Anahuac written by Edward Burnett Tylor

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Our ride next morning was but a few hours, the journey being so divided
in order that the passengers may reach Vera Cruz before the heat of the
day begins. We passed over a dreary district, generally too dry for
anything but cactus and acacias, but now and then, when a little water
was to be found, displaying clumps of bamboos with their elegant
feathery tufts. Then the railway took us through the dismal downs, with
their swamps and sand-hills, and so into Vera Cruz.

The English merchants we had already made acquaintance with were as
kind and hospitable as ever, and I found an Englishman, whom we had
known before, going as far as Havana by the same packet. The yellow
fever was unusually late this year, and, though June had begun, there
were but few cases. We heard afterwards that it set in a week or two
after our departure, and by its extraordinary severity made ample
amends for the lateness of its arrival.

After sunset, the air was alive with mosquitos, and the floors of the
hotel swarmed with cockroaches. The armadillo took quite naturally to
the latter creatures, and crunched them up as fast as we could catch
them for him. I was surprised to find that our word "cockroaches" does
not come from the German stock, like most of our names for insects and
small creatures, but from the Latin side of the house. The Spanish
waiter called them _cucarachas_, and the French ones _coqueraches_. The
history of the armadillo ends unfortunately: for some days he seemed to
take quite kindly to the diet of bits of meat which we had to put him
on, on shipboard, but he fell sick at Havana, and died.

My late companion travelled up into the Northern States, went to the
Indian assembly at Manitoulin Island, paid a visit to various tribes of
Red Men in the Hudson's Bay Territory--as yet unmissionized, carried
away in triumph the big medicine-drum I have already spoken of, and saw
and did many other things not to be related here. One sight that he
saw, some months later, reminded him of the wild country where we had
travelled together. He was in Iowa City, a little town of a year or
two's growth, out in the prairie States of the Far West. As he stood
one morning in the outskirts, among the plank-houses and half-made
roads, there came a solitary horseman riding in. Evidently he had come
from the Mexican frontier, a thousand miles and more away across the
plains; and no doubt, his waggons and the rest of his party were behind
him on the road, beyond the distant horizon of the prairie. By his face
he was American, but his costume was the dress of old Mexico, the
leather jacket and trousers, the broad white hat and huge jingling
spurs. His lazo hung in front of his high-peaked saddle, and his
well-worn serape was rolled up behind him like a trooper's cloak. As he
approached the town, he spurred his jaded beast, who broke into the old
familiar _paso_ of the Mexican plains. "It was my last sight of
Mexico," said my companion. He saluted the horseman in Spanish, and the
well-known words of welcome made the grim man's haggard sunburnt
features relax into a smile as he returned the salutation and rode on.

As for myself, my voyage home was short and unadventurous. From Vera
Cruz to Havana, most of my companions were Mexican refugees who had
been turned out of the country for being mixed up with Haro's
revolution or Santa Ana's intrigues. They were showily got-up men,
elaborately polite, and with much to say for themselves; but every now
and then some casual remark showed what stuff they were made of, and I
pitied more than ever the unfortunate countries whose political
destinies depend on the intrigues of these adventurers.

In the hot land-locked bay of St. Thomas's we, with the contents of
eight or nine more steamers, were shifted into the great steamer bound
homeward. I went ashore with an old German gentleman, and walked about
the streets. St. Thomas's is a Danish island, and a free port, that is,
a smuggling depot for the rest of the West India islands, much as
Gibraltar is for the Mediterranean. It is a stifling place, full of
mosquitos and yellow fever, and the confusion of tongues reigns there
even more than in Gibraltar, for the blacks in the streets all speak
three or four languages, and the shopkeepers six or seven.

We were a strange mixture on board the 'Atrato', over two hundred of
us. Peruvians and Chilians from across the isthmus, Spaniards and
Cubans, black gentlemen from Hayti, French colonists from Martinique,
but English preponderating above all other nationalities. One or two
governors of small islands, with their families, maintaining the
dignity of Government House, at least as far as Southampton, and
unapproachable by common mortals. Army men from West India stations,
who appeared to spend their mornings in ordering the wine for dinner,
and their evenings in abusing it when they had drunk it. West India
planters, who thought it was rather hard that the Anti-slavery Society,
after ruining them and their plantations, should moreover insist on
their believing themselves to be great gainers by the change. We were
all crowded, hot, and uncomfortable, and showed our worst side, but as
we neared England better influences got the ascendant again.

