154 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 



and the extent of their dominion. Some authorities see 

 in the Olmecs a Mayan tribe that once inhabited the 

 region east and southeast of the Valley of Mexico and 

 who were afterwards driven out. But it seems more 

 likely that both the Olmecs and the Toltecs were tribes 

 of Nahuan rather than Mayan stock and that they were 

 merely the first of the Highlanders to feel the quickening 

 effect of Mayan contact. Both terms were probably 

 generalized by the later nations far beyond their original 

 significance. The Toltecs derived their name from Tula 

 or Tollan, which was only one of several cities that 

 flourished during the Toltecan period. Whether all 

 these cities were ever bonded into a political whole is a 

 question that cannot now be answered. 



Owing to the lack of a "long count" the dates in 

 Toltecan history are few and uncertain. The Mexican 

 document with the longest range of history is the Annals 

 of Quauhtitlan in which the count of years goes back in 

 a practically unbroken series to 635 A.D. Still earlier 

 dates are indicated. For instance, the legendary 

 departure from Chicomoztoc, the Seven Caves, is 

 placed for the Chichimecas as 364 years (7 x 52) before 

 their settlement in 687 at Quauhtitlan. An annotation 

 on the manuscript reading: "6 times 4 centuries, plus 

 1 century plus 13 years, today the 22nd of May, 1558" 

 has been taken to summarize the scope of the original. 

 The " centuries" are of course the native " cycles" of 

 52 years and the total on this basis amounts to 1313 

 years which subtracted from 1558 would carry us back 

 to 245 A.D. 



While this chronicle concerns itself mostly with the 

 lowly Chichimecas who did not become important until 

 after the downfall of Toltecan power, still what pur- 

 ports to be a genealogy of the rulers of Tula is also given. 

 From other sources, such as the writings of Fernando de 



