Ceris, on Tiburon Island and the adjacent coast.Cochimis, northern portion of Californian peninsula.Cocopas, at mouth of Colorado river.Coco-Maricopas, on middle Gila river.Comeyas, between lower Colorado and the Pacific.Coninos, on Cataract creek, branch of the Colorado.Cuchanes, seeYumas.Diegueños, near San Diego on the Pacific.Gohunes, on Rio Salado and Rio Verde.Guaicurus, middle portion of Californian peninsula.Hualapais, from lower Colorado to Black Mountains.Maricopas, seeCoco-Maricopas.Mohaves, on both banks of lower Colorado.Pericus, southern extremity of Californian peninsula.Tontos, in Tonto basin and in the Pinal mountains.Tequistlatecas, of Oaxaca and Guerrero.Yavipais, west of Prescott, Arizona.Yumas, near mouth of Colorado river.[128]
The wordpuebloin Spanish means simply “town;†but in American ethnography it has obtained a special signification from the aboriginal structures so-called, whose remains are found in profusion in Arizona and the neighboring localities over an area about 350 miles from east to west and 300 miles fromnorth to south.[129]These are buildings several stories in height, either of stone or of adobes, communal in character, that is, intended to accommodate a whole gens or clan, and usually with certain peculiarities of finish and plan. The adobes are generally large, some four feet long by two feet wide, and were often made upon the wall itself, the clay or gravel being carried in a moist state in baskets of this size and deposited upon the wall till the mass dried. When stones are employed, they are held together by a mud mortar. The most celebrated of these adobe edifices are perhaps the Casas Grandes in the valley of the San Miguel river, in northern Chihuahua. They have frequently been described and do not differ except in size from hundreds of other ruins in the Gila basin.
In connection with the pueblos stand the “cliff-houses,†structures of stones usually carefully squared and laid in mortar, found in great numbers and over an area of wide extent in the deep gorges or cañons of the Colorado, the Gila and the upper Rio Grande, and their numberless affluents. They are perched upon the ledges of the precipices, which often descend almost perpendicularly for thousands of feet, and access to many of them could have been only by ladders or ropes. Prominent points are frequently surmounted by round or square stone towers, evidently for purposes of observation. The dispositionof the cliff houses renders it certain that their plans and positions were selected with a view to make them safe retreats from marauding enemies.
As descriptions of these interesting ruins have often been introduced to support vague and extraordinary theories concerning ancient America, I would emphatically say there is nothing in any of the remains of the pueblos, or the cliff houses, or any other antiquities in that portion of our continent, which compels us to seek other constructors for them than the ancestors of the various tribes which were found on the spot by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century, and by the armies of the United States in the middle of the nineteenth. This opinion is in accordance with history, with the traditions of the tribes themselves, and with the condition of culture in which they were found. When, in 1735, Pedro de Ainza made an expedition from Santa Fé against the Navajos, he discovered tribes dwelling in stone houses “built within the rocks,†and guarded by watchtowers of stone.[130]The Apaches still remember driving these cliff-dwellers from their homes, and one of the Apache gentes is yet named from them “stone-house people.â€[131]As for the pueblos, seven or eight of them are occupied to-day by the same people who built them, and whose homes they have been for many centuries.
It is a significant fact that these people do not all belong to the same stock. On the contrary, the “Pueblo Indians†are members of a number of wholly disconnected stems. This proves that the Pueblo civilization is not due to any one unusually gifted lineage, but was a local product, developed in independent tribes by the natural facilities offered by the locality. It is a spontaneous production of the soil, climate, and conditions, which were unusually favorable to agricultural and sedentary occupations, and prompted various tribes to adopt them.
Of these different peoples, those of the Moqui Pueblo belonged to the Shoshonee branch of the Uto-Aztecan stock, and is the only existing Pueblo which is peopled by that widespread stem.[132]We have good reason to believe, however, that the Pimas of the Sonoran Group of the same stock once occupied a number of adobe Pueblos, and quite likely were the constructors of the Casas Grandes.
The natives of the remaining Pueblos belong to three independent stocks, known as the Kera, the Tehua, and the Zuñi families. No relationship has been discovered between either of these and any tribe outside the territory I have referred to.