It was pleasant to breathe a cooler air, and to feel that I was getting
back to my own country and my own people; but with this feeling there
was mixed some regret for the beautiful scenes I had left. The evenings
of our latitudes seemed poor when we lost the gorgeous sunsets of the
tropics, and the sea alive with luminous creatures. When I came on deck
one evening and missed the brightest ornament of the sky--the Southern
Cross, I felt that I had left the tropics, and that all my efforts to
realize the life of the last half-year would produce but a vague and
shadowy picture.

Since we left Mexico, I have not cared to follow very accurately even
the newspaper intelligence of what has been and still is going on
there. It is a pitiable history. Continual wars and revolutions, utter
insecurity of life and property, the Indians burning down the haciendas
in the South and turning out the white people, the roads on the plains
impassable on account of deserters and robbers; sometimes no practical
government at all, then two or three at once, who raise armies and
fight a little sometimes, but generally confine themselves to
plundering the peaceable inhabitants. An army besieges the capital for
months, but appears to do nothing but cut the water off from the
aqueducts, shoot stragglers, and levy contributions. One leader raises
a forced loan among the foreign residents, and imprisons or expels
those who do not submit. The leader on the other side does the same in
his part of the country, putting the British merchant in prisons where
a fortnight would be a fair average life for an European, and
threatening him with summary courtmartial and execution if he does not
pay.

London newspapers dwell on these details, and tell us that we may learn
from the condition of this unfortunate country how useless are
democratic forms among a people incapable of liberty, and that very
weak governments can commit all sorts of crimes with impunity, from the
fact that they have no official existence which foreign powers can
recognize; and various other weighty moral lessons, which must be
highly edifying to our countrymen in the Republic, who are meanwhile
left pretty much to shift for themselves.

All this time the United States are steadily advancing; and the destiny
of the country is gradually accomplishing itself. That its total
absorption must come, sooner or later, we can hardly doubt. The chief
difficulty seems to be that the American constitution will not exactly
suit the case. The Republic laid down the right of each citizen to his
share in the government of the country as a universal law, founded on
indefeasible lights of humanity, fundamental laws of nature, and what
not, making, it is true, some slight exceptions with regard to red and
black men. The Mexicans, or at least the white and half-caste Mexicans,
will be a difficulty. Their claims to citizenship are unquestionable,
if Mexico were made a State of the Union; and, as everybody knows, they
are totally incapable of governing themselves, which they must be left
to do under the constitutional system of the United States; moreover,
it is certain that American citizens would never allow even the whitest
of the Mexicans to be placed on a footing of equality with themselves.
Supposing these difficulties got over by a Protectorate, an armed
occupation, or some similar contrivance, Mexico will undergo a great
change. There will be roads and even rail-roads, some security for life
and property, liberty of opinion, a nourishing commerce, a rapidly
increasing population, and a variety of good things. Every intelligent
Mexican must wish for an event so greatly to the advantage of his
country and of the world in general.

Some of our good friends in Mexico have bought land on the American
frontier by the hundred square leagues, and can point out patches upon
the map of the world as large as Scotland or Ireland--as their private
property. What their gains will be when enterprising western men begin
to bring the country under cultivation, it is not an easy matter to
realize.

As for ourselves individually, we may be excused for cherishing a
lurking kindness for the quaint, picturesque manners and customs of
Mexico, as yet un-Americanized; and for rejoicing that it was our
fortune to travel there before the coming change, when its most curious
peculiarities and its very language must yield before foreign
influences.

[Illustration: THE REBOZO AND THE SERAPE.]

APPENDIX.

