The North Americans of Antiquity: Their origin, migrations, and type of civilization consideredShort, John T. (John Thomas)
History
The North Americans of Antiquity: Their origin, migrations, and type of civilization considered
Short, John T. (John Thomas)
Indians -- Origin; Indians of Mexico -- Antiquities; Indians of North America -- Antiquities
Bancroft gives also the following example of the manner in
which the name Teocaltitlan was expressed by this syllabic-phonetic
writing: “It is written in one of the manuscripts of the Boturini
collection by a pictured pair of lips, _tentli_, for the syllable _te_;
footsteps, symbolic of a road, _otli_ for _o_; a house, _calli_ for
_cal_; and teeth, _tlantli_ for _tlanti_, being a common connective
syllable.” We think the reader will find a clearer illustration in the
word Chapultepec, which literally means “hill of the grasshopper.”
By reference to the Aztec migration map which has been published by
several authors[619] (the most correct copy accessible to the general
reader is that by Bancroft).[620] A hill surmounted by a grasshopper
will be observed among the figures. The same representation in
different form will be seen in Boturini’s picture-map of the migration.
Chapultepec is well known as the royal hill, a short distance west of
the city of Mexico, celebrated as the country residence of Montezuma.
Numerous similar examples might be selected from the migration maps
of this combination of the three methods employed. Proper names were
always expressed in a similar manner. An example of the representative
and symbolic stages of the picture-writing of the Aztecs has been
given by Mr. Bancroft from the _Codex Mendoza_ in Kingsborough.[621]
We here reproduce the plate used in the _Native Races_. It describes
four steps or periods in the education of children; each period is
supposed to refer to a particular year. In the upper left-hand group
we see a father (fig. 3) punishing his son by holding him over the
fumes of burning chile (fig. 5); in the right-hand group the mother
threatens her daughter with similar punishment. In the second group
(figs. 12–13), a father punishes his son by exposing him bound hand
and foot on the damp ground. A bad boy twelve years of age, according
to Aztec custom was always punished in this way, and his punishment
lasted during an entire day. A disobedient girl of the same age was
obliged to rise in the night and sweep the whole house, as is shown
in the right-hand group, or, as no tear is seen in her eye, she may
be learning. At the age of eight years children were only shown the
instrument of punishment; at ten they were pricked with maguey thorns,
or if still unruly, were whipped. The above groups show the methods
employed during the eleventh and twelfth years, after which age a child
was supposed to be pretty well disciplined. In the third group a father
directs his boys (fig. 21) how to transport wood, both upon the back
and in the canoe, while the mother teaches the daughter (fig. 23) to
make tortillas and use the mealing stone and other utensils (figs. 25,
26, 28); the tortillas are also represented (fig. 27). In the fourth
group the son learns the use of the fish-net and the daughter that of
the loom. The allowance of tortillas apportioned to the children at the
ages represented are shown in figs.
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