Q88



ORIGIN OF THE



These languages exceed twenty, fourteen of which have
grammars and dictionaries. The following are their
names:   The Mexican, or Aztec language, spoken by
the Toltecs, Chichimecs, Acoluchecs, Nahuatlacs, and
Aztecs, thus indicating an identity of origin. This lan-
guage is the most widely diffused of all the Mexican lan-
guages, extending from 37 N. Lat. as far south as the
lake of Nicaragua, a distance of more than 1200 miles.
The other languages, indicating as many different tribes,
are the Otomite, 'Tarase, Zapotec, Mistece, Maye, or
Yucatan, Totonac, Papolouic, Matlazing, Fluaste, Mixed,
Caquiquil, Taranmar, fepehuan, and the Cors. The
most part of these languages are, undoubtedly, different
from each other; but the intermixture of one tribe with
the other, their separation into new countries, and their
formation into different nations, would, inevitably, pro-
duce, in the process of time, new and strange languages ;
so that if we can trace the origin of the most ancient and



universal language, which is the
may fairly conclude that the X



e Mexican or Aztec, we
lexican is the common



sourse of all the other dialects, and that the Mexicans
must consequently be the progenitors of all the other tribes
Of the five tribes which constitute the present Mexican



naton theToltecs first -made their appea
the east of the city of Mexico, in648. T]
selves expelled from a country lving
of the Rio Gila, and called by them
The date of their emigration is fixed
paintings, which describe year by yea
migration, which commenced in 544
years before their settlement in Mexic,
remarkablelthat this epoch of 544, co
ruin of the dynasty of Tsin, in Chi



irance fifty miles to
hey declared them-



o the n
H'uehue
in the
* the evei
of our et
) ; and i



'responds
na, whic



orth-west
tlapall an.
Mexican
its of this
'a, or 104
Lt is very
with the
h caused



t



I
C



such great commotions among the nations of eastern
Asia. About one hundred years after the Toltecs had
left Huehuetlapallan, the Chichimecs took possession of
it. - These were a mulich more rude and unpolished tribe
than the Toltecs, and came from an unknown country,