The culture of the Pueblos, both ancient and modern, bears every mark of local and independent growth. A knowledge of metals, other than to alimited extent for ornament, is nowhere evident. Tillage of the fields in a rude manner was the main source of the food supply. Pottery of fine temper and in symmetrical forms was manufactured by the women. That they had any other domestic animal than a fowl, and sometimes a dog, has not been shown. Mats and clothing were woven of the fibres of bark and grass, and the culture of cotton was at one time common, especially among the Moquis and Pimas. The arts of weaving feathers and working shells into decorative objects are not yet lost. Apart from the development of the art of architecture, there was little in the culture of the Pueblo tribes to lift them above the level of the Algonkins. The acequias, or irrigation trenches, about which much has been written, were a necessity of their climate, and were in use among their southern neighbors in Sonora, and the Navajos.
Of all the stocks on the North American Continent, that which I call theUto-Aztecanmerits the closest study, on account of its wide extension and the high development of some of its members. Tribes speaking its dialects were found from the Isthmus of Panama to the banks of the Columbia River, and from the coast of the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico. The relationship of these numerous bands is unquestionable, although many of them have freely adopted words from other stocks. This, however, will not surprise us if we recall that most of the Aryac languages of the old world owe about one third of their radicals to non-Aryac sources.
The principal members of this stock are the Utes, Shoshonees and Comanches in the north, various tribes in Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Durango in the center, and the Nahuas or Aztecs in the south. It is not to be understood that the one of these derived its idioms from the other, but rather that at some remote epoch all three were offshoots from some one ancestral stem. This was at a period before the grammatical forms of the tongue had reached full development, and probably when it was in a stage of isolation, with tendencies to suffix agglutinationand incorporation. Since then the stages of growth which the several dialects have reached have been various. The one which far outstripped all others was the Nahuatl, which arrived at clear and harmonious sounds, fixed forms, and even some recognizable traces of inflection, though always retaining its incorporative character.
The establishment of the unity of this linguistic family we owe to the admirable labors of Joh. Carl Ed. Buschmann, who devoted years of patient investigation to examining the traces of the Nahuatl, or as he preferred to call it, the Aztec language, in Mexico and throughout the continent to the north. In spite of deficient materials, his sharp-sighted acumen discovered the relationship of the chief tongues of the group, and later investigations have amply confirmed his conclusions.[133]
Long before his day, however, the Spanish missionaries to the tribes of Sonora and Sinaloa had recognized their kinship to the Aztecs, and Father Ribas, in his history of the missions established by the Jesuits in Mexico, published in 1645, stated that the root-words and much of the grammar of all these dialects was substantially the same as those of the Nahuatl.[134]
It is without doubt the most numerous stock now surviving. According to the census figures of the governments of the United States and Mexico for 1880, the numbers were as follows:[135]
The northern, or Ute branch, which I so call from its most prominent member, includes the Shoshonees, Utes and Comanches, with their numerous sub-tribes and affiliated bands. They occupied at the beginning of this century an immense area, now included in south-eastern Oregon, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, parts of California, New Mexico and Arizona, northern and western Texas, and the states of Durango and Chihuahua in Mexico. Other names by which they are known in this area are Snakes, Bannocks, Moquis, etc. Everywhere their tongue is unmistakably the same. “Any one speaking the Shoshonee language may travel without difficulty among the wild tribes from Durango, in Mexico, to the banks of the Columbia River.â€[136]Their war parties scoured the country from the Black Hills of Dakota far into the interior of Mexico.
So far as can be ascertained, the course of migration of this group, like that of the whole stock, has been in a general southerly direction. The Comanche traditions state that about two hundred winters ago they lived as one people with the Shoshoneessomewhere to the north of the head-waters of the Arkansas River.[137]This is borne out by similar traditions among the northern Shoshonees.[138]That very careful student, Mr. George Gibbs, from a review of all the indications, reached the conclusion that the whole group came originally from the east of the Rocky Mountain chain, and that the home of its ancestral horde was somewhere between these mountains and the Great Lakes.[139]This is the opinion I have also reached from an independent study of the subject, and I believe it is as near as we can get to the birth-place of this important stock.
