Nahuas

“ The Nahua migrations are more numerous and their accounts somewhat obscure. It is not improbable that while few in number the Nahuas arrived on our north-western coast, where they found a home until they had become a tribe of considerable proportions. Crossing the watershed between the sources of the Columbia and Missouri Rivers, a large portion of the tribe probably found its way to the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys, where it laid the foundations of a wide-spread empire, and developed a civilization which reached a respectable degree of advancement. ”

“ The old civilization was merged in the new, and practically lost its identity; so much so that all the many nationalities that in later times traced their origin to this central region were proud, whatever their language, to claim relationship with the successful Nahuas, whose institutions they had adopted and whose power they had shared.
Respecting the ensuing period of Nahua greatness in Central America nothing is recorded save that it ended in revolt, disaster, and a general scattering of the tribes at some period probably preceding the fifth century. ”

“ At the date of separation all were in a certain sense Nahua nations, and the Nahuas proper had doubtless been considerably affected by the ancient peoples whom they had overcome or converted, and with whom they had so long associated:—hence the analogies that appear between the institutions and monuments of the north and south. Of the contrasts that also appear, some date back to original differences between the two rival powers; others result from development and progress in different paths, during the [236] ten centuries that elapsed before the coming of the Spaniards. ”

“ Soon after the Culhuas, the Nahuas appeared, a white race coming from the north of Europe via the Mississippi Valley, Florida, and West Indies, in successive migrations. Palenque was built by the yellow races under a strong influence of the Culhuas and a very slight Nahua influence; the cities of Yucatan were built when the Nahuas had conquered their rivals and the influence of the white race had become predominant; Mitla owes its origin to a still more recent period, and was built by a migrating tribe in which the yellow blood seems to have predominated. ”

“ Of the daily meals among the masses little is known. The Nahuas seem to have confined their indulgence in rich and varied viands to the oft-recurring feasts, while at their homes they were content with plain fare. This is a peculiarity that is still observable in the country, both among the descendants of the Nahuas and of their conquerors. The poorer people had in each house a metate for grinding maize, and a few earthen dishes for cooking tortillas and frijoles. ”

“ The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg attempts to reconcile the general fact shown by all the earlier traditions that the primitive Nahua power was in the south, with the idea of a migration from the north apparently entertained by each of the nations of Anáhuac and by the Spanish writers. According to his idea the Nahuas, overcome by the monarchs of Xibalba, were driven from Chiapas, dwelt a few years on the Pacific coast at Tlapallantzinco, and thence migrated north-westward in different bands, following the general direction of the coast, to Sonora and Upper California. ”

“ Language has ever been an important factor in determining the original home and the migrations of peoples. With this view the Aztec has received the attention of some of the best scholars of both continents. The most prominent results merit attention. The Nahua language is unquestionably spoken far to the south, in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, and this fact has been persistently cited as conclusive proof of the southern origin of the Nahuas ”

“ Of the tribes that were successively defeated and forced to seek new homes, those that spoke the Maya dialects, although considering themselves Nahuas, seem to have settled chiefly in the south and east. [III-96] Some of them afterwards rose to great prominence in Guatemala and Yucatan, and their annals will form the subject of future chapters. The Nahua-speaking tribes as a rule established themselves in Anáhuac and in the western and north-western parts of Mexico, as their companion tribes, the Olmecs and Xicalancas, had already established themselves in the south-eastern region. ”

“ The pyramidal structure we have found employed by both Mayas and Nahuas, with certain modifications and with such resemblances as would seem to indicate that both peoples had been originally, or at an early day, near neighbors, and that the younger people, at least the more recent in their occupancy of Mexico and Central America, the Nahuas, may have copied the pyramid in its perfected form from the Mayas. ”

“ Two Civilizations.—The Nahuas occupied Mexico south of a line drawn roughly from Tampico through Guadalajara to the Pacific Ocean. The Mayas lived principally in Yucatán and [Pg 27] Guatemala. The Nahuas had acquired much of their culture from the Mayas, and the cultural areas overlapped. These peoples had several features in common. They lived in substantial pueblos, or towns, and practiced agriculture by means of irrigation, raising extensively maize, beans, potatoes, and tobacco. Maguey was a staple crop in the Valley of Mexico and henequén in Yucatán. ”

“ Hence the question arises, was it original with the immigrating Nahuatl tribes who came from the higher northern countries as is reported, and did they succeed in forming such a consolidation with the Maya races as to mingle both under the same hierarchical government, or did the contrary take place? The most prevalent opinion makes the Nahuas the inventors of the general system of chronology, but later students begin to express themselves in favor of its Maya origin. On a more fitting occasion we are desirous to present our reasons for taking the latter view. ”

“ I find no evidence, however, that the Nahua power ever became settled and flourishing farther north than Durango and Sinaloa, although the influence of their institutions may, not improbably, have extended to the Sonora tribes; into California and the far north-west the Nahuas never penetrated. If a Nahua empire or political power ever really existed in the north-west, its centre was probably in the region of Quemada, in Zacatecas and Jalisco. Soon, however, the valley of Mexico became the political centre, and the subsequent history of the country was essentially a history of Anáhuac. ”

“ The former people clearly claim an origin which, if their traditions are worth anything, must be assigned to some Mediterranean country. While, on the contrary, the Nahuas persistently state that they came from the north or north-west. It is certain that many of their cosmological traditions closely resemble those of Central and Western Asiatic peoples. Why should the traditions of the ancient Americans be less reliable than those of the most ancient Egyptians, Greeks, or Hindoos? ”

