NOTES ON THE DANCES, MUSIC, AND SONGS OF 

 THE ANCIENT AND MODERN MEXICANS. 1 



By Auguste Genin. 



[With 10 plates.] 

 INTRODUCTION. 



All authors who have written on ancient Mexico are agreed in 

 telling us that music, song, and dance were in vogue among the 

 earliest inhabitants of that which was later New Spain, and that not 

 only did they have a kind of conservatory to perpetuate traditions, 

 but also families of a certain standing engaged singing and dancing 

 masters to educate their children. 



Among the modern Mexicans the situation is the same. There is 

 a conservatory at Mexico City; the European masters are known 

 and appreciated by the public; people dance a little everywhere as 

 they dance in Paris, London, and New York ; and the cakewalk, the 

 maxixe, the (chaloupee) waltz, and other rhythmical contortions are 

 practiced in the Mexican salons, with the same enthusiasm as in other 

 countries, which proves that there are but few eccentricities which 

 fashion does not cause to spread. But in these notes I do not wish 

 to take up the modern dances, songs, or music, which, as stated in the 

 preceding sentence, are the same everywhere; but only that which 

 presents an ethnic character, traditional or peculiar to Mexico. 



Before reviewing the present situation among the Mexicans, it is 

 not without interest to cast a glance into the past. As is well known, 

 ancient Mexico was inhabited by several races, although certain ones 

 among them, as the Toltecs, the Aztecs, and the Mayas are especially 

 well known. If we look at the catalogue of Mexican languages, so 

 carefully prepared by Orozco y Berra, we shall see that at the epoch 

 of the conquest, more than 60 dialects, belonging to as many tribes, 

 divided the country which extended from the Mississippi to the 

 Isthmus of Panama. All these tribes did not belong to different races ; 

 many had a common head, and they can be divided into a dozen large 



1 Translated by pel-mission from the Revue d'Ethnosjraphie et de sociologie, 1913. 

 Ernest Lerous, editeur, Paris. 



42803°— 22 42 657 