This stock presents the extreme of both linguistic and physical development. No tongue on the continent was more cultured than the Nahuatl, and so were those who spoke it. The wretched root-digging Utes, on the other hand, present the lowest type of skulls anywhere found in America.[140]The explanation is easy. It was owing to their lack of nutrition. Living on the arid plains of the interior, little better than deserts, they had for generations been half starved. They were not agricultural, but lived along the streams, catching fish, and making a poor bread from the seeds of the wild sun-flower and the chenopodium. Their houses were brush huts, or lodges of dressed buffalo skins; and where the winterswere cold, they dug holes in the ground in which they huddled in indescribable filth.
Very much superior to these are the Comanches. A generation or two ago they numbered about fifteen thousand, and were one of the most formidable nations of the west. Now they have diminished to that many hundreds, and live peaceably on reservations. They are tall (1.70) and well formed, the skull mesocephalic, the eyes horizontal, the nose thin, the color light. Agriculture is not a favorite occupation, but they are more reasonable and willing to accept a civilized life than their neighbors, the Apaches or the Kioways. They had little government, and though polygamists, the women among them exercised considerable influence. Like the Utes, they are sun-worshippers, applying to that orb the term “father sun,â€taab-apa, and performing various dances and other rites in his honor. The serpent would seem also to come in for a share of their reverence, their tribal sign in the gesture speech of the plain being that for a snake,[141]and indeed they are often called Snake Indians. Not less interesting is it to find throughout all these tribes, Ute and Comanche, the deification of the coyote, which occupies so prominent a niche in the pantheon of the Aztecan tribes and those who have borrowed from them. According to the Ute myths, the wolf and the coyote were the first two brothers from whom the race had its origin, and to the latter were attributed all the good things in the world.
As we approach the southern border of the group, the stage of culture becomes higher. The natives of the Pueblo of Moqui, whose curious serpent-worship has been so well described by Captain Bourke,[142]are of this stock, and illustrate its capacity for developing a respectable civilization. The Kizh and Netela, who were attached to the mission of San Capistrano, were also Shoshonees.
In the valley of the Gila river the Shoshonian and Sonoran branches of the Uto-Aztecan stock were in contact from time immemorial. The Sonoran branch begins on the north with the Pimas, who occupied the middle valley of the Gila, and the land south of it quite to the Rio Yaqui. I continue for it the name ofSonorangiven by Buschmann, although it extended far beyond the bounds of that province.
The Pima tribe merits our special attention, because of the remarkable ruins and relics of a dense former population, sedentary and agricultural, in the region inhabited by it when the river basin was first explored. These are the large structures known as the Great Houses or Casas Grandes, and the remains of the numerous towns, extensive irrigating trenches, and ruined enclosures, brought to light by the Hemenway exploring expedition in the Salt river valley. Their walls were built of adobes or sun-dried bricks of large size, the clay probably placed in baskets upon the wall and allowed to dry there. The extent of these remains is surprising, and in the Salt rivervalley alone, in an area of half a million acres, it is estimated that two hundred thousand people may have found support. Making every allowance, there is no doubt that at some remote epoch the arable land in the valleys of the Gila and its affluents was under close cultivation.
Who these busy planters were has supplied material for much speculation. As usual, the simplest explanation has been the last to be welcomed. In fact, there is no occasion for us to look elsewhere than to the ancestors of these Pimas, who lived in the valley when the whites first traveled it. There is nothing in the ruins and relics which demands a higher culture than the Pimas possessed. There is no sign of a knowledge of metals beyond hammered copper; the structures are such as the Pueblo Indians of the same stock live in now; and the Pimas have a historic tradition which claims these ruins and these old fields as the work of their ancestors, from which they were driven by the repeated attacks of the Apaches and other savage tribes of the north.[143]Some of them, a sub-tribe called the Sobaypuris (Sabaguis), and doubtless many others, took refuge in the deep cañons and constructed along their precipitous sides those “cliff houses,†which have been often described. About a hundred years ago the Apaches drove them out of these last resorts and forced them to flee to the main body of the Pimas in the south.[144]In conclusion,we may safely attribute most of the ruins in the Gila Basin, as well as most of the cliff houses in the various cañons, to these tribes of the Uto-Aztecan stock. When the early missionaries reached the Pimas they found them in precisely the condition of culture of which we see the remains in the Salt River valley. Their houses were built of large adobes, sometimes roofed with tiles; they were agricultural and industrious; their fields were irrigated by like extensive canals or trenches, and their weapons, utensils and clothing were just such as the Hemenway expedition showed were those of the early accolents of the Gila and the Salado.[145]
Most of the other tribes of this group were, from the first knowledge we have of them, inclined to sedentary and agricultural lives. The Opatas, on the head-waters of the Rio Yaqui, and the Tarahumaras, in the valleys of the Sierra Madre, are quiet, laborious peoples, who accepted without difficulty the teachings of the early missionaries. They cultivate the ground and build houses of adobes or of wood plastered.
