THOMAS] INDIAN LANGUAGES OF MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 19 
Geografia (about 1860), they were in existence and use at the time 
Zapata wrote his Relacién (1678). The Macoyahui were elso known 
by the names Cue and Tecayagui. It is safe, perhaps, to assume 
that these languages were related to one another, though this is not 
stated, nor is there anything on record, so far as ascertained, by which 
to determine whether they were related to any language of the sur- 
rounding tribes. The only indications given on this point are that 
the Tepahue were friends of the Tehueco, and that some of the 
inhabitants of Conicari were of the Mayo tribe. These facts suggest 
relationship to the Yaqui group. 
TEPEHUANE 
(Synonym: Tepeguane) 
The Tepehuane occupied the country mainly in Durango, imme- 
diately south of the Tarahumare, chiefly on the eastern slope of the 
Sierra Madre, from the twenty-fourth nearly to the twenty-seventh 
degree of north latitude. Arlegui (187) says it extended from the 
Sierra del Mezquital up to the Parral. According to Alegre (1, 319) it 
extended from a little less than the twenty-fifth to the twenty- 
seventh degree of north latitude, touching the Tarahumare region 
at the north. 
The language does not appear to have been divided into any well- 
marked dialects. Pimentel (11, 63) says it consisted of various 
dialects, but the differences seem to have been too slight to receive 
any special notice. Orozco y Berra mentions none. It is possible 
that Acaxee and cognate idioms were related to it. 
ACAXEE 
For the reasons given below, it has been decided to bring together 
under this tribal heading the four following names, which 
Orozco y Berra and other writers have treated as those of separate 
tribes, namely, Acaxee, Jijime (Xixime), Tebaca, and Sabaibo. 
The four small tribes, or so-called tribes, speaking these languages 
formed a connected group surrounded on the north, east, and south- 
east by the Tepehuane and on the west and southwest by the exten- 
sion of the Mexican group northward along the western coast. Their 
country lay chiefly in the high and rugged sierras. There seems to 
be little or no doubt, from the evidence given below, that they spoke 
closely related dialects, some so-called dialects, however, being 
apparently identical. It also appears that in addition to their native 
dialects, spoken among themselves, all used the Mexican language in 
their intercourse with others.' 
1 The term ‘‘Mexican,’’ as used here and elsewhere in this paper when referring to language, is to be under- 
stood in the sense in which Orozco y Berra uses the term ‘‘ Mexicano;”’ that is to say, it includes the central 
or strictly Nahuatl or Aztec group, the particular dialect of this northward extension being unknown. 
