504 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



from a point in the north, called Aztlan, less than a thousand years 

 ago; in other words, some four or five centuries before the overthrow 

 of their empire by Cortez. 



While historians have usually accepted this native tradition, philo- 

 logical evidence renders it very improbable. The Aztec language, more 

 properly called Nahuatl, is the southernmost of a trailing chain of re- 

 lated dialects extending through the length of Mexico and the Great 

 Basin region of the United States. Being at the southernmost extrem- 

 ity of this chain, we have every reason to believe that the Aztecs have 

 moved southward — just as it is natural that the Hindus, who are the 

 easternmost of the Aryans, entered India from the west, and the Celts, 

 who are the westernmost, came into their territories from the east. 

 But if the Aztecs had come from Sonora or adjacent parts of northern 

 Mexico as late as four or five centuries before the discovery, their lan- 

 guage should still be very similar to the dialects of those districts. 

 This is not the case. Aztec and the languages of northern Mexico are 

 related, but the relationship is undoubtedly distant. In other words, 

 the Aztecs separated from the Indians of northern Mexico so long ago 

 that their language became considerably changed, and there is every 

 reason for believing that they have maintained a separate existence for 

 very much more than 500 years, just as it is a moral certainty that the 

 ancient people speaking Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and Gothic broke loose 

 from one another more than five centuries before we first hear of any of 

 them. Languages do not change over night. In other words, because 

 Aztec is a member, but a detached and divergent member, of the great 

 TJto-Aztekan family, it is necessary to conclude that the Aztecs came 

 from the north indeed, but came at a very ancient period. 



Cliff Dwellers and Pueblos 



In New Mexico and Arizona there formerly lived the Cliff Dwellers, 

 and have lived in historical times the Pueblo Indians, builders of large 

 villages of stone, and constructors of irrigation ditches and other re- 

 mains of a monumental character. These relics so far surpass any- 

 thing else found in the United States that the superiority of the Pueb- 

 los over all their neighbors is unquestioned. This superiority has led 

 to their being brought into connection with the Aztecs, as the nearest 

 nation that had risen to a similar proficiency in arts and industries. 



The Cliff Dwellers and the Pueblos are, however, known to be prac- 

 tically identical in their arts, implements, architecture and even re- 

 ligion — so far as idols and symbols and other visible remains can make 

 the nature of an ancient religion evident. The two peoples are clearly 

 only ancient and modern strata of one race. If, therefore, the ancient 

 Cliff Dwellers were Aztecs, the Pueblos should still show in their lan- 

 guage close kinship with the Aztecs. This is not the case, the Pueblo 



