1885.] ZU»» [Brinton, 



which they employed in laying out grounds and constructing 

 buildings. It was called the octacatl, but neither the derivation 

 of this word, nor the exact length of the measure it represented 

 has been positively ascertained. The first syllable, oc, it will be 

 noticed, is the same as the Maya word fov foot, and in Nahuatl 

 xocpalli is " the sole of the foot." This was used as a measure 

 by I he decimal system, and there were in Nahuatl two separate 

 and apparently original words to express a measure of ten foot 

 lengths. One was : 



matlaxocpallatamachiualoni, which formidable synthesis is 

 analyzed as follows : matla^ from mallactli ten, xocpal, from 

 xocpalli, foot-soles, tamachuia, to measure (from machiotl, a 

 sign, or mark, like the Cakchiquel etal), I, for Zo, sign of the 

 passive, oni, a verbal termination " equivalent to the Latin bilis 

 or (Zf^s " (Carochi, Arte de la Lengua Mexicana, p. 12.]). Thus 

 the word means that which is measurable by ten foot lengths. 



The second word was niallacyxitlatamachiualoni. 



The composition of this is similar to the former, except that 

 in the place of the perhaps foreign root xoc^ foot, yxill^ foot, 

 is used, which seems to have been the proper Nahuatl terra. 



As these words prove that the foot-length was one of the 

 standards of the Aztecs, it remains to be seen whether they en- 

 lighten us as to the octacatl. I quote in connection an interest- 

 ing passage by the native historian, Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxo- 

 chitl in his Historia Chichimeca, published in Lord Kingsbor- 

 ough's great work on Mexico (Vol. ix, p. 242). Ixtlilxochitl is 

 describing the vast communal dwelling built by the Tezcucan 

 chieftain Nezahualcoyotl, capable of accomodating over two 

 thousand persons. He writes : " These houses were in length 

 from east to west four hundred and eleven and a half [native] 

 measures, which reduced to our [Spanish] measures make 

 twelve hundred and thirt^^-four and a half yards (;varas), and in 

 breadth from north to south three hundred and twenty-six meas- 

 ures, which are nine hundred and seventy-eight yards." 



This passage has been anal^^zed by the learned antiquary 

 Seupr Orozco y Berra.* The native measure referred to by 

 Ixtlilxochitl was that of Tezcuco, which was identical with that 



* Orozco y Berra, Historia An'igiM y de la Conquisia de llexico, Totno i, pp. 557-8 

 (Mexico, 1880). 



