But regarding the legend I have quoted as, in part at least, based on actual history, we may accept the fact that there was an important emigration from Mexico, and yet not one of either Aztecs or "Toltecs." It must be remembered that the Huastecas, an important branch of the Maya family, occupied from time immemorial the coast of the Mexican Gulf north of Vera Cruz, and west to the mountains of Meztitlan, a province inhabited by a Nahuatl speaking race, but not subject to the dynasty of the Montezumas. I have already referred briefly to their history, and it is possible that after their serious reverses, about 1450, they sent migratory bodies to their relatives in Yucatan. At any rate, there seems a consensus of testimony that the general trend of migration of the Maya race, was from north to south, and in Central America, from west to east. We have in this paragraph examples of the use of three of the "numeral particles." _Cante bin ti katun_, literally, "it (_i. e._ time) went on for four katuns," and a few lines later _hunpel haab_, one year, _hunpiztun_, the first year. The correct translation of _peten_ has been debated; it is from the root _pet_, anything round, a circle, and usually means "island." By a later use it signifies any locality with definite boundaries, hence a province, or kingdom. The following is the entry in the _Diccionario de Motul_: "PETEN; isla, _item_ provincia, region, comarca--_uay tu petenil Yucatan_, aqui en la provincia de Yucatan." The name of the first leader, Holon Chan Tepeuh, does not recur in the Annals. Its signification is: _holon_, a generic name for large bees and flies; _chan_, sufficient, powerful, still in use in Yucatan as a surname; _tepeuh_, ruler, from _tepeual_, to rule. This last word is marked in the _Diccionario de Motul_ as a "vocablo antiquo." It is of Aztec origin, as in the Nahuatl language _tepeuani_ means "conqueror." The name we are considering should probably be rendered "Holon Chan, the ruler." The province ruled by the Chan family at the time of the conquest was on the eastern coast, south of that of the Cupuls. The name _Chacnouitan_ is elsewhere, as we shall see, spelled _Chacnovitan_ and _Chacnabiton_. I am inclined to believe the last mentioned is nearest the correct form. By Pio Perez it was supposed to be an ancient name of Yucatan, and he translates the phrase, _uay ti petene Chacnouitan_, by "à esta isla de Chacnavitan (Yucatan)." Dr. Valentini says: "the translation could as well stand for 'that distant island,'" and that "Chacnouitan was neither the whole nor the northern part of Yucatan, but a district situated in the southwest of the peninsula," (_loc. cit._ p. 38).