July 17. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



61 



The Aztec language was spoken in the valley of 

 Mexico, and in the country immediately in its 

 neighbourhood, as far as Meztitlan, about twenty- 

 live leagues north of Mexico. Here, however, 

 according to Gabriel de Chaves (1579), it was cor- 

 rupt. The south-eastern limit was the river 

 Guacacualco. The due southern extent is not pre- 

 cisely ascertained. 



Humboldt informs us that the Thipanec was 

 spoken in and near Tlapa. The Mixtec and the 

 Zapotecwere the dialects of Oaxaca; the Tarasca, 

 that of Michoacan. The shores of the Gulf of 

 Mexico due east of the capital were inhabited 

 by tribes speaking the Totonac. Huastcca was 

 spoken in the state of that name. Matlazincan 

 was spoken sixty miles distant from Mexico. 

 North of the valley of Mexico the Tarahumaran 

 was spoken. Juarros gives seven languages as 

 spoken in Guatemala — the Quiche, the best of 

 the South American dialects, but not to be con- 

 founded with Peruvian, Kachiguel, Subtugil, Mam, 

 Pocoman, Sinca, and Chorti. The fallowing is the 

 best list I can offer : 



Mexican. Paredes' Abridgment of Horatio 

 CarochUs Grammar, Mexico, 1759. Carlos de 

 Tapia Zenteno's Grammar, Mexico, 1753. 



Tarasca. Diego Basalenque's Grammar, pub- 

 lished by Father Nicolas de Quixas, Mexico, 1714. 



Maya. Beltran's Grammar, Mexico, 1746. 



PocoNCHi, or Pocoman. Grammar annexed 

 by Thomas Gage to his Travels, London, 1648. 

 The Lord's Prayer in Poconchi is thus given by 

 Gage: 



" Our Father heaven art thou 

 Catat taxah vilcat ; 



Great may it extolled be thy name 

 Nimta incahurgihi avi ; 



It come may thy kingdom upon our heads 

 Inchulita avihauri pan cana. 



It be done may thou wilt here face earth as 

 Invanivita nava yahvir vach accil, he 



it is done heaven 

 invan taxah," &c. 



Huasteca. Grammar of Tapia Zenteno. 



Otomi. Dictionary and Grammar, by Louis de 

 Neve y Molina, Mexico, 1767; Emanuel Naxera's 

 Dissertation, Philadelphia, 1835. 



Peruvian. Father D. G. Holquin's Grammar 

 of the Qquichua. 



W. B. D. will also find ample details in Hum- 

 boldt's Nouvelle Espagne, livre ii. chap. vi. vol. i. 

 p. 377., and Mr. Albert Gallatin's Memoir in the 

 first volume of the Journal of the American Eth- 

 nological Society, New York, 1845. Ternaux- 

 Compans has had a translation made of Oviedo's 

 Nicaragua, which contains much valuable matter. 

 Adelung, in Mithridates, has likewise discussed the 

 subject. Duponceaux's Prize Essay on the Al- 

 gonkia Languages, 1835. Pickering, in the "Col- 



lections of the Massachusetts Historical Society," 

 and in the Appendix to the sixth volume of the 

 " Conversations-Lexicon" {Encyclopedia Ameri- 

 cana'), Essay on the Indian Languages. 



If, however, these should not be sufficient, I 

 shall be happy to supply the querist with all the 

 information that I can, particularly as regards 

 Mexican symbolism, if he will address a note to 

 me, to the care of the Editor of " N. & Q." 



Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie. 



July 13. 1852. 



^t^Uti to Miwox ^\xtxiti, 



Boyal "TFe" (Vol. v., p. 489.). — Mr. Grdbb 

 will find the following in 2 Coke's Institutes, p. 2. 

 Coke here makes these observations on the Magna 

 Charta of Henry IH. : — 



" Here, in this Charta, both in the title and in divers 

 parts of the body of the Charta, the King speaketh in 

 the plural number, ccncessimvs ; the fiist King that I 

 read of before him that in his graunts wrote in the 

 plural number, was King John, father of our King 

 H. 3.: other Kings before him wrote in the singular 

 number; they used Ego, and King John, and all the 

 Kings after him, Nos." 



H. M. 



" The Man in the Moon" (Vol. v., p. 468.). — 

 In the Journal of the Archaological Institute for 

 March, 1848 (p. 66-67.), W. H. will find an ac- 

 count and engraving of a remarkable personal 

 seal of the 14th century, of which the late Mr. 

 Hudson Turner exhibited a drawing. The seal 

 represents a man carrying a bundle of stolen 

 thorns in the moon, whither he bad been sent as 

 a punishment of his theft. The legend is " Te 

 Waltere docebo cur spinas Phebo gero." Allu- 

 sion is made to the comments made by Alexander 

 Necham, a writer of the twelfth century, to the 

 popular belief upon the subject. J. Bt. 



Anima Magis, SfC. (Vol. ii., p. 480.). — Dr. 

 Pusey, in one of his Sermons, quotes the passage 

 as S. Augustine's ; and renders it very happily r 

 " the soul is much more where it loveth than where 

 it liveth." B(E0TICUS. 



Edgmond, Salop. 



De Laudihus Sanctce Crucis (Vol. vi., p. 9.). — 

 The book alluded to by Hugo is, I suppose, that^ 

 entitled De Laudibus Sanctce Crucis, written by 

 Rabanus Maurus, and first printed by Tho. 

 Anselmus Badensis, at Phorca (Pfortzeim), 1503. 

 Books printed at Pfortzeim are of rare occurrence, 

 for the printer removed to Tubingen in 1511. 

 There was a second edition of Rabanus Maurus, 

 printed at Augsburg (Augustse Vindelicorum)^ 

 1605, but the execution is very inferior to the 

 orif^inal. I believe it has been reprinted within 

 the last few years, but this I have not seen. 



P. B. 