The Tehuecos, Zuaques, Mayos and Yaquis are sub-tribes of the Cahitas, and speak a dialect the most akin of any to the Nahuatl. They are tall, vigorous men, active and laborious, trading in salt and woolen stuffs, cheerful, and much given to music.South of the Tarahumaras and immediately adjoining them, in the State of Chihuahua, are the Tepehuanas on the eastern slope of the Sierra Madre, from 25° to 27° latitude north. They are a people of unusual intelligence, of excellent memory, and when first met were living in solid houses of logs or of stone and clay, or as genuine troglodytes in artificial caves, and cultivating abundant crops of maize and cotton, which latter they wove and dyed with much skill.[146]The chroniclers speak of them as the most valiant of all the tribes of New Spain, but laborious and devoted to their fields.[147]
The tribe of the Sonoran group which reached the point furthest to the south was the Coras, who dwelt in the Sierra of Nayarit, in the State of Jalisco. From their location they are sometimes called Nayerits. They were a warlike but agricultural people, about the same level as the Tepehuanas.
The Tubares were a peaceable nation living in the Sierra of Sinaloa. They received the missionaries willingly and seem to have been an industrious tribe, their principal object of commerce being articles of clothing. It is said that they spoke two entirely distinct languages, one a dialect of Nahuatl, the other of unknown affinities.[148]The Guazapares and the Varogiosare described as living near the Tubares, on the head-waters of the Rio del Fuerte, and speaking the same or a similar dialect.[149]
In the defiles of the lofty range, which is sometimes called the Sierra de Topia, resided the Acaxees, Xiximes and other wild tribes, speaking related tongues. By some authorities they are alleged to belong to the Sonoran group, but as the material is lacking for comparison, their ethnographic position must be left undetermined.
The Guaymas, on the coast of the Gulf of California, south of the Ceris (a Yuma folk), have been ascertained by Mr. Pinart to speak a dialect allied to that of the southern Pimas, and are therefore to be added to this group. Another Pima dialect was the Bacorehui, spoken by the Batucaris and Comoparis on the lower Rio del Fuerte; as it was also that of the Ahomes, a distinctly Pima people.[150]
The uniform tradition of all the tribes of this stock in Sonora and Sinaloa, so far as they were obtained by the early missionaries, was to the effect that their ancestors had migrated from localities further to the north.[151]
Under the termNahuas, which has the excellent authority of Sahagun in its favor, I shall include all the tribes of the Uto-Aztecan stock who spoke the Nahuatl language, that called by Buschmann the Aztec, and often referred to as the Mexican. These tribes occupied the slope of the Pacific coast from about the Rio del Fuerte in Sinaloa, N. lat. 26°, to the frontiers of Guatemala, except a portion at the isthmus of Tehuantepec. Beyond this line, they had colonies under the name of Pipiles on the coast of Guatemala, and in the interior the Alaguilacs. The Cuitlatecos, or Tecos, “dung-hill people,†was a term of depreciation applied to those in Michoacan and Guerrero. On the borders of the lakes in the valley of Mexico were the three important states Tezcuco, Tlacopan and Tenochtitlan, who at the time of the conquest were formed into a confederacy of wide sway.
The last mentioned, Tenochtitlan, had its chief town where the city of Mexico now stands, and its inhabitants were the Azteca. East of the valley were the Tlascaltecs, an independent tribe; south of and along the shore of the gulf from Vera Cruz almost to the mouth of the Rio de Grijalva, were Nahuatl tribes under the dominion of the confederacy. An isolated, but distinctly affiliated band, had wandered down to Nicaragua, where under the name Nicaraos they were found on the narrow strip of land between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific, which they had conquered from tribes of Chapanec lineage. The most distant of all were the Seguas, who at the time of the conquest resided in the Valle Coaza, on the Rio Telorio,and later moved to Chiriqui Lagoon. After the conquest they were scattered still further by the transportation of colonies of Tlascalans to Saltillo in the north, and to Isalco in San Salvador in the south.
