Chap. IV. AZTEO WORDS USED. 51 
the above-named year shows an export of 400 arrobas of 
cheese, and several thousand hides. 
I found the people of this village very intelligent and 
polite. Two of the principal men took me between them, 
and proceeded to show me the sights of the place. This 
I found very neat and clean. The public square before the 
church, a building of some pretensions, which, however, 
remains in an unfinished state, had a fresh green sward, 
producing quite a northern impression, with which, how- 
ever, the purity and brightness of the dark-blue sky, the 
balmy softness of the air, the erect trunks of the columnar 
cactus, the lily-trees of the yucca, and the plantations of 
pulcre — a small species of agave, — were in strong contra- 
diction. 
I am not sure to which of the two adjoining races of 
Nicaraguan Indians — the Aztecs and the Dirians — the 
population of Jinotepet is to be referred. They have given 
up their Indian language. Some old men, I was told, still 
retain it, but when I was at the place I could get no 
information on the subject. In their physiognomy and 
manners, the Indian type could not be mistaken. As I 
passed through the streets, I saw young women, with the 
upper part of their body uncovered, but with flowers in 
their hair, standing in some of the doorways, only with- 
drawing a little as I came near. In the name of the 
village, the two last syllables, "tepet" are derived from the 
Aztec language, in which tepetl 1 means a mountain. The 
whole name was translated to me by " wind-mountain. " 
1 The original termination in tl is 
either omitted entirely, or loses the I, 
or changes into c in the remnants of the 
Aztec language in Nicaragua, and it 
appears that the same is the case in 
other parts of Central America and in 
Mexico. In Nicaragua, for instance, 
we have the names Jlnotepe, Jinotepec, 
Jinotepet, — Masatepe, Masatepec, Masa- 
tepet, — instead of the original Jinotepetl 
and Masaiepetl. 
E 2 
