Note 426 — Chapter VI

E. G. Squier in Notes on Cent. Am., p. 349, makes the following remark: “It is a significant fact, that in the map of their migrations, presented by Gemelli, the place of the origin of the Aztecs is designated by the sign of water (Atl standing for Atzlan), a pyramidal temple with grades, and near these a palm-tree. This circumstance did not escape the attention of the observant Humboldt, who says, ‘I am astonished at finding a palm-tree near this teocalli. This tree certainly does not indicate a northern origin.’” We might add that we are equally surprised that so generally able a writer as Mr. Squier should resort to so absolutely weak an argument. Sr. Ramirez has clearly explained that all the figures and their adjuncts are but hieroglyphic parts of proper names. The palm-tree no doubt plays its part. M. Waldeck (Voyage Pitt., p. 45) makes the same remark as Mr. Squier—that it indicates a southern origin. Gondra (Prescott’s Historia Conq. Mex., cited by Bancroft, vol. v, p. 306, note) replies that this may be a thoughtless insertion of the painter. The possibility that an unskillful artist should unintentionally represent a tree of which he had no knowledge is so great, that any argument dependent upon it hangs upon a slender thread. Over against Mr. Squier’s claim we desire to place the simple inquiry, Does the Elephant Mound of Wisconsin indicate that its constructors were natives of Asia, where the elephant is common, or that they lived in the epoch of the American Mastodon? It is well-known that the latter phase of the question could not be true, since the condition of the mound contradicts such great antiquity.