198 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



Hernandez enumerates, in his hiftory of Quadrupeds, 

 four Mexican animals of the clafs of dogs, mentioned by 

 us in book I. of this hiftory : the firft, the Xoloitzcuintli, 

 or hairy dog ; the fecond, the Itzcuintepozotli, or hunch- 

 back dog ; the third, the Techichi, or eatable little dog ; 

 and the fourth, the Jepeitzcuintli, or little mountain dog. 

 Thefe four very different fpecies of dogs have been re- 

 duced by the count de Buffon to one fmgle fpecies. He 

 fays, that Hernandez was deceived in what he wrote of 

 the Xoloitzcuintli, for no other author makes mention^of 

 it, and therefore it ought to be believed that that qua- 

 druped was tranfported there from Europe, fince Her- 

 nandez himfelf affirms, that he faw it firft in Spain, and 

 that it had no name in Mexico, as Xoloitzcuintli is the 

 proper name of the wolf, given by Hernandez to that 

 other quadruped ; that all thofe dogs were known in 

 Mexico by the generic name of Alco. Here, in a few 

 words, we have a mafs of errors. The name Alco, or 

 Allco, neither is Mexican, nor ever was ufed in Mexi- 

 co, but in South America. That of Xoloitzcuintli is not 

 the name of the wolf, nor do we know that it was ever 

 called fo by any one at Mexico. The Mexicans call the 

 wolf Cuetlachtli, and in fome places where they do not 

 fpeak Mexican properly, they call it Tecuani, which is a 

 generic name for wild beads. It is evident befides, from 

 the very text of Hernandez, which we here fubjoin (f)\ 

 that neither the Xoloitzcuintli was tranfported from 

 Europe to Mexico, nor was fuch a name given to it by 



Hernandez 



(f) Prater canes notos noftro orbi qui omnes pene abHifpanls tranflati ad 

 Indos in his plagis hodie educantur, dua alia offendas genera, quorum primum 

 antequam hue me conferrem, vidi in Patria, cseteros vero neque confpexeram 

 neque adhuc eo delates puto. Primus Xoloitzcuintli vocatus alios corporis vincit 

 magnitudine, &c. Hern. Hift. Quadrup. N. Hifp. cap. ao. 



