194 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THF AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 
2. The Mexican Tribes —The seven principal tribes of Mexico, called 
collectively the Nahuatlacs, spoke dialects of the same language, and all 
alike had a tradition that their ancestors came from the north, and that the 
separate tribes came into Mexico at long intervals apart They arrived in 
the following order as to time: 1, Sochomilcos; 2, Chalcas; 3, Tepanecans; 
4, Tescucans; 5, Tlatluicans; 6, Tlasealans; 7, Aztecs or Mexicans. They 
settled in different parts of Mexico The Cholulans, Tepeacas, and Huexatsin- 
cos spoke dialects of the Nahuatlac language, and were severally subdivisions 
of one or the other preceding tribes. They had the same tradition of a 
northern origin. These several tribes were among the most prominent in 
Mexico at the period of Spanish discovery. Some of the tribes of Yucatan 
and Central America also had similar traditions of an original migration of 
their ancestors from the north. ’ 
Acosta, who visited Mexico in 1585, and whose work was published at 
Seville in 1589, states the order ofthe migration of the Mexican tribes as 
above given, and further says that they ‘‘come from other far countries 
which lie toward the north, where now they have discovered a kingdom 
they call New Mexico. There are two provinces in this country, the one 
called Aztlan, which is to say, a place of Herons [Cranes], and the other 
Teculhuacan, which signifies a land of such whose grandfathers were divine. 
The Navataleas [Nahuatlacs] point their beginning and first territory in the 
figure of a cave, and say they came forth of seven caves to come and 
people the land of Mexico.”* The same tradition, substantially, is given by 
ear grew out of it but six inches from the ground. Specimens of the ear we obtained showed that 
it was about five inches long, with the kernel small and flinty. The ear is in four colors, white, red, 
yellow, and black, each being one or the other of these colors. In a few cases two colors were inter- 
mixed in the sameear. It seemed probable that this was the primitive maize of the American aborigines, 
{rom which all other varieties have been developed. A few cobs which we found at a cliff house on the 
Mancos River corresponded with the Conejos ear in size, and were probably the same variety. After- 
wards at TaosI found the same ear in white, red, yellow, and black; the staple maize now cultivated 
at this pueblo, but much larger. I brought away several fine ears saved for seed. One black ear 
measured twelve inches in length, with twelve rows of kernels, while the white variety, both at Conejos 
and Taos, had each fourteen rows. 
Finally, a dry country, neither excessively hot nor moist, like the San Juan region, would seem to 
be most favorable for the development and self-propagation of maize as well as plants until man ap- 
peared for their domestication. These are but speculations, but if they should prompt further investi- 
gations concerning the place of nativity of this wonderful cereal, which has been such an important 
factor in the advaucement of the Indian family, and which is also destined to prove such a support to 
our own, these suggestions will not have been made in vain. 
‘The Natural and Moral History of the East and West Indies, London ed., 1604, Grimstone’s 
Trans., pp. 497, 504. 
