THOMAS] INDIAN LANGUAGES OF MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 59 
Much confusion exists in regard to this name, as it is applied not 
only to the small group in Oaxaca but also to one in Tabasco and to 
another in Nicaragua, both of which are included by Orozco y Berra in 
the Mayan family. It is now known, however, that only those in 
Tabasco and some in Guatemala and Honduras to which the name 
has sometimes been applied belong to this family. The languages of 
the Oaxacan and Nicaraguan groups pertain to entirely different 
stocks. That of the former having received no satisfactory classifi- 
cation, Doctor Brinton (3: 112, 146) has applied to it the name Tequis- 
tlateca, from the principal village of the tribe, and placed it in the 
Yuman stock. As yet, however, this has not been accepted by 
linguists. 
Professor Starr (67) insists that there was no necessity for the 
change of name made by Doctor Brinton, as the people call them- 
selves Chontal and their language Chontal. He says also that 
Orozco y Berra is in error in calling some of the most important 
towns Trike pueblos; and that one in the list of Chontal towns he 
gives—Tlacolulita—is in reality Zapotec. Le6n and Belmar have 
assigned the language to the Nahuatlan stock. 
As the name Chontal applied to other groups should be superseded 
by more correct titles, there appears to be no good reason why it 
could not be retained for the Oaxacan tribe, as this is the name the 
people apply to themselves, but for the present it is deemed best, 
following Brinton, to apply to it as a linguistic family the name 
Tequistlatecan. 
HuAVE 
(Synonyms: Huabi, Juave, Guavi, Wabi) 
_Asmall tribe resident on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, among the 
marshes on the Pacific coast, at the pomt where the Zapotec and 
Zoque territories meet, as located on Orozco y Berra’s map. They 
occupy at present only four villages, one of those mentioned by 
Orozco y Berra—Ixhuatan—long since having been abandoned. 
According to their traditions they came from some coast region far- 
ther to the south—the last-named writer says from South America. 
Brasseur de Bourbourg (1:11, 3) says, on what authority is not stated, 
that in past centuries they possessed the province of Tehuantepec, 
and that they had been masters also of Soconusco, and had extended 
their conquest to Xalapa-la-Grande, of the Zapotec. 
So far as known, the language can not be assigned to any recognized 
stock, although Le6én and Belmar believe it to be related to the Maya; 
therefore for the present it must remain as the representative of a 
distinct family. 
