494 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 
Nahuas or Aztecs of the plateau of Mexico are to be distinguished from 
those of the Nahuas of the tierra caliente region and these in turn 
from those of the Zapotecs in the State of Oaxaca, and these, again, 
from the manuscripts of the Mayas of Yucatan, southern Mexico, and 
Guatemala. The many minor differences do not prevent one from 
seeing a great similarity both in subject-matter and treatment run- 
ning through them all. The calendar, together with other features 
of the life of the different peoples of Mexico and Central America, 
shows a common origin and, to a certain point at least, a parallel 
development. 
The number of manuscripts is imited. The Maya documents form 
the smallest class with three. There are more than a score of avail- 
able codices from the Mixtec-Zapotec region, a great part of which 
show a strong Nahua influence, and about half as many from the 
Nahuas proper, in addition to a large number of single maps and other 
manuscript material from Mexico.* 
The Spanish priests in their attempts to Christianize the natives 
aimed especially to destroy all that pertained to the ancient teaching. 
Accounts tell of the large number of manuscripts burned, and all 
owing to the misdirected zeal of these Spanish missionaries. The 
greater part of the documents still in existence are in European 
libraries, although a few still remain in public or private collections 
in Mexico. 
The manuscripts are usually written either on long strips of deer- 
skin, fastened together end to end, or on strips of paper made of bark 
or of maguey fiber. The whole strip is, in most cases, folded up like a 
screen. The two sides of the sheet are often covered with a thin layer 
of fine plaster, on which the characters are painted. Those dating 
from post-Columbian times are often written on European paper. 
The greater part of these early manuscripts have been published. 
Lord Kingsborough in the first quarter of the last century was the 
first to recognize the importance of reproducing the codices for 
study. The Duc de Loubat has been instrumental in bringing out 
in exact facsimile several of the most important ones. There is 
therefore a considerable amount of available material for a study of 
the writing of Mexico and Central America. 
Both the pre-Columbian and the post-Columbian manuscripts con- 
tain records of an historical nature, accounts of migrations, the suc- 
cession of rulers, campaigns, and lists of tribute. Different phases of 
the ancient religion and the calendar are also shown, the secular and 
the sacred calendar, astronomical calculations, the methods of 
divination of the lucky and unlucky days, and the religious cere- 
monials. 
1 For the names of the most important codices from Mexico and Central America, see Saville (1901), 
Lejeal (1902), and Lehmann (1905). 
