NOTES. 249 



The most ancient nations of Mexico, those who con- 

 sidered themselves as autochthones, are the Olmecks, or 

 Hulmecks, who extended their migrations to the gulf 

 of Nicoya, and to Leon de Nicaragua ; the Xica- 

 lancks ; the Cores, the Tepanecks, the Tarascks, the 

 Miztecks, the Tzapotecks, and the Otomites. The 

 Olmecks and the Xicalancks, who inhabited the ele- 

 vated plain of Tlascala, boasted of having vanquished 

 or destroyed on their arrival the giants, or quinametin ; 

 a tradition founded probably on the appearance of the 

 fossil bones of elephants found in those elevated regions 

 of the mountains of Anahuac (Torq. torn, i, p. 37 and 

 364). Boturini asserts, that the Olmecks, driven out 

 by the Tlascaltecks, peopled the West India islands 

 and South America. 



The Toltecks, migrating from their country, Hue- 

 huetlapallan, or Tlapallan, in the year 544 of our era, 

 arrive at Tollantzinco, in the country of Anahuac, in 

 648 ; and at Tula, in 670. Under the reign of the 

 Tolteck king Ixtlicuechahuac, in 708, the astrologer 

 Huematzin composed the celebrated Divine Book, the 

 Teo-amoxtli, which contained the history, the mytho- 

 logy, the calendar, and the laws of the nation. The 

 Toltecks also appear to have constructed the pyramid 

 of Cholula, on the model of the pyramids of Teotihua- 

 can ; which last are the most ancient of all, and Sigu- 

 enza believes them to be the work of the Olmecks 

 (Clav., torn, i, p. 126, and 129 ; torn, iv, p. 46). 



It was in the time of the Tolteck monarchy, or in 

 ages anterior to it, that the Mexican Budha, Quetzal- 

 cohuatl, appeared ; a white man, bearded, and accom- 

 panied by other strangers, who wore black garments, 

 in the form of cassocks. Till the l6th century, the 

 people wore these dresses of Quetzalcohuatl, to dis- 