* * * * *

I. THE MANUFACTURE OF OBSIDIAN KNIVES, ETC. (_Note to p. 97._)

Some of the old Spanish writers on Mexico give a tolerably full account
of the manner in which the obsidian knives, &c., were made by the
Aztecs. It will be seen that it only modifies in one particular the
theory we had formed by mere inspection as to the way in which these
objects were made, which is given at p.97; that is, they were cracked
off by pressure, and not, as we conjectured, by a blow of some hard
substance.

Torquemada (_Monarquia Indiana, Seville_, 1615) says; (free
translation) "They had, and still have, workmen who make knives of a
certain black stone or flint, which it is a most wonderful and
admirable thing to see them make out of the stone; and the ingenuity
which invented this art is much to be praised. They are made and got
out of the stone (if one can explain it) in this manner. One of these
Indian workmen sits down upon the ground, and takes a piece of this
black stone, which is like jet, and hard as flint, and is a stone which
might be called precious, more beautiful and brilliant than alabaster
or jasper, so much so that of it are made tablets[24] and mirrors. The
piece they take is about 8 inches long or rather more, and as thick as
one's leg or rather less, and cylindrical; they have a stick as large
as the shaft of a lance, and 3 cubits or rather more in length; and at
the end of it they fasten firmly another piece of wood, 8 inches long,
to give more weight to this part; then, pressing their naked feet
together, they hold the stone as with a pair of pincers or the vice of
a carpenter's bench. They take the stick (which is cut off smooth at
the end) with both hands, and set it well home against the edge of the
front of the stone (_y ponenlo avesar con el canto de la frente de la
piedra_) which also is cut smooth in that part; and then they press it
against their breast, and with the force of the pressure there flies
off a knife, with its point, and edge on each tide, as neatly as if one
were to make them of a turnip with a sharp knife, or of iron in the
fire. Then they sharpen it on a stone, using a hone to give it a very
fine edge; and in a very short time these workmen will make more than
twenty knives in the aforesaid manner. They come out of the same shape
as our barbers' lancets, except that they have a rib up the middle, and
have a slight graceful curve towards the point. They will cut and shave
the hair the first time they are used, at the first cut nearly as well
as a steel razor, but they lose their edge at the second cut; and so,
to finish shaving one's beard or hair, one after another has to be
used; though indeed they are cheap, and spoiling them is of no
consequence. Many Spaniards, both regular and secular clergy, have been
shaved with them, especially at the beginning of the colonization of
these realms, when there was no such abundance as now of the necessary
instruments, and people who gain their livelihood by practising this
occupation. But I conclude by saying that it is an admirable thing to
see them made, and no small argument for the capacity of the men who
found out such an invention."

Vetancurt (_Teatro Mejicano_) gives an account, taken from the above.
Hernandez (_Rerum Med. Nov. Hisp. Thes.: Rome_, 1631) gives a similar
account of the process. He compares the wooden instrument used to a
cross-bow. It was evidently a T-shaped implement, and the workman held
the cross-piece with his two hands against his breast, while the end of
the straight stick rested on the stone. He furthermore gives a
description of the making of the well-known _maquahuitl_, or Aztec
war-club, which was armed on both sides with a row of obsidian knives,
or teeth, stuck into holes with a kind of gum. With this instrument, he
says, a man could be cut in half at a blow--an absurd statement, which
has been repeated by more modern writers.

II. ON THE SOLAR ECLIPSES RECORDED IN THE LE TELLIER MS.

The curious Aztec Picture-writing, known as the _Codex
Telleriano-Remenensis_, preserved in the Royal Library of Paris,
contains a list or calendar of a long series of years, indicated by the
ordinary signs of the Aztec system of notation of cycles of years.
Below the signs of the years are a number of hieroglyphic pictures,
conveying the record of remarkable events which happened in them, such
as the succession and death of kings, the dates of wars, pestilences,
&c. The great work of Lord Kingsborough, which contains a fac-simile of
this curious document, reproduces also an ancient interpretation of the
matters contained in it, evidently the work of a person who not only
understood the interpretation of the Aztec picture-writings, but had
access to some independent source of information,--probably the more
ample oral traditions, for the recalling of which the picture-writing
appears only to have served as a sort of artificial memory. It is not
necessary to enter here into a fuller description of the MS., which has
also been described by Humboldt and Gallatin.

