THE AZTECS. 751 
pipes which indicated the smoking propensities of this people. Also eight spear- 
points, twelve arrow-heads, one asphaltum jug, five cement cups made from the 
vertebrae of large fishes, twenty-four metal knives nearly destroyed by rust, six 
arrow-smoothers, ten tortilla stones. Besides these occurred stone knives and 
drills, bone whistles, a copper spear, charms, and tubes of stone and at least a 
half bushel of beads, wampum, ornaments of shells, bone and stone, a descrip- 
tion of which would require a whole volume. 
San Buenaventura, Cal., March 4, 1884. 
THE AZTECS. 
captain E. L. BERTHOUD- 
Within a few years it has been a very common custom to call all the semi- 
civilized Indians of New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado, Aztecs, and all the 
remains and ruined buildings of these Territories and States, Aztec fragments 
of former advancement. To a large extent we consider this nomenclature as a 
misnomer, and that on the best evidence obtainable there is no good proof of 
such affiliation. 
Clavigero, in his " Historia Antiguade Mejico," tells us that from the most 
authentic accounts, traditions, and from other proof obtained by the earliest as 
well as later writers on the history of Mexico and its conquest by Cortez, that 
about the year 1160 of our era, the Aztecs, as a nation whom history has rendered 
famous, inhabited a place called Aztlan, a region which as shown on Mercator's 
Authentic Map of 1569, was situated north of the Gulf of California; Azt in the 
Aztec language signifying "water." That one Huitziton, a Cacique, chief or 
head man of that nation, once on a time evidently wishing to influence the 
nation to remove their local habitation, seems to have devised the following 
plan: 
Noticing a sparrow (Pajarillo) that from a tree emitted a cry that sounded 
precisely as the Aztec word"Tihui Tihui," which in that language is in its 
meaning the same as the Spanish word vantos, "let us go," and informing another 
influential leader named Tecpaltzin of this phenomenon, the fact was interpreted 
by them to their nation as a warning from supernatural influences to guide their 
conduct. The Aztecs obeyed and began their wanderings, which lasted many 
more years than the Israelitish wanderings from Egypt to Caanan. They first 
went northeast, probably passing the great Colorado, then proceeded southeast 
to the Rio Gila, where they resided for a period, where yet the ruins of buildings 
can be seen; thence they wandered to latitude 29° about 250 miles northeast of 
Chihuahua. This place is known now as Casas Grandes, from a very large 
building which yet remains, having been erected by the Aztecs during their peri- 
grinations. 
From this place they turned south, crossed the Tarahuma Mountains, and 
