Brinton ] "^" [Nov. 4, 



callan the place of rushes or reeds ; Chimalapan is compounded 

 of c7izmaZ/z, a shield, with the post-position |:)an, in or at ; Usuma- 

 tlan means the place of monkeys, from ozumatl, monkey, and 

 tlcm, locative ending; and Tecolotan, the place of owls, from 

 tecolotl, owl, and tlan. The word Alaguilac is stated in the MSS. 

 before me to be tlie Mexican name of a species of edible fruit ; 

 thougli were it not for this autliority, one might suppose it to 

 be from the nomen gentile^ atlacuilecatl, which means " the people 

 who live at the place of drawing water " {all, water, c»i, to take, 

 ecatl, terminalio gentilis). 



Evidently, therefore, we find ourselves in a Nahuatl colony, 

 one of those which were scattered through Central America, like 

 tiie Pipiles of Escuintla, and the Nicaraos in Nicaragua. It has 

 been shown recently that this active race extended its settlements 

 almost to the isthmus of Panama, and established a colony on 

 the borders of the Chiriqui Lagoon.* 



Everywhere they carried with them remini^cences of that 

 advanced culture which thej^ had developed in the Valley of 

 Mexico. Tills is manifest to-day by the superior make of pot- 

 tery and the fragments of stone and brick edifices which mark 

 the site of their ancient abodes. 



Acasaguastlan is no exception to this rule. In the informe 

 of the worthy cui'a above mentioned, he writes as follows: — 



" At the confluence of the Rio Grande de Acasaguastlan [?. e., 

 the Motagua river] with that of Teculutan, which is to the east 

 of this parish, there are some prominent and remarkable relics 

 of a dense native population, which prove this to have been the 

 capital of a province. There are neat, level pavements which 

 lead from the buildings to the river. The buildings themselves 

 indicate that they were towers or pyramids. The base is circular 

 and they must have had an altitude of fifty Spanish yards (varas). 

 At present they are covered with lofty trees, and the ruin on the 

 promontory, now the highest, is sixteen or twenty 3'ards in 

 height. In the midst of these edifices, at the place named, there 

 is a large open space, circular in form, like a plaza. A continu- 

 ous row of mounds extends from these edifices and pyramids, on 

 both sides of the main river, to the village of Acasaguastlan. 



* A. Pinart, in the Bcvue d'Ethnogmphie, Tome vi, p. 121, identifies tlie Seguas Indians 

 of the Chiriqui Lagoon with the Nahuas. 



