NO. I HONDURAS STRONG, KIDDER, AND PAUL II 



It is therefore apparent that our archeological investigations were 

 made in a contact area between advanced Mayan and Nahuatl peoples 

 to the west, and Lenca, Jicaque, and other less advanced groups to the 

 east. As Lehmann points out (1920, vol. 2, p. 625, and map), Maya 

 influence, as indicated primarily by archeological objects, extended 

 well into Lenca territory, including all the region west of a line drawn 

 from the junction of the Ulua and Comayagua Rivers southeast to the 

 Gulf of Fonseca. Similar influences were also present in the lower 

 Ulua valley and in Salvador. Moreover, Palacio (i860) clearly 

 indicates that cultural influences from the Nahuatl Pipil of Salvador 

 extended east well into Lenca territory during early historic times. 

 Whether Lehmann's assumption that the language of the Lenca is re- 

 lated, on the one hand, with the Jicaque and the Paya, and on the 

 other, with the Cacaopera, Matagalpa, Sumu, Ulua, Miskito, Rama- 

 Guatuso, etc. (1920, vol. 2, p. 637), be accepted or not, there is little 

 doubt that the majority of these languages are affiliated with major 

 linguistic stocks to the south. There is at least a strong probability 

 that the majority of these languages are in some degree related to the 

 Chibchan linguistic stock centering in northern South America. As 

 has been pointed out elsewhere (Strong, 1935, pp. 170-172), the scant 

 ethnological information on certain of these groups likewise points to 

 a southern derivation. On the other hand, Choi and Chorti Maya and 

 Nahautl (Pipil and Aztecan) linguistic connections are clearly with 

 the north. Thus the LTlua-Yojoa region comprised an important 

 bufifer area between two sets of cultural traditions and linguistic 

 stocks, the one derived from Mexico and northern Central America, 

 the other from southern Central America and, eventually, from 

 South America. A very complex archeological situation is therefore 

 expectable. It is, however, a situation that, when clearly understood, 

 is certain to throw much new light on the ultimate derivation and 

 development of the higher civilizations of the New World. 



Since the historic occupants of our particular region were the 

 Lenca and Jicaque Indians, we are particularly concerned with what- 

 ever ethnological information has survived concerning their cultural 

 status at the time of the Conquest. Regarding the Jicaque, little is 

 on record but for the Lenca, or at least their near neighbors and cul- 

 tural kin, we have the brief but excellent account of Palacio. Speak- 

 ing of the plain of Jiboa in the province of San Miguel, Salvador, 

 he says that here the Indians begin to speak a new language, called the 

 Chontal. He states that they " are a very rude people, but had 

 anciently a great reputation for valor among their neighbors." His 

 description of the customs observed prior to 1576 at Micla, (Mita), 

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