058 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1920. 



groups : the various Nahoas tribes, which occupied the central plateau 

 of Mexico ; the Otomis who lived and still live in the mountains sur- 

 rounding the valley of Mexico ; the Tarascs of Michoacan ; the Tzapo- 

 tecs, the Mixtecs, and the Mijes, inhabiting more particularly the 

 present States of Oaxaca and of Vera Cruz ; the Lacandons, who still 

 live in the almost impenetrable forest of Chiapas ; the Mayas, whose 

 domain is Yucatan; the Hauxtecs, dwelling on the shores of the Gulf 

 of Mexico, including a part of the States of Vera Cruz, Tamaulipas, 

 and San Luis Potosi; the Redskins of Chihuahua and of Sonora, 

 probably descendants of the ancient CKichimecs; and finally Hui- 

 choles and the Tapahumares, who inhabit the Sierras parallel to the 

 Pacific Ocean, in the former Territory of Tepic, to-day the State of 

 Nayarit. 



The purpose of that which precedes is to show that it is not neces- 

 sary to believe that the usages and customs of one or another of these 

 ethnic clans or tribes had a general character. 



For example, the Mayas, eminently civilized, devoted themselves 

 to religious practices, full of ritual and reverential fear, which were 

 unknown to the Redskins and the Indians of the Pacific Sierras, who 

 were developing from the pre-Cortezian civilization, for they shut 

 themselves off almost entirely from modern influence. 



The Aztecs who dominated over the Anahuac — that is, the valley 

 of Mexico, and who fought their way to the borders of the present 

 Mexico — had different customs from the people whom they overcame, 

 and these they imposed upon them, with their gods and their re- 

 ligious practices, respecting, nevertheless, the local gods, in such a 

 manner that while increasing the range of their own myths they 

 augmented the number of them by adopting the gods of the con- 

 quered countries as a whole or in part, perhaps through fear of these 

 gods or, more probably, for political reasons, in order to draw the 

 sympathy of the conquered. 



In view of what precedes, we will describe in the course of these 

 notes certain special dances in certain regions of Mexico, without in 

 any way implying that they were in use anywhere else, although in 

 the course of events they often passed from one tribe into another 

 for various reasons. 



ANCIENT MUSIC AND DANCES. 



Torquemada, who gives special attention to the Aztecs, tells us 

 that the Mexicans were not musicians, that their songs were very 

 monotonous, although they varied the tone of them without abandon- 

 ing certain very marked rhythms. The musical instruments which 

 they used were rudimentary. I will give a description of them later 

 on. As for the dances, or balls, they varied greatly. Orozco y Berra, 

 in commenting on Torquemada, describes them thus : 



