494 ANNUAL EEPORT 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 limited. 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. 1 



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 Due 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. 



i For the names of the most important codices from Mexico and Central America, see Saville (1901), 

 kejeal (1902), and Lehmann (1905). 



