Brinton.] 5c>2 [ Nov . 5( 



Bat how do we bring these into connection with the sentiment 

 of love and its verbal expression ? We might indeed seek an 

 illustration of the transfer from classical mythology, and adduce 

 the keen-pointed arrows of Cupid, the darts of love, as pointing 

 out the connection. But I fear this would be crediting the 

 ancient Nahuas with finer feelings than they deserve. I gravely 

 doubt that they felt the shafts of the tender passion with any 

 such susceptibility as to employ this metaphor. Much more 

 likely is it that tlazotla, to love, is derived directly from the 

 noun tlazotl, which means something strung with or fastened to 

 another. This brings us directly back to the sense of" attached 

 to " in English, and to that of the root saki in Algonkin, the 

 idea of being bound to another by ties of emotion and affection. 



But there is one feature in this derivation which tells seriously 

 against the national psychology of the Nahuas: this their only 

 word for love is not derived, as is the Algonkin, from the pri- 

 mary meaning of the root, but from a secondary and later sig- 

 nification. This hints ominously at the probability that the 

 ancient tongue had for a long time no word at all to express 

 this, the highest and noblest emotion of the human heart, and 

 that consequently this emotion itself had not risen to conscious- 

 ness in the national mind. 



But the omissions of the fathers were more than atoned for by 

 the efforts of their children. I know no more instructive instance 

 in the history of language to illustrate how original defects are 

 amended in periods of higher culture by the linguistic faculty 

 than this precise point in the genesis of the Nahuatl tongue. 

 The Nahuas, when they approached the upper levels of emotional 

 development, found their tongue singularly poor in radicals con- 

 veying such conceptions. As the literal and material portions 

 of their speech offered them such inadequate means of expres- 

 sion, they turned toward its tropical and formal portions, and in 

 those realms reached a degree of development in this direction 

 which far surpasses that in any other language known to me. 



In the formal portion of the language they were not satisfied 

 with one, but adopted a variety of devices to this end. Thus : 

 all verbs expressing emotion may have an intensive termination 

 suffixed, imparting to them additional force ; again, certain pre- 

 fixes indicating civility, respect and affection may be employed 



