NATA, na'ta, in Mexican mythology, the name of a former legendary prophet, who in the "Age of Water" (Atonatiuh) escaped with his wife, Nena or Xochiquetzal, from the gen eral destruction of mankind by the deluge, in a boat made from the trunk of an ahuehuete, or Mexican cyprus tree, or according to another version, either in the hollow of the tree or on the trunk of the tree itself. The proper name of this legendary Nahuatl Noah is "Coxcox," the term "Nata" being apparently corelative with "Tata," the "old father," or uncle or sim ply the "old one." The legend of Coxcox was common not only to all the Nahuatl tribes, but it was recounted by the Zapotecas the Mixtecas and other cultured races of Mexico. Accord ing to this flood legend, Coxcox and his wife landed at Mount Colhuacan (Place of the Col huas) ; and their children increased very rapidly; but they were all born dumb. Finally
a dove took pity on them and gave them the power of speech. But they all spoke different languages. Of the descendants of Coxcox or Nata, 15 chiefs spoke the same tongue or nearly so; and from these were descended the differ ent tribes of the Nahua race. According to a Michoacan version of the same myth, their deluge hero who was called Tezpi escaped in a large boat with his wife, his children and numerous animals and various kinds of grain for seed. According to still another version of this story, the people drowned in the deluge did not die but were turned into fishes; for the earth-ocean and the sky-ocean drew near to one another and they were overwhelmed in the down-pour of the sky-waters into the earth waters, which swallowed up even the highest mountains for an Aztec century (52 year.,).