1892.1 ^*^ [Brinton. 



The assertion of Orozco y Berra that they were also called Tenez 

 arose from a misunderstanding of the letter of Hernando de Barri- 

 entos to Hernando Cortes (1521). Barrientos was not among the 

 Chinantecs proper, but in another chinamitl in Chiapas.* Still 

 other Chinanteca are mentioned as resident in Nicaragua. This 

 Nahuatl word has absolutely no ethnographic significance. 



Several authors have confounded these Chinanteca with the 

 " Tzinacanteca," or Bat-people, a Maya tribe in Tabasco and 

 Chiapas. The two are nowise related. 



Location. — Their country was located in the mountains of the 

 eastern portion of the State of Oaxaca and on the frontiers of the 

 present State of Vera Cruz. Their neighbors on the north and east 

 were Nahuatl-speaking tribes, on the south the Zapotecs and Mistecs, 

 and on the west the Mazatecs and Cuicatecs, the latter supposed to 

 be a distant branch of the Zapotec stock. Within these boundaries 

 was a wide variety of climate, ranging from the torrid vales of the 

 tierra caliente up to the chilly regions of the high sierra, where we 

 find one of their villages with the significant name "Holy Mary 

 amid the Snows," Santa Maria de las Nievcs. The village of 

 Chinantla itself is situated in a wild and mountainous district where 

 the climate is cool and rainy. f Orozco y Berra gives the names of 

 thirty-four other towns inhabited by them. 



History. — The Chinantecs are an extremely ancient people who 

 have resided on the spot where the Spaniards found them from the 

 earliest period of the traditional history of Mexico. We first hear 

 of them as having been conquered by Ahuitzotzin, ruler of Mexico. 

 This event according to the chronology of Torquemada, who is our 

 authority for it,| took place in the year 1488. 



They were treated by their conquerors with the utmost severity 

 and cruelty, of which the historian Herrera cites several instances. § 

 They were glad, therefore, on the appearance of the Spaniards to 

 throw off the yoke of the Mexicans and lend their aid to the invad- 

 ing strangers. 



Culture. — The Chinantecs are described as a rude savage people, 

 living in huts constructed of branches of trees, and devoid of the 

 culture of their neighbors on either hand, the Zapolecs or the 



* See the letter of Barrientos in the Cartas y Eelaciones de Hernando Corks. Edition of 

 Don Pedro de Gayangos, Paris, 1866, pp. 204, 205 and notes. 

 tE. Muhlenpfordt, Mexiko, Bd. ii, s. 214. 



t Juan de Torquemada, Monarqida Indiana, Lib. ii, cap. Ixiii. 

 'i Hisioria de las Indias, Dec. iii, Lib. iii, cap. xv. 



