Identifier: mexicoitsancient01enoc (find matches)
Title: Mexico, its ancient and modern civilisation, history and political conditions, topography and natural resources, industries and general development;
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Enock, C. Reginald (Charles Reginald), 1868-1970
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, Scribner
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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the historyof Alfred of England, to the students mind. He builta splendid palace at Texcotzinco, and ruins of its wallsand aqueducts remain to this day. His life is sketchedin these pages subsequently, and something of the beautyof his philosophy set forth. And thus history has brought us again to the Aztecs,the founders of Tenochtitlan by the lake-shore, on thespot indicated by their oracle. They had come fromthe north, one of seven tribes or families, all of whichspoke the Nahuatl or Mexican tongue. This unknowncountry, called Astlan, or the land of the herons, wasthe home of these seven tribes—the Mexicas, or Aztecs,the Tlascalans, Xochimilcas, Tepanecas, Colhuas, Chalcasand Tlahincas—and has been varyingly assigned alocality in California, and in Sinaloa. Why the Aztecsleft their northern home is not known, even in legend,but they were instigated to their wanderings, traditionsays, by their fabled war-god, Huitzilopochtli, or Mexitl,from whom came the name Mexica or Azteca, by
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THE DAWN OF MEXICO 25 which these people called themselves. From the begin-ning of the tenth to the beginning of the thirteenthcentury A.D. this tribe journeyed and sojourned on itssouthward way, from valley to valley, from lake to lake,from Chapala to Patzcuaro, and thence to Tula, the oldToltec capital. Once more dispersed, they wandered on,and, guided by their oracle, reached their final resting-place at Tenochtitlan. This name, by which theydesignated their capital, was derived either from that ofTenoch, their venerated high priest, or from the Aztecwords meaning stone-serpent, in reference to theemblem they had followed. The first work of the people was to raise a great templeto their god—the bloodthirsty Huitzilopochtli—who hadled them on. It was begun at once, and around it grewthe habitations of the people, the huts made of reeds andmud called xacali, such as indeed to-day form the habi-tations of a large part of Mexican people under the nameoi jacales.^ This great Teocall

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