I omit entirely from this group the Toltecs and the Chichimecs. These were never tribal designations, and it is impossible to identify them with any known communities. The Toltecs may have been one of the early and unimportant gentes of the Azteca, but even this is doubtful. The term was properly applied to the inhabitants of the small town of Tula, north of the valley of Mexico. In later story they were referred to as a mythical people of singular gifts and wide domain. Modern and uncritical writers have been misled by these tales, and have represented the Toltecs as a potent nation and ancestors of the Aztecs. There is no foundation for such statements, and they have no historic position.[152]
The term Chichimeca was applied to many barbarous hordes as a term of contempt, “dogs,†“dog people.â€[153]It has no ethnic signification, and never had, but was used in much the same way asCuitlateca, above referred to.[154]
The government of these states did not differ in principle from that of the northern tribes, though its development had reached a later stage. Descent was generally reckoned in the male line, and the male children of the deceased were regarded as the natural heirs both to his property and his dignities. Where the latter, however, belonged rather to the gens than the individual, a form of election was held, the children of the deceased being given the preference. In this sense, which was the usual limitation in America, many positions were hereditary, including that of the chieftaincy of the tribe or confederation. The Montezuma who was the ruler who received Cortez, was the grandson of Axayacatl, who in turn was the son of the first Montezuma, each of whom exercised the chief power.
The land was held by the gens and allotted to its members for cultivation. Marriage was also an affair regulated by the gentile laws of consanguinity, but the position of woman was not specially inferior, and in the instance of the daughter of the first Montezuma, one seems to have occupied the position of head chief for a time.
The general condition of the arts in ancient Mexico is familiar to all who have turned their attention to American history. It has indeed received more than its due share of attention from the number and prominenceof the Nahuas at the conquest. They were little if at all superior to many of their neighbors in cultural progress. Even in architecture, where they excelled, the Zapotecs, Totonacos and Tarascos were but little behind them. Numerous artificial pyramids and structures of hewn stone remain in the territories of all these to prove their skill as builders. The Mexicans may be said to have reached the age of bronze. Many weapons, utensils and implements, were manufactured of this alloy of copper and tin. Gold, silver, lead and copper, were likewise deftly worked by founding and smelting into objects of ornament or use. Lead was also known, but not utilized. The majority of implements continued to be of stone. They were fortunate in having for this purpose a most excellent material, obsidian, which volcanic product is abundant in Mexico. From it they flaked off arrow points, knives and scrapers, and by polishing worked it into labrets and mirrors. A variety of nephrite or jade was highly esteemed, and some of the most elaborate specimens of Mexican art in stone are in this hard, greenish material. Fragments of colored stones were set in mosaic, either as masks, knife handles or the like, with excellent effect.
With the undoubtedly dense population of many districts, the tillage of the ground was a necessary source of the food supply. The principal crop was as usual maize, but beans, peppers, gourds and fruit were also cultivated. Cotton was largely employed for clothing, being neatly woven and dyed in brilliant colors.
The religious rites were elaborate and prescribed with minuteness. Priests and priestesses were vowed to the cult of certain deities. Their duties consisted in sweeping and decorating the temples, in preparing the sacrifices, and in chanting at certain periods of the day and night. The offerings were usually of quails, rabbits or flowers, but, especially in Tenochtitlan, human sacrifices were not infrequent. The victims were slaves or captives taken in war. At times their flesh was distributed to the votaries, and was consumed as part of the ceremony; but as this was a rite, the Aztecs cannot be said to have been anthropophagous.
The priestly class had charge of the education of the youth of the better class. This was conducted with care and severity. Large buildings were set apart for the purpose, some for boys, others for girls. The boys were taught martial exercises, the history of the nation, the chants and dances of the religious worship, forms of salutation, the art of writing, etc. The girls were instructed in household duties, the preparation of food, the manufacture of garments, and the morals of domestic life.[155]
The literature which represented this education was large. It was preserved in books written upon parchment, or upon paper manufactured from the fibrous leaves of the maguey. This was furnished in great quantities from different parts of the realm, as much as 24,000 bundles being required by the government annually as tribute. A book consisted of astrip of paper perhaps twenty feet long, folded like a screen into pages about six inches wide, on both sides of which were painted the hieroglyphic characters. These were partly ideographic, partly phonetic; the latter were upon the principle of the rebus, conveying the name or word by the representation of some object, the word for which had a similar sound. I have called this theikonomaticmethod of writing, and have explained it in detail in several essays on the subject.[156]
Their calendar recognized the length of the year as 365 days. The mathematical difficulties in the way of a complete understanding of it have not yet been worked out, and it may have differed in the various tribes. Its elements were a common property of all the Nahua peoples, as well as many of their neighbors; which of them first devised it has not been ascertained.
