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. tom. i, p. 37 and 
364). Boturini asserts, that the Olmecks, driven out 
by the Tlascaltecks, peopled the West India islands 
and South America. 
I 
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-amoxtliy 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., tom. i, p. 126, and 129; tom. iv, p. 46). 
It was in the time of the Tolteck monarchy, or in 
ages anterior to it, that the Mexican Budha, QuetzaU 
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 dig- 