Among the events recorded in the Codex are four eclipses of the sun,
depicted as having happened in the years 1476, 1496, 1507. 1510.
Humboldt, in quoting these dates, makes a remark to the effect that the
record tends to prove the veracity of the Aztec history, for solar
eclipses really happened in those years, according to the list in the
well-known chronological work, _L'Art de Verifier les Dates_, as
follows: 28 Feb., 1476; 8 Aug., 1496; 13 Jan., 1507; 8 May, 1510. The
work quoted, however, has only reference to eclipses visible in Europe,
Asia, and Africa, and not to those in America. The question therefore
arises, whether all these four eclipses recorded in _L'Art de Verifier
les Dates_, were visible in Mexico. As to the last three, I have no
means of answering the question; but it appears that Gama, a Mexican
astronomer of some standing, made a series of calculations for a
totally distinct purpose about the end of the last century, and found
that in 1476 _there was no eclipse of the sun visible in Mexico_, but
that there was a great one on the 13th Feb., 1477, and another on the
28th May, 1481.

Supposing that Gama made no mistake in his calculations, the idea at
once suggests itself, that the person who compiled or copied the Le
Tellier Codex, some few years after the Spanish Conquest of Mexico,
inserted under the date of 1476 (long before the time of the Spaniards)
an eclipse which could not have been recorded there had the document
been a genuine Aztec Calendar; _as, though visible in Europe, it was
not visible in Mexico_. The supposition of the compiler having merely
inserted this date from a European table of eclipses is strengthened by
the fact that _the great eclipse of 1477, which was visible in Mexico,
but not in Europe, is not to be found there_. These two facts tend to
prove that the Codex, though undoubtedly in great part a copy or
compilation from genuine native materials, has been deliberately
sophisticated with a view of giving it a greater appearance of
historical accuracy, by some person who was not quite clever enough to
do his work properly. It may, however, be urged as a proof that the
mistake is merely the result of carelessness, that we find in the MS.
no notice of the eclipse of 25th May, 1481, which was visible both in
Mexico and in Europe, and so ought to have been in the record. This
supposition would be consistent with the Codex being really a document
in which the part relating to the events before the Spanish Conquest in
1521 is of genuine ancient and native origin, though the whole is
compiled in a very grossly careless manner. It would be very desirable
to verify the years of all the four eclipses with reference to their
being visible in Mexico, as this might probably clear up the
difficulty.

III. TABLE OK AZTEC ROOTS COMPARED WITH SANSCRIT, ETC.

Several lists of Aztec words compared with those of various
Indo-European languages have been given by philologists. The present is
larger than any I have met with; several words in it are taken from
Buschmann's work on the Mexican languages. It is desirable in a
philological point of view that comparative lists of words of this kind
should be made, even when, as in the present instance, they are not of
sufficient extent to found any theory upon.

As the Aztec alphabet does not contain nearly all the Sanscrit
consonants, many of them must be compared with the nearest Aztec
sounds, as:

SANSCRIT, t, th, d, dh, &c. ... AZTEC, t.
SANSCRIT, k, kh, g, gh, &c. ... AZTEC c.q.
SANSCRIT, l, r. ... AZTEC, l.
SANSCRIT, b, bh, v. ... AZTEC, v. or u.

The Aztec c is soft (as s) before e and i, hard (as k) before a, o, u.
The Aztec ch as in _cheese_. I have followed Molina's orthography in
writing such words as _uel_ or _vel_ (English, _well_) instead of the
more modern, but I think less correct way, _huel_.

1. a-, _negative prefix_ (_as_ qualli, _good_; aqualli, _bad_). SANS.,
a-; GREEK, a-, &c.

2. o-, _preterite augment_ (_as_ nitemachtia, _I teach_; onitemachti,
_I taught_); SANS., a-; compare GREEK e-.

3. pal, _prep. by_: compare SANS. _prep._, para, _back_; pari,
_circum_; pra, _before_; GREEK, para; LAT., per.

