Brinton.] ^^^ [Sept. 2, 



represented by a few broken fragments, appears equal, but not 

 superior, to that of the Valley of Mexico. Both the free and 

 the attached column occur, and figure-carving was known, as a 

 few weather-beaten relics testify. The houses contained many 

 rooms, on different levels, and the roofs were flat. They were no 

 doubt mostly communal structures. At the foot of the Serpent- 

 Hill is a level plain, but little above the river, on which is the 

 modern village with its corn-fields. 



These geographical particulars are necessary to understand 

 the ancient legend, and with them in mind its real purport is 

 evident.* 



That legend is as follows : When the Azteca or Mexica — for 

 these names were applied to the same tribe \ — left their early 

 home in Aztlan — which Ramirez locates in Lake Chalco in the 

 Valley of Mexico, and Orozco y Berra in Lake Chapallan in 

 Michoacan \ — they pursued their course for some generations in 



avatar as Cc Acatl was boru in the Palpan, " House of Colors ;' ' while the usual story was 

 that he came from Tla-pallan, the place of colors. This indicates that the two accoxmts 

 are versions of the same myth. 



* There are two ancient Codices extant, giving in picture-writing the migrations of the 

 Mexi. They have been repeatedly published in part or in whole, with varying degrees 

 of accuracy. Orozco y Berra gives their bibliography in his Hintoria Antigua de Mexico, 

 Tom. iii, p. 61, note. These Codices differ widely, and seem contradictory, but Orozco 

 y Berra has reconciled them by the happy suggestion that they refer to sequent and not 

 synchronous events. There is, however, yet much to do before their full meaning is 

 ascertained. '' 



t The name Aztlan is that of a place and Mexitl that of a person, and from these are 

 derived Aztecatl, plural, Azteca, and Mcxicatl, pi. Mexica. The Azteca are said to have left 

 Aztlan under the guidance of Mexitl {Codex Ramirez). The radicals of both words have 

 now become somewhat obscured in the Nahuatl. My own opinion is that Father Duran 

 {Hist, de Nueva Expana, Tom. i, p. 19) was right in translating Aztlan as "the place of 

 whiteness," el lugar de blancura, from the radical tstac, white. This may refer to the East, 

 as the place of the dawn ; but there is also a temptation to look upon Aztlan as a syncope 

 of a-izta-tlah, = " by the salt water.' ' 



Mexicatl is a nomeii gentile derived from Mexitl, which was another name for the 

 tribal god or early leader Huitzilopoehtli, as is positively stated by Torquemada {Mon- 

 arquia Indiana, Lib. viii, cap. xi). Sahagun explains Mexitl as a compound of metl, the 

 maguey, and citli, which means hare and grandmother {Historia de JShieva Espaiia, Lib. 

 X, cap. 29). It is noteworthy that one of tlie names of Quetzalcoatl is Meconetzin. son of 

 the maguey (Ixtlilxochitl, Rel. Hist., in Kingsborough, Vol. ix, p. 328). These two gods 

 were originally brothers, though each had divers mythical ancestors. 



I Orozco y Berra, Historia Antigua de Mexico, Tom. iii, cap. 4. But Albert Gallatin was 

 the first to place Aztlan no further west than Michoacan {Trans. American Kthnolog. 

 Society, Vol. ii, p. 202). Orozco thinks Aztlan Avas the small island called Mexcalla in 

 Lake Chapallan, apparently because he thinks this name means " houses of the Mexi ;" 

 but it may also signify "where there is abundance of maguey leaves," this delicacy 

 being called mncalli in Nahuatl, and the terminal a signifying location or abundance. 

 (See Sahagun, Historia de Nueva Espaiia, Lib. vii, cap. 9.) At present, one of the smaller 

 species of maguey is called mexcalli. 



