STUDIES ON THE AKCn.EOLOOY OF MTCITOACAN (MEX- 

 ICO). 



By Dr. Nicholas Leox. 

 THE " LTENZO " (DRAWING ON LINEN) OP TUCUTAOATO. 



Ill the district of LJriiapan(iMi('/iioa.c;iii)an(l distant one league sootii of 

 this city, is situated the ancient Tarascan Indian village called Tncnta- 

 cato (Xncntacato). In this villagi^ our industrious friend and companion, 

 I)r, Don Crescencio Garcia de Cotija, found some years ago the precious 

 oiiginal of the painting which forms the subject of these lines. This 

 gentleman succeeded with great <lifi!culty in obtaining it from the na- 

 tives, and exhibited it at the first exposition of Michoacan, held in the 

 year 1877. From that time it strongly attracted our attention, and we 

 ♦'udeavor to make a study of it. The colors in which it is drawn are 

 undoubtedly of vegetable origin, for they have not lost their intensity 

 in the least; on seeing them one wouhl say that they were recent and 

 not from remote times. The fiber of the cloth is brilliant and very 

 smooth, much resembling that of cotton {Gossypium herhaccum), and 

 identical with that of Eriodcndron anfractuosum. As it is not possible 

 to subject the latter to permanent spinning, we must suppose either 

 that it is not of this material, or that the ''Tarascos" understood some 

 IKM'.nliar method, now lost, of i)reparing it so as to use it to advantage. 

 Two colors appear in the drawing, black and red. The latter is use<l 

 only for the line which indicates on the jiictures tiie road fol}owe<i, and 

 for the siiecies of shirt or Jacket worn by the individuals who appear to 

 be chiefs or priests. The original measures 2 meters 6;> centimeters in 

 length by 2 meters 3 centimeters in breadth. The annexed photogra])h 

 is an exact cop}' of it. 



Let us see now its explanation. i\\ the very rare " Chronicle of the 

 Order of our Angelic Father St. Francis, Province of San Pedro and 

 San Pablo de IVIechoacan, in New Spain, by the professor of theology. 

 Fray Alonso de la Rea, etc., lOJO, in Mexico by the widow of Ber- 

 nardo Calderon, 1043, I Vol.," in Dook i, Chapter v (On the people who 

 inhabited this province, whence they came, and the cause of their (join- 

 ing), we read the following : "And according to the paintings and tradi- 

 tions preserved in the archives of the times, these Indians, in order to 

 come to these regions, passed a small arm of the sea, viz : the Strait of 

 Anian, which bounds this land on the north. Although this is not cer- 

 tainly known, we must accept it as true, for all the region inhabited by 

 the divisions which remain in their first condition is an island. 1 pcr- 



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