4. ce-, cen-, cem-, _prefix collective_ (_as_ tlalla, _to place_,
centlalla, _to collect_); SANS., sa-, san-, sam-; GREEK, syn; LAT.,
syn.

5. ce, cen-, cem-, _one_. SANS., sa (_in_ sa-krit, _once_: comp. Bopp,
Gloss., p. 362.) LAT., se-_mel_, si-_mul_, sim-_plex_.

6. metz (metz-tli), _moon_. SANS., mas.

7. tlal (tlal-li), _earth_. SANS., tala, dhara. LAT., terra, tellus.

8. citlal (citlal-in), _star_. SANS., stri, stara. LAT., stella. Eng.,
star.

9. atoya (atoya-tl), _river_. SANS., udya.

10. teuh (teuh-tli), _dust_. Sans., dhu-li (_from_ dhu, to drive
about.)

11. teo (teo-tl),_god_. Sans., deva. Greek, _Theos_. Lat., deus.

12. qual (qual-li),_good_. Sans., kalya, kalyana. Greek, kalor.

13. uel, _well_. Sans., vara, _excellent_; vli, _to choose_. Lat.,
velle. Icel., vel. Eng., well.

14. uel, _power, brave, &c_., (uel-e, tla-uel-e.) Sans., bala,
_strength_. Lat., valeo, valor.

15. auil, _vicious, wasteful_. Sans., avila, _sinful, guilty;_ abala,
_weak_. Eng., evil.

16. miec, _much_. Sans., mahat, _great_; manh _or_ mah, _to grow_.
Icel., miok, _much_. Eng., much.

17. vey, _great_. Sans., bahu, _much_.

18. -pol, _augmentative affix_ (as tepe-tl. _mountain_; tepepol, _great
mountain_.) Sans., puru, _much_; pula, _great, ample_. Greek,
pothus.

19. naua (naua-c), _near, by the side of_. Sans., nah, _to join or
connect_. German, nah, _near_.

20. ten (ten-qui), _fuil_. Sans., tun, _to fill_.

21. izta (izta-c), _white_. Sans., sita.

22. cuz (cuz-tic), _red_. Sans, kashaya, kasaya.

23. ta (ta-tli), _father_. Sans., tata.

24. cone (cone-tl), _child. Compare_ Sans., jan, _to beget_. Lat.,
gen-itus. German, kin-d. Eng., kin.

25. pil (pil-li), _child. Compare_ Sans., bala, _boy, child_; bhri, _to
bear children_, &c. Greek, polos, _foal_. Lat., pullus, filius.
Eng.,_foal_, &c., &c.

26. cax (cax-itl), _cup_. Sans., chasbaka.

27. paz(?)(a-paz-tli), _vase, basin_. Sans., bajana. _Compare_ Lat.,
vas. Eng., vase.

28. com (com-itl), _earthen pot_. Sans., kumbha.

29. xuma (xuma-tli), _spoon_. Sans., chamasa; _from_ Sans., cham, _to
eat_.

30. mich (mich-in), _fish_. Sans., machcha.

31. zaca (zaca-tl), _grass_. Sans., saka.

32. col (te-col-li, col-ceuia, &c.), _charcoal_. Sans., jval, _to burn,
flame_; Icel., kol; Eng., coal; Irish, gual.

33. cen (cen-tli), _grain, maize_. Sans., kana, _grain_.

34. ehe (ehe-catl), _wind_. Sans., vayu.

35. mix (mix-tli), _cloud_. Sans., megha; Icel., and Eng., mist.

36. cal (cal-ii),_house_. Sans., sala. Greek, kalia; Lat., cella.

37. qua (qua-itl), _head_. Sans., ka.

38. ix (ix-tli), _eye, face_. Sans., aksha, _eye_; asya, _face_.

39. can (can-tli), _cheek_, Sans., ganda; Lat., gena.

40. chichi (chichi-tl), _teat_. Sans., chuchuka.

41. nene (nene-tl), _pupil of eye_. Sans., nayana.

42. choloa, _to run or leap_. Sans., char.

