OCR Text |
Show • 2~2 H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. DISSERT. mention of it under that or any other name(~). · 'Vho· doe~ not know ~IV. that the rabbit was a qu~drupeji exceffively ~omn;1on in1 ,the 1provinces of the Mexican empire, .uJtder the name of '!ochtli ?, That the figure of it .was one of the four characrers of the Mexican years; and. that .the hair of its belly was woven into waifl:coats for ,the ufp.o( th.e1p:obl~s1 ,;, winter? Notwithfl:anding Mr. Buffon. will . rpake the rabbit o~~ of thofe quad rupeds which were tranfporte,9 from Ewope to America;. but, among all the European hiftorians of Mexico, we have n.ot found one who thinks fo; on the contrary, all fuppofe, that it has fi·om time immemorial inhabited thofe countries, and we do not doubt thl t the ;Mexicans, as often as they read this fin gular anecdote, mu!l: fmilc at the count de Buffon. Hernandez enumerates, in his Hifiory of ~adrupeds , four Mexi-can animals of the clafs of dogs, mentioned by us in book I. of this ' hifi:ory : the firft, the Xoloitzcuint(i, or hairy 1 do,s ; the fecond, the ltzcuintepozotli, or hunch-back dog ; the third, the :f~chichi, or eatable little dog; and the fourth, the 'l'epeitzcuintli, or little mountain dog. Thefe four very different fpecies of dogs have been reduced by the count de Buffon to one fingle fpecies. He fays,. that Hernandez was deceived in what he wrote of the Xo/oitzcuintli, for no other author makes mention of it, and therefore it ought to be believed that that quadruped was tranfportcd there from E urope, fince Hernandez himfelf affirms, that he faw it firfi in Spain, and that it had no name in Mexico, as Xoloitzcut'ntli is the proper 111me of the wolf, given by Hernandez to that other quadruped; that all thofe dogs were known in Mexico hy the generic name of A/co. Here, in a few words, we have a mafs of errors . The name A/co, or Allco, neither is Mexican1 nor ever was ufed in Mexico, but in South America. That of Xoloitzcuintli is not the name of the wolf, nor dp we know that it was ever called fo by ar.y one at Mexico. The Mexicans call the . (t) T he animals or the old continent, which mofl: refemble the Cojote, arc tlic Cbncnl, the Arliv r, and the lj at ls ; but it i~ different from them. The Chacnl is of the fi~e . of :t fox the. Cojo~e is twi. e au lnrge. The C~nca!s ~o always in herds of thirty or forty together ; th: CojOtes, an gene I a!, alone. The AdiVC IS !hll rmallcr and weaker than the Cbtmd The Jf,ltis is. pccul;ar to th e f rigid 1.onc, :md !buns the wooda; but the Cojote loves the woods, and inha· b1ts warm and temperate countries, wolf • HISTORY OF ME.XICO. wolf Cuet!achtli, and in fome places where they do not fpeak Mexican DISSERT. p~operly, they call it 'l'ecuani, which is a generic name for wild beafi:s. It is evident befides, from the very text of Hernandez which ' we he~e 1 fubjoin (f)'. that neither the Xoloitzcuint1i was tra~fportcd from Europe t? Mextco, nor was fuch a name given to it by Hernandez, but that 1t was the name by which the Mexicans themfelves ufed to call it. Hernandez had feen that quadruped in Spain, becaufe it had feen tranfport~d ther~ from Mexi co~ ~s he mentions himfelf~ where he had alfo (een m the gardens of Phrlip II. feveral Mexican plants. But why has no author made mention of the Xoloitzcuintli? becaufe nei~her before nor fince his time has any one u'ndcrtaken to write a hi .• fiery of Mexican quadrupc:ds; and the hifiorians of that kinadom have been contented to mention fome of the commonefi animals. b Morcove1• every wife and impartial perfon iliould neceffarily. give more credit t6 ~er~ah'dcz iri the Nat ural Hifiory of Mexico, as he employed himfelf 111 1t fo many years by order of king Philip II. and as he obfcrved with his own eyes the animals of Mexico, of which he wrote and in-· formed himfelf from the fpeech· of the Mexicans themfelves, whofe ~an~u~ge he learn7d, than to the count de Buffon, who, although more m~emous and more el~quent, ha~ no other lights concerning Mexican amma~s tha~ tho~e whtch ~e procured from the works ·of Hernandez, or from the relat10ns of fom'e other author, not fo deferving of credit as that learned and fkilful naturalifi:. · The count de Buffon Would make the :fepez'tzcuintli of Hernandez, the glutton,' a quadruped which