“ We have seen that the Aztec traces in the New Mexican region, and possibly the Pueblo culture, may be attributed to the migrating Nahua tribes after their overthrow in Central America; but there is little or no reason to attribute the establishment of the Mound-Builders of the eastern states to the same influence and the same epoch. The few Nahuas that were scattered in the north are not likely to have exerted so slight an influence in the Pueblo region, and so powerful a one on the Mississippi ”

“ Although distinct in language from the inhabitants of Anáhuac, the people possessed the culture of the Nahuas, and have been hastily classed as an offshoot of this great race, descended according to one tradition from the mighty Quetzal coatl, since in Miztecapan, the 'region of clouds,' lay Tlalocan, the terrestrial paradise. ”

“ Finally the Aztecs, the last of the Nahuas, reached Anáhuac four centuries before the Spanish conquest. Mr. Becker has conjectured that Aztlan (land of whiteness) was the name applied to the southern Mississippi Valley and the region of the Gulf States; that Hue hue Tlapalan (old red land) , the ancient empire of the Nahuas, was situated on the great plains of the west and in the region occupied by the Cliff-dwellers and Pueblos, and further, that the “seven caves” or “ravines,” the Tulan Zuiva of the Quichés, is the region of the Colorado River, the land of cañons. ”

“ If this date is authentic it would follow that the Nahuas, or Toltecs, left Huehue-Tlapalan more than a thousand years previous to the Christian era, for they dwelt a long time in the country of Xibalba as peaceable settlers before they organized the civil war which raised them to power. The Toltecs were in turn overthrown by the Aztecs, who held sway at the time of the Spanish conquest. ”

“ Sometimes they were placed in groups, as upon the temple walls at Mexico, at other times one serpent twined and twisted round every door and window of an apartment until head and tail met. Carved lintels and door-posts were common, and statues frequently adorned the court and approaches. Glossy surfaces seem to have had a special attraction for the Nahuas, and they made floors, walls, and even streets, extremely smooth. The walls and floors were first coated with lime, gypsum, or ochre, and then polished. ”

“ This Maya race, having adopted the agricultural and sedentary life, multiplied so greatly as to send out many swarms of colonists towards the North, where the Nahuas, that is to say, "the skilled ones" or "experts" (for so the emigrants from the Maya land were called) , found men of the same race as themselves, to whom they imparted their superior knowledge. They kept on pushing northwards, established themselves on the great plateau of Anahuac, or "lake country," where the city of Mexico is situated, and advanced up to the somewhat indefinite limit opposed to their progress by the Red-skins. ”

“ Brasseur de Bourbourg explains this myth by saying that Hunhun Ahpu denotes the Nahua immigrants who by their superiority gain the women of the country, and whose children carry on a successful struggle with the aboriginal race. The continuance of the contest and the triumph of the Nahuas is described in the adventures of Hun Ahpu and Xbalanque. A rat reveals to them their origin, and the place where the ball-game implements of their father are hidden. ”

“ We have it upon good authority that upon almost every monthly feast, and upon numerous other grand celebrations, several hundred human hearts were torn hot from living breasts as an acceptable offering to the Nahua gods and a pleasant sight to the people. [275]
The grandest festivals were celebrated during the fourth year, called Teoxihuitl, or 'divine year,' and at the commencement of every thirteenth year. On these occasions a greater number of victims bled and the penances were more severe than at other times. The Nahuas also observed a grand festival every month in the year ”

“ Mr Squier is inclined to think they are of the same stock as the Nahuas. Some striking physical peculiarities observed among them have given rise to various surmises and startling conclusions regarding their origin. Dwelling in the western part of the state are the Terrabas and the Changuenes, fierce and barbarous nations, at constant enmity with their neighbors. In the south-east and extending to the borders of Chiriquí dwell the Talamancas composed of a number of different tribes and declared by some to be allied in race with the Guatusos. ”

“ All of these tribes are said to have come from the unknown Aztlan, their early home. The question of its locality has been as much a subject of controversy as the location of Hue hue Tlapalan, since, in fact, the question is possibly one and the same, for the Nahua speaking people who migrated into Mexico at intervals, extending over a period of a thousand years, must have had a common origin. Aztlan is described by Duran as a most attractive land and the presumption is that the Nahuas were forcibly driven from their fair heritage by the gradual encroachments of their enemies. ”

“ Although subjected by the Nahuas, they do not seem to have been excessively ignorant. Agriculture was not neglected, and from their cotton the women wove clothing for both sexes. Ornaments of gold, copper and hard stones were in use; their religion was conducted with ceremony; [158] and they were famous for their songs and musical ability. [159] The members of the nation to-day are laborious, good tempered, and endowed with a remarkable aptitude for imitation, especially in sculpture. Some of the [136] women are quite handsome. ”

“ Nor in the Nahuatl language—although its very name is derived from it58-*—does the radical na appear in its simplicity and true significance. To the Nahuas, also, it must have been a loan.
It is true that de la Serna derives the Mexican naualli, a sorcerer, from the verb nahualtia, to mask or disguise oneself, “because a naualli is one who masks or disguises himself under the form of some lower animal, which is his nagual;”58-† but it is altogether likely that nahualtia derived its meaning from the custom of the medicine men to wear masks during their ceremonies. ”

“ No. VII. Ancient Nahuatl Poetry. Edited by Daniel G. Brinton, M. D. 176 pages. 1890.
In this volume twenty-seven songs in the original Nahuatl are presented, with translation, notes, vocabulary, etc. Many of them date from before the conquest and none later than the sixteenth century. The introduction describes the ancient poetry of the Nahuas in all its bearings.
No. VIII. Rig Veda Americanus. Edited by Daniel G. Brinton, M. D. 95 pages. 1890.
Presents the original text with a gloss in Nahuatl of twenty sacred chants of the ancient Mexicans. ”