43. caqui (caqui-ztli), _sound_. Sans., kach, _to sound_.

44. xin (xi-xin-ia), _to cut, ruin, destroy_. Sans., ksin, _to hurt,
kill._

45. tlacc (tlacc-ani), _to run_. Sans., triks, _to go_; Greek, trecho.

46. patlani, _to fly_. Sans., pat.

47. mati, _to know_. Sans., medh, _to understand_; mati, _thought,
mind_; Greek root math.

48. it (it-ta), _to see_. Sans., vid; Greek root id, eidomai, &c.;
Lat., video.

49. meya, _to flow, trickle_. Sans., mih.

50. mic (mic-tia), _to kill_. Sans., mi, mith.

51. cuica, _to sing_. Sans., kuj. _to sing, as birds_, &c.

52. chichi _to suck_. SANS., chush.

53. ahnachia, _to sprinkle_: _compare_ SANS. uks.

54. coton (coton-a),_to cut_. SANS. kutt.

55. nex (nex-tia), _to shine_. SANS, nad; LAT., niteo.

55. notz (notz-a), _to call_. SANS., nad.

57. choc (choc-a),_to lament, cry_. SANS, kuch, _to cry aloud, scream;_
such, _to wail_.

58. me(?)(in me-catl, _binding-thing, chain?) to bind_ SANS., mu, mava.

59. qua, _to eat, bite_: compare SANS. charv, _to chew, bite, gnaw_;
chah, _to bruize_; khad, _to eat_.; GERMAN, kauen; ENG., to chew.

60. te, _thou_. SANS. tvam; LAT., tu.

61. quen, _how?_ SANS. kena.

_Other curious resemblances between the Aztec and European languages
are_:

62. pepeyol, _poplar_. LAT., populus; ICEL., popel.

63. papal (papal-otl), _butterfly_; LAT., papilio.

64. ul (ul-li), _juice of the India-rubber tree, used as oil for
anointing, &c._ LAT., oleum; ENG., oil, &c.

* * * * *

IV. GLOSSARY.

ANAHUAC. _Aztec_. "By the water-side."
The name at first applied to the Valley of Mexico, from the
situation of the towns on the banks of the lakes; afterwards
used to denote a great part of the present Republic of Mexico.

ACOCOTE (_Aztec_, acocotl, water-throat), aloe-sucker's gourd; _see p._
91.

ADOBE, a mud-brick, baked in the sun.
(Perhaps a _Moorish-Spanish_ word.
_Ancient Egyptian_, tobe, a mud-brick;
_Arabic_, toob, pronounced with the article
_at-toob_, whence adobe?)

AGUAMIEL (honey-water), unfermented aloe-juice.

AGUARDIENTE (burning-water), ardent spirits.

AHUEHUETE (_Aztec_, ahuehuetl), the deciduous cypress.

ALAMEDA (poplar-avenue), public promenade; _see p._ 57.

ALCALDE, a magistrate (_Moorish-Spanish_, al cadi, "the cadi").

ANQUERA (hauncher), covering for horses' haunches; _see p._ 164 (_and
cut, p._ 260).

ARRIERO, a muleteer.

ARROYO, a rivulet, mountain-torrent.

ATAMBOB, a drum.

ATOLE (_Aztec_, atolli), porridge.

AVERSADA, a freshet.

BARATILLO, a Rag-fair, market of odds and ends; _see p._ 169.

BARBACOA, whence English "barbecue;" _see p._ 95; a native Haitian
word.

BARRANCCA, a ravine.

CALZONCILLOS, drawers.

CAPA, a cloak.

CAYO, a coral-reef.

CHAPARREROS, over-trousers of goatskin with the hair on, used in
riding.

CHINAMPA (_Aztec_, "a place fenced in)," a Mexican "floating garden;"
_see p._ 62.

CHINGUERITO, Indian-corn brandy.

CHIPI-CHIPI (_Aztec_, chipini, drizzling rain); _see p._ 26.

CHUPA-MIRTO (myrtle-sucker), a humming-bird.

COLEAR, to throw a bull over by the tail (cola); _see p._ 71.

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