Note 110 — PART I. ETHNOLOGIC AND ARCHÆOLOGIC. (continued 2)

Cronica Mexicana, cap. 1, “Partieron de alli y vinieron á la parte que llaman Coatepec, términos de Tonalan, lugar del sol.” In Nahuatl tonallan usually means summer, sun-time. It is syncopated from tonalli and tlan; the latter is the locative termination; tonalli means warmth, sunniness, akin to tonatiuh, sun; but it also means soul, spirit, especially when combined with the possessive pronouns, as totonal, our soul, our immaterial essence. By a further syncope tonallan was reduced to Tollan or Tullan, and by the elision of the terminal semi-vowel, this again became Tula. This name may therefore mean “the place of souls,” an accessory signification which doubtless had its influence on the growth of the myths concerning the locality.

It may be of some importance to note that Tula or Tollan was not at first the name of the town, but of the locality—that is, of the warm and fertile meadow-lands at the foot of the Coatepetl. The town was at first called Xocotitlan, the place of fruit, from xocotl, fruit, ti, connective, and tlan, locative ending. (See Sahagun, Historia de Nueva España, Lib. x, cap. 29, secs. 1 and 12.) This name was also applied to one of the quarters of the city of Mexico when conquered by Cortes, as we learn from the same authority.