Note 163 — NORTH AMERICAN TRIBES. (continued 2)

Sahagun, Historia, Lib. X, cap. 29. The name is properly Tarex, applied later in the general sense of “deity,” “idol.” Tarex is identified by Sahagun with the Nahuatl divinity Mixcoatl, the god of the storm, especially the thunder storm. The other derivations of the name Tarascos seem trivial. See Dr. Nicolas Leon, in Anales del Museo Michoacano, Tom. I. Their ancestors were known as Taruchas, in which we see the same radical.