The first natives whom Cortes met on landing in Mexico were the
_Totonacos_. They occupied the territory of Totonicapan, now included
in the state of Vera Cruz. According to traditions of their own, they
had resided there eight hundred years, most of which time they were
independent, though a few generations before the arrival of the Spaniards
they had been subjected by the arms of the Montezumas. The course of
their early migrations they stated had been from the west and northwest,
and they claimed to have been the constructors of the remarkable pyramids
and temples of Teotihuacan, ten miles northwest of the city of Mexico.
This boast we may be chary of believing, but they were unquestionably
a people of high culture. Sahagun describes them as almost white in
color, their heads artificially deformed, but their features regular
and handsome.[167] Robes of cotton beautifully dyed served them for
garments, and their feet were covered with sandals. The priests wore
long black gowns with collars, so that they looked like Dominican monks.
The religion which prevailed among them was a sun-worship with elaborate
rites, among which were the circumcision of boys and a similar operation
on girls.
These people were highly civilized. Cempoalla, their capital city, was
situate about five miles from the sea, at the junction of two streams.
Its houses were of brick and mortar, and each was surrounded by a small
garden, at the foot of which a stream of fresh water was conducted. Fruit
trees and grain fields filled the gardens and surrounded the city.
Altogether, says the chronicler, it was like a terrestrial paradise.[168]
That this description is not overdrawn, is proved by the remarkable
ruins which still exist in this province, and the abundant relics of
ancient art which have been collected there, especially by the efforts
of Mr. Hermann Strebel, whose collections now form part of the Berlin
Ethnographic Museum.[169]
The affinities of the Totonacos are difficult to make out. Sahagun says
that they claimed kinship with the Huastecs, their neighbors to the
north, which would bring them into the Maya stock. Their language has,
in fact, many words from Maya roots, but it has also many more from the
Nahuatl, and its grammar is more in accord with the latter than with
the former.[170] Besides these, there is a residuum which is different
from both. For this reason I class them as an independent stock, of
undetermined connections.