Bannacks, in Montana and southern Idaho.Cahuillos, in southern California.Chemehuevis, branch of Pi-utes, on Cottonwood Island.Comanches, in northern Texas, on both banks of Rio Grande.Kauvuyas, southern California, near the Pacific.Kechis, in southern California, branch of Kauvuyas.Kizh, in southern California, branch of Kauvuyas.Moquis, in Moqui Pueblo, Arizona.Netelas, in southern California.Pa-Vants, south of Great Salt Lake.Pi-utes, in southern and central Nevada, Arizona, California, Utah.ShoshoneesorSnakes, in New Mexico and Colorado, Idaho and southern Oregon.UtesorUtahs, in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, etc.Wihinasht, in Oregon, south of Columbia river.
Acaxees, (?) in the Sierra de Topia.Cahitas, south of Rio Yaqui.Coras, in the Sierra de Nayarit.Eudeves, a sub-tribe of Opatas.Guaymas, on Rio de Guaymas.Mayos, on R. Mayo, sub-tribe of Cahitas.Nevomes, seePimas.Opatas, head-waters of Rio Yaqui.Papayos, orPapagos, sub-tribe of Pimas.Pimas, from Rio Yaqui to Rio Gila.Sabaguis, sub-tribe of Pimas.Tarahumaras, in the Sierra of Chihuahua.Tehuecos, on R. del Fuerte, dialect of Cahita.Tecoripas, speak dialect of Pima.Tepehuanas, in Durango.Tubares, in upper Sinaloa.Yaquis, on Rio Yaqui.
Alaguilacs, on Rio Motagua in Guatemala.Aztecs, in the valley of Mexico.Cuitlatecos, south and west of Michoacan.Mexicans, seeAztecs.Meztitlatecas, in the Sierra of Meztitlan.Nicaraos, in Nicaragua between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific.Niquirans, seeNicaraos.Pipiles, on Pacific coast in Soconusco and Guatemala.Seguas, near Chiriqui Lagoon.Tecos, seeCuitlatecos.Tezcucans, in valley of Mexico.Tlascalans, in Tlascala, east of valley of Mexico.Tlascaltecans, in San Salvador.
According to Aztec tradition, the Otomis were the earliest owners of the soil of Central Mexico. Their language was at the conquest one of the most widely distributed of any in this portion of the continent. Its central regions were the states of Queretaro and Guanajuato; from the upper portion of the valley of Mexico it extended north to the Rio Verde, on the west it adjoined the Tarascans of Michoacan, and on the east the Huastecs of Panuco.
The Otomis are below the average stature, of dark color, the skull markedly dolichocephalic,[157]the nose short and flattened, the eyes slightly oblique. Following the lead of some of the old writers, modern authors have usually represented the Otomis as rude savages, far inferior to the Nahuas. Doubtless the latter often so represented them, but this does not correspond with what we learn of them from other sources. Although subjected by the Nahuas, they do not seem to have been excessively ignorant. Agriculture was not neglected, and from their cotton the women wove clothing for both sexes. Ornaments of gold, copper and hard stones were in use; their religion was conducted with ceremony;[158]and they were famous for their songs and musical ability.[159]The members of the nation to-day are laborious, good tempered, and endowed with a remarkable aptitude for imitation, especially in sculpture. Some of thewomen are quite handsome.[160]
Their language has attracted a certain amount of attention, partly from its supposed similarity to the Chinese, partly because it is alleged to differ from most American tongues in showing no incorporation. Both of these statements have been proved erroneous.[161]It is a tongue largely monosyllabic, of extremely difficult enunciation, worn down by attrition almost to an isolating form, but not devoid of the usual traits of the languages of the continent. There are several dialects, the relations of which have been the subject of fruitful investigations.[162]
Jonaz, in Prov. of Queretaro.Matlaltzincos, in Valley of Mexico and Mechoacan.Mazauhas, southwest of Valley of Mexico.Mecos, seeJonaz.Otomis, throughout Central Mexico.Pames, in Queretaro and Guanajuato.Pirindas, seeMatlaltzincos.
