14£ CRANIA AMERICANA. 



4. On the decline of the Toltecan naonarchy, the Chechemecas appeared in 

 Mexico. These people were also from a northern country, which their annals 

 call Amaquemecan. They were a nation of hunters, clothed in the skins of 

 beasts, and unacquainted with agriculture or the arts of civilised life. Their 

 religion embraced the simple worship of the sun, to which they made offerings of 

 fruits and flowers, unattended by human sacrifices. Although the Chechemecas 

 were a rude people, they were not averse to civilisation: they mixed with the 

 Toltecas who still remained in the country, adopted their agriculture, and many 

 of those ornamental arts to which we have already adverted.* 



5. It was during the Chechemecan monarchy that the seven tribes took up 

 their abode in Anahuac. These tribes bore the following names : Zochimilcas, 

 Calchese, Tapanecas, Colhuas, Tlahuicas, Tlascalans, and Aztecs or Mexicans. 

 These nations bore the collective name of Nahautlacas ; they came also from a 

 northern country which they called Aztlan, which was contiguous to Aquemecan, 

 the hive of the Chechemecas.f This immigration took place in the year 1178. 

 These several tribes established themselves independently in Anahuac, the 

 Mexicans being the last in order of arrival, A. D. 1245. 



6. Subsequent to the seven tribes there arrived another great family, bearing 

 the name of Alcohuans, whose native seats were nearly identical with those of 

 the Chechemecas. A confederacy was early established between the Alcohuans, 

 the Chechemecas and the Toltecas, and the national appellation was derived 

 from the first of these tribes, which is represented to have been further advanced 

 in civilisation than any people of Anahuac, excepting the Toltecas. These 

 nations, together with the Naulacas, appear all to have spoken dialects of the same 

 language, a fact which is accounted for in their cognate origin. J 



The Aztecs or Mexicans were at first tributary to the Alcohuans, but they 

 early shook off the yoke, and became in their turn the rulers of Mexico, which 

 they governed until the capital fell into the hands of the Spaniards under Cortez, 

 in the year 1521. 



* Clavigero, Hist, of Mexico, B. II. 



t These northern seats of civiUsation, however, have been sought for in vain; and it is worthy of 

 remark, that the learned Cabrera has attempted to show that the native seats of the nations above 

 ermmerated, were not to the north, but in the south of Mexico. After an enumeration of various 

 plausible facts, he adds, " all these circumstances united tend to demonstrate, by evidence as clear as 

 evidence can prove, that the kingdom of Amaquemecan was situated in the present province of 

 Chiapa."— See Solution of the grand Historical problem of the population of America, p. 6S. 



X Humboldt, Monuments, I, p. 81. 



