllabe _tol_, primitif de _toloa_,

"abaxar, inclinar la cabeça," dit Molina, "entortar, encorvar," dit-il

ailleurs, signifie donc baisser, incliner la tête, se tortuer,

courber, ce qui, avec la particule locale _lan_ pour _tlan_ ou _tan_,

la terre, l'endroit, annonce une terre ou un pays recourbé, sens

exact du mot _tollan_. Du même verbe vient _tollin_, le jonc, le

roseau, dont la tête s'incline au moindre vent; de là, le sens de

Jonquière, de limné, que peut prendre _tollan_, dont le hiéroglyphe

représente précisément le son et la chose, et qui paraît exprimer

doublement l'idée de cette terre fameuse de la Courbe ou du Croissant,

basse et marécageuse en beaucoup d'endroits suivant la tradition....

Dans sa (the word _toloa_) signification active, Molina le traduit par

"tragar", avaler, engloutir, ce qui donne alors pour _tollan_, le sens

de terre engloutie, abîmée, qui, comme vous le voyez, convient on ne

peut mieux dans le cas présent. Mais si _tollan_ est la terre

engloutie, si c'est en même temps le pays de la Courbe, Metztli ou le

Croissant, ces deux noms, remarquez-le, peuvent s'appliquer aussi bien

au lieu où il a été englouti, à l'eau qui se courbait le long des

rivages du Croissant, soit à l'intérieur des grandes golfes du nord et

du midi, soit au rivage convexe, tourné comme le genou de la jambe,

vers l'Orient. C'est ainsi qu'on retrouve l'identification continuelle

de l'idée mâle avec l'idée femelle, du contenu et du contenant, de

_tollan_, le pays englouti, avec _tollan_, l'océan engloutisseur, de

l'eau qui est contenue et des continents qui l'enserrent dans leurs

limites. Ajoutons, pour compléter cette analyse, que _tol_, dans la

langue quichée, est un verbe, dont _tolan_ est le passé, et qu'ainsi

que _tulan_ il signifie l'abandon, la nudité, etc. De _tol_, faites

_tor_, dans la même langue, et vous aurez avec _toran_, ce qui est

tourné ou retourné, comme en mexicain, de même que dans _turn_

(touran) vous trouverez ce qui a été renversé, bouleversé de fond en

comble, noyé sous les eaux, etc. Dans la langue maya, _tul_ signifie

remplir, combler, et _an_, comme en quiché, est le passé du verbe:

mais si à _tul_ on ajoute _ha_ ou _a_, l'eau, nous avons _Tuhla_ ou

_Tula_, rempli, submergé d'eau. En dernière analyse, _tol_ ou _tul_

paraît avoir pour l'origine _ol_, _ul_, couler, venir, suivant le

quiché encore; primitif d'_olli_, ou bien d'_ulli_, en langue nahuatl,

la gomme élastique liquide, la boule noire du jeu de paume, qui

devient le hiéroglyphe de l'eau, remplissant les deux golfes. Le

préfixe _t_ pour _ti_ serait une préposition; faisant _to_, il

signifie l'orbite de l'oeil, en quiché, image de l'abîme que la boule

noire remplit comme sa prunelle, ce dont vous pouvez vous assurer

dans la figure de la page suivante; _to_ est, en outre, l'aide,

l'instrument, devenant _tool_; mais en mexicain, _to_, primitif de

_ton_, est la chaleur de l'eau bouillante. _Tol_, contracté de

_to-ol_, pourrait donc avoir signifié "le liquide bouillant", ou la

venue de la chaleur bouillante, de l'embrasement. Avec _teca_,

étendre, le mot entier _tolteca_, nous aurions donc, étendre le

courbé, etc., et _tol-tecatl_, le toltèque, serait ce qui étend le

courbé ou l'englouti, on bien l'eau bouillante, etc. Ces étymologies

rentrent donc toutes dans la même idée qui, sous bien des rapports,

fait des Toltèques, une des puissances telluriques, destructrices de

la terre du Croissant.' _Id._, _Quatre Lettres_, pp. 118-20.

TOTONACS;--From _tototl_ and _nacatl_, 'bird-flesh'; or from _tona_,

'to be warm'. _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 13. '_Totonaco_ significa á

la letra, tres corazones en un sentido, y tres panales en otro,' from

_toto_, 'three', and _naco_, 'heart', in the Totonac language.

_Dominguez_, in _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. i., pp. 226-7. '_Totonal_,

el signo, en que alguno nasce, o el alma y espiritu.' _Molina_,

_Vocabulario_.

TUTUL-XIUS;--'Le nom des Tutul-Xiu paraît d'origine nahuatl; il serait

dérivé de _totol_, _tototl_, oiseau, et de _xíuitl_, ou _xíhuitl_,

herbe.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, in _Landa_, _Rel. de las Cosas de

Yucatan_, p. 47.

XICALANCAS;--'_Xicalli_, vaso de calabaça.' _Molina_, _Vocabulario_.

_Xicalli_, 'place of this species of calabash or drinking-shell.'

_Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 17. 'Xicalanco, la Ville des courges ou

des tasses faites de la courge et appelée Xicalli dans ces contrées,

et dont les Espagnols ont fait Xicara.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_,

_Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. i., p. 110.

XOCHIMILCAS;--From _xochitl_, 'flower', and _milli_, 'piece of land',

meaning 'place of flower-fields.' _Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 94.

'_Xochimicque_ captiuos en guerra.' _Molina_, _Vocabulario_.

'_Xochimilca_, habitants de _Xochimilco_, lieu où l'on sème tout en

bas de la Base, nom de la terre végétale et fertile où l'on

ensemençait, _m'il_, qu'on retourne, d'où le mot _mil_ ou _milli_,

champ, terre ensemencée, et sans doute aussi le latin _milium_, notre

_míl_ et _millet_.' 'J'ajouterai seulement que ce nom signifie dans le

langage ordinaire, ceux qui cultivent de fleurs, de _xochitl_, fleur,

littéralement, ce qui vit sous la base.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_,

_Quatre Lettres_, pp. 406-8.

YOPPI;--'Llámanles _yopes_ porque su tierra se llama _Yopinzinco_.'

_Sahagun_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. iii., lib. x., p. 135. 'Inferimos ...

que yope, yopi, jope, segun se encuentra escrita la palabra en varios

lugares, es sinónimo de tlapaneca.' _Orozco y Berra_, _Geografía_, pp.

26-7. _Yopaa_, 'Land of Tombs.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat.

Civ._, tom. iii., p. 9.

ZAPOTECS;--'_Tzapotl_, cierta fruta conocida.' _Molina_,

_Vocabulario_. _Tzapotlan_, 'place of the zapotes, trees or fruits.'

_Buschmann_, _Ortsnamen_, p. 16. 'Derivado de la palabra mexicana

_tzapotlan_, que significa "lugar de los _zapotes_", nombre

castellanizado de una fruta muy conocida.' _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom.

i., p. 319. '_Zapotecapan_ est le nom que les Mexicains avaient donné

à cette contrée, à cause de la quantité et de la qualité supérieure de

ses fruits.' _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. iii., p.

38.

ZOTZILES;--'_Zotzil_, murciélago.' _Pimentel_, _Cuadro_, tom. ii., p.

245. Zotzilha 'signifie la ville des Chauves-Souris.' _Brasseur de

Bourbourg_, _Hist. Nat. Civ._, tom. ii., p. 88.