In Southern Mexico were the Tarasco, Toton ace. Zapotec and Nlixtec. all populous and civ ilized nations equal in culture to the Aztec, if not superior. They built houses of cut -tone, brick. and mortar. planted fields and orehards, worked gold and copper—the 'Inraseo wearing complete body armor of wood plated with copper or gold —made beautiful inlaid pottery, and wove eotton garments and robes of bright•eolored feathers. They had elaborate ritual religions, aceompanied sometimes by human cnorifice, with ealendar sys tems and hieroglyphic literatures like those of the Aztec tribes. 'The Totona(•0, who practiced circumcision and head•flattening, claimed to have built the pyramid ruins of Teotilumean, a few miles northwest from the city of Mexico. Tho wonderful ruins of 1\litla are elaimed by the Zapot by the ruder Zoque. 'Iixe. and Chinan tee, rind the more advanced Chiapanee. in Oaxaea and Chiapas. we enter the territory of the highly civilized Ilavan tribes, who held the whole peninsula of Yucatan, with large portions of Tabasco and Chiapas and most of Guatemala, and had an outlying colony in the Huastee of Vera Cruz. Their principal nations, besides the proper in Yucatan, were the Quiche and Cakchiquel of Guatemala. There is evidence that the ancient builders of l'alenque and Copan, al ready in ruins at the time of the conquest, were of the same stock. The Maya proper had at one time formed a powerful confederacy, which, how ever, had broken up into a number of independent States before the arrival of the Spaniards, by whom they were conquered in detail, the last free remnant being driven from their citadel of Chan Santa Cruz by Mexican troops only as late as 1900. after a stubbornly contested war of sev eral years. When first known, the great cities Mayapan, Uxmal. and Chich6n-itzii, now in ruins, were flourishing centres of dense populations, which had attained the highest point of native American civilization. In government they re tained a modified clan system, with an hereditary chief ruler, assisted by a council from his own clan. They were preOminent in architecture, building palaces, pyramids, and cities of cut and polished limestone, set in mortar and covered with figures and hieroglyphic inscriptions. Strange as it must seem, all this was done with out metal tools, gold and copper being used only for ornamental purposes. Agriculture was the principal industry, the common being por tioned out by the village chiefs. Honey and wax were obtained from domesticated bees, and an active commerce was carried on by sea along the southern Gulf coast as far as the island of Cuba, copper disks and cacao-beans being used as currency. Their intricate calendar, with its cycles of 20. 52, and 260 years, has been the sub ject of much scholarly interest, as also their remarkable hieroglyphic records. written upon
parchment or maguey paper, or carved or painted upon the walls of their ruined cities, and for which as yet there is no interpreter. The cog nate Cakchiquel and Quiche were similar to the Maya in culture, differing only in dialect and extent of territory and influence. The great Popol l'uh, a native compendium of the ancient mythology and history of the Quiche, translated by Brasseur de Bourbourg, has been characterized as "one of the most valuable monuments of an cient American literature." Honduras, Salvador. Nicaragua. and Upper Costa' Rica were occupied by tribes of different stocks. sonic of them of considerable advance ment, others, particularly along the east coast. mere savages. The Xinea, on the Guatemala-Sal vador frontier, are believed to have been a rem nant of the pre-Mayan tribes. The Carib, on the Honduras coast. were exiles from the Antilles. The Mo-quito, Ulva. and Rama, farther south along or near the coat. were all wild tribes of different degrees of savagery. The Ulva also have the en-tom of head-flattening. The Gua tug() of northern Costa Rica were an agricultural hut brave and savage people. now near exter mination. owing to the cruelties of the rubber gatherers. South of their territory were found tribes of higher culture grade. the northern out posts of the civilized Chibehan tribes of Colombia.
The whole of the West Indies. with the excep tion of two or three sporadic settlements from Florida in the Bahamas. was held by tribes of the two great South American stocks, Arawakan and Cariban. the former being indigenous, while the latter were recent invader-, who, at the time of the discovery, had as yet colonized only the southern islands. The Arawakan were peaceful and agricultural. skillful weavers, wood carvers, and stone-polishers, but unable to with stand the inroads of the more savage Carib.
Below is given a list, from north to south, of the linguistic stocks of Mexico, Central America, and the islands, so far as present limited enables us to classify them, the Mexican portion being according to the latest researches of Dr. Nicolas Leon. The first five are extensions from the United States; the Cariban. Chibehan, and Arawakan are mainly in South America: Yuman (Lower California, etc.).
Piman.
Athapascan (Chihuahua. etc.).
Talloan (Chihuahua).
Coahuiltecan (Tamaulipas, etc.).
Maratinian ( Tamaulipas).
Serian (Sonora).
Chichimecan.
Ot omf an.
Matlaltzincan (Mexico and Michoacan).
Nahuatlan.
Tarascan (Michoacan).
Totonacan (Vera Cruz).
Zapotecan (Guerrero, Oaxaca).
Chinantecan (Oaxaca).
Huavean (Oaxaca).
Zoquean (Oaxaca. Chiapas).
Chiapanecan (Chiapas. Nicaragua, Costa Rica). Mayan.
Xincan (Guatemala).
Carihan (Honduras and islands).
Lencan Xicaquan 'r (Honduras).
Payan