83 MEXICO, CENTEAL AMEEICA, WEST INDIES. 



and between the central plateaux and tlie Gulf of Mexico, has been an exclusive 

 domain of Spanish speech since the last century. Scarcely any traces still survive 

 of Nahua or other native languages, and the " one hundred and forty-eight 

 nations " of Coahuila, the " seventy-two " of Tamaulipas, the " thirty-one " of 

 Nuevo Leon, the Manosprietas, the Irritilas, Tamanlipecs, Cuachichils, and 

 Zacotecs, have all been merged in the general mass of the Mestizo populations, 

 abandoning their old usages and distinct idioms. Wherever the people were in 

 the nomad state the native tongues almost invariably disappeared, but held their 

 ground much longer among the settled or agricultural classes. 



In the very neighbourhood of the capital the more secluded hills and upland 

 valleys are still inhabited by scattered groups of the Otomi, an Indian nation 

 "which seems to have undergone little change since the epoch of Toltec rule. 

 The designation of " Red-haired " often applied to them has probably reference 

 to their practice of dyeing the hair red when on the war-path. Round about 

 Queretaro, which may be taken as the centre of their domain, they occupy nearly 

 all the mountainous parts of the Anahuuc plateau between San Luis Potosi and 

 the Sierra Nevada; hence the term Serranos, or "Highlanders," commonly applied 

 to them. 



The Otomi are estimated at over 600,000, including those who have exchanged 

 their language for Spanish or Aztec, and at probably 1,000,000 if the Pâmé and 

 Mazahua branches be included. Despite their name, which in Aztec means 

 " Wanderers," the Otomi are a very sedentary people, little given to travelling 

 except between their mountain villages and the market towns. 



Physically thej^ have large heads with coarse black hair, swarthy complexion, 

 heavy carriage, yet are excellent runners. By some writers these rude loutish 

 populations have been regarded as the remains of an old Chinese colony, an 

 hypothesis scarcely in accordance with the view that assigns a Chinese origin to 

 the Aztec culture. The theory was first suggested by the fact that the Hici'lnu, 

 that is, the "Old," as the Otomi language is called, is, like Chinese, almost entirely 

 monosyllabic. The two languages also present numerous coincidences in their 

 vocabularies ; but such coincidences are almost inevitable, the series of mono- 

 syllabic words being naturally somew'hat restricted or at least presenting far less 

 diversity of form than that of polysyllabic terms. 



In Michoacan, west and south-west of the capital, the bulk of the population 

 are the Tarascans (Tarascos), who occupy nearly the whole of Michoacan itself, 

 besides a small part of the neighbouring state of Guanajuato. But in various 

 districts they are intermingled with the Otomi, the Mazahuas, the Matlaltzincas, 

 as well as some more or less mixed descendants of the Aztecs. So recently as 

 the beginning of the present century, the Tarascan language was still dominant 

 in their territor}^ Spanish being almost unknown except in the towns ; it is 

 even still the chief medium of intercourse in many rural districts ; but Spanish, 

 being taught in the schools, is gradually prevailing. The Tarascans, formerly 

 rivals of the allied Aztec race in general culture, were, like them, acquainted 

 with pictorial writing, and even excelled them in some branches of industry. 



