Note 99 — PART I. ETHNOLOGIC AND ARCHÆOLOGIC. (continued 2)

The name Aztlan is that of a place and Mexitl that of a person, and from these are derived Aztecatl, plural, Azteca, and Mexicatl, pl. Mexica. The Azteca are said to have left Aztlan under the guidance of Mexitl (Codex Ramirez). The radicals of both words have now become somewhat obscured in the Nahuatl. My own opinion is that Father Duran (Hist. de Nueva España, Tom. i, p. 19) was right in translating Aztlan as “the place of whiteness,” el lugar de blancura, from the radical iztac, white. This may refer to the East, as the place of the dawn; but there is also a temptation to look upon Aztlan as a syncope of a-izta-tlan, = “by the salt water.”

Mexicatl is a nomen gentile derived from Mexitl, which was another name for the tribal god or early leader Huitzilopochtli, as is positively stated by Torquemada (Monarquia Indiana, Lib. viii, cap. xi). Sahagun explains Mexitl as a compound of metl, the maguey, and citli, which means “hare” and “grandmother” (Hist. de Nueva España, Lib. x. cap. 29). It is noteworthy that one of the names of Quetzalcoatl is Meconetzin, son of the maguey (Ixtlilxochitl, Rel. Hist., in Kingsborough, Vol. ix, p. 238). These two gods were originally brothers, though each had divers mythical ancestors.