Page:The Native Races of the Pacific States, volume 2.djvu/109

Rh there is much reason for and convenience in referring all the native civilization to two branches, the Maya and the Nahua, the former the more ancient, the latter the more recent and wide-spread. It is important, however, to understand the nature and extent of this division, and just how far it may be considered real and how far ideal. Of all the languages spoken among these nations, the two named are the most wide-spread, and are likewise entirely distinct. In their traditional history, their material relics, and, above all, in their methods of recording events by hieroglyphics, as well as in their several lesser characteristics, these two stocks show so many and so clear points of difference standing prominently out from their many resemblances, as to indicate either a separate culture from the beginning, or what is more probable and for us practically the same thing, a progress in different paths for a long time prior to the coming of the Europeans. Very many of the nations not clearly affiliated with either branch show evident traces of both cultures, and may be reasonably supposed to have developed their condition from contact and intermixture of the parent stocks with each other, and with the neighboring savage tribes. It is only, however, in a very general sense that this classification can be accepted, and then only for practical convenience in elucidating the subject; since there are several nations that must be ranked among our civilized peoples, which, particularly in the matter of language, show no Maya nor Nahua affinities. Nor is too much importance to be attached to the names Maya and Nahua by which I designate these parallel civilizations. The former is adopted for the reason that the Maya people and tongue are commonly regarded as among the most ancient in all the Central American region, a region where formerly flourished the civilization that left such wonderful remains at Palenque, Uxmal, and Copan; the latter as being an older designation than either Aztec or Toltec, both of which stocks the race Nahua includes.