The Tarascans, so called fromTaras, the name of a tribal god,[163]had the reputation of being the tallest and handsomest people of Mexico.
They were the inhabitants of the present State of Michoacan, west of the valley of Mexico. According to their oldest traditions, or perhaps those of their neighbors, they had migrated from the north in company with, or about the same time as the Aztecs. For some three hundred years before the conquest they had been a sedentary, semi-civilized people, maintaining their independence, and progressing steadily in culture.[164]When first encountered by the Spaniards they were quite equal and in some respects ahead of the Nahuas. The principal buildings of their cities, the chief of which was their capital Tzintzuntan, were of cut stone well laid in mortar. A number of remains of such have been reported by various travelers, many of them being conical mounds of dressed stones, locally calledyacates, which probably are sepulchral monuments.[165]
In their costume the Tarascos differed considerably from their neighbors. The feather garments which they manufactured surpassed all others in durability and beauty. Cotton was, however, the usual material. Gold and copper are found in the mountains of the district, and both these metals were workedwith skill. Nowhere else do we find such complete defensive armor; it consisted of helmet, body pieces, and greaves for the legs and arms, all of wood covered neatly with copper or gold plates, so well done that the pieces looked as if they were of solid metal.[166]
A form of picture-writing was in use in Michoacan, but no specimen of it has been preserved. The calendar was nearly the same as that in Mexico, and the government apparently more absolute in form. Many but confused details have been preserved about their religion and rites. There was a mysterious supreme divinity, Tucapacha, though Curicaneri, who is said to have represented the sun, was the deity chiefly worshipped. Large idols of stone and many of smaller size of terra cotta may still be exhumed by the energetic archæologist. Cremation was in vogue for the disposition of the dead, and human sacrifices, both at funerals and in the celebration of religious rites, were usual.
The Tarascan language is harmonious and vocalic, and its grammar is thoroughly American in character, the verb being extraordinarily developed, the substantive incorporated in the expression of action, and the modifications of this conveyed by numerous infixes and suffixes.
The first natives whom Cortes met on landing in Mexico were theTotonacos. 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.
The greater part of Oaxaca and the neighboring regions are still occupied by the Zapotecs, who call themselvesDidja-Za.[171]There are now about 265,000 of them, about fifty thousand of whom speak nothing but their native tongue. In ancient times they constituted a powerful independent state, the citizens ofwhich seem to have been quite as highly civilized as any member of the Aztecan family. They were agricultural and sedentary, living in villages and constructing buildings of stone and mortar. The most remarkable, but by no means the only specimens of these still remaining are the ruins of Mitla, called by the nativesRyo Ba, the “entrance to the sepulchre,†the traditional belief being that these imposing monuments are sepulchres of their ancestors.[172]These ruins consist of thirty-nine houses, some of adobe, but most of stone, and two artificial hills. The stone houses have thick walls of rough stone and mortar, faced with polished blocks arranged in a variety of symmetrical patterns, such as are called grecques. Sometimes these patterns are repeated on the inner walls, but more frequently these were plastered with a hard white coat and painted an Indian red, with numerous figures. These delineations are on a par with those from the valley of Mexico and the ancient cities of Yucatan, and reveal much the same technique. One of the rooms is called the “hall of the columns,†from six round monolithic columns nearly ten feet in height, which were intended to support a roof of heavy stone slabs.
The Mixtecs adjoined the Zapotecs to the west, extending along the coast of the Pacific to about the present port of Acapulco. In culture they were equal to the Zapotecs; having a preference for anagricultural life, constructing residences of brick and stone and acquainted with a form of picture or hieroglyphic writing, in which they perpetuated the memory of their elaborate mythology.[173]They pretended to have taken their name from Mixtecatl, one of the seven heroes who set out from Chicomoztoc, “the land of seven caves,†far in the north, and at other times pretended descent from the fabulous Toltecs, claims which Sahagun intimates were fictions of the Nahuas living among them.[174]
The Zapotecs made use of a calendar, the outlines of which have been preserved. It is evidently upon the same astronomical theory as the Mexican, as was their system of enumeration. Their language is not inharmonious. It is called theticha za, “language of the noble people.â€