208 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VOL. V. 



SO different from others to which they give the name of the permanent 

 hiang-hiung? All that is known to-day is that they preceded the 

 Toltecs, and that they not only inhabited the province of Tula before 

 the foundation of the kingdom of that name, but also a considerable 

 portion of the regions of the Aztec table-land. Though rude and 

 barbarous now, they are far from the state of mere savages, which seems 

 never to have been their condition. Harsh mountaineers, they have 

 always been known as an essentially agricultural people, acquainted 

 with the same arts as the other peoples of Mexico. In their simple 

 religion, deficient of the ceremonial and superstitious rites of the Toltecs, 

 they seem to have preserved longer than others the purity of the ideas 

 of natural law. They recognized only one God, creator of heaven and 

 earth, to whom they gave the name ' Okha,' composed of O, which 

 means remembrance, present notion, and of Kha, holy. For heaven 

 they said ' Mahetzi,' from ma, place, he, extent, and tzi, in 

 circumference." 



" The first of their chiefs who had been their guide in Anahuac, 

 named Otomitl, or Othon-Tecuhtli, in the Nahuatl tongue, received 

 from them a sort of inferior worship. Two other less exalted heroes or 

 divinities of their's are known, one called Atetein and the other Yoxippa. 

 They showed most devotion to the last. His chief feast was celebrated 

 in the fields ; it lasted four days, which were passed in eating and 

 drinking amid great rejoicings. They recognized also an evil principle 

 which they said to be the author of all evil ; they called it ' E ' the 

 malevolent They attributed great power to their diviners and 

 conjurers, and made use of their ministry to consult the gods and lay 

 the souls of the dead. The chief of these diviners to whom the name 

 Tecuhtlato was given, had the rank of high-priest, and enjoyed great 

 reverence in his nation. The temple of Yoxippa was the chief sanctuary 

 of Otompan ; it differed essentially from the Toltec teocallis ; for it had 

 the form of a storied house with projecting roof, in the manner of 

 Hindoo constructions, having an upper part sometimes crenelated that 

 projected beyond the rest of the building. But it was on the heights 

 that they preferred to offer their sacrifices ; they prepared themselves by 

 fasting and penance, like the Toltecs drawing blood from their ears 

 with maguey thorns, and by ablution of the entire body, whatever the 

 season might be. Up to the last years of Mexican monarchy, they 

 were the only one of all the nations of these countries that continued 

 the ancient calculation of time by lunations. Otherwise they had very 

 nearly the same customs as the neighbouring peoples ; they were 

 dressed very similarly to the Mexicans, though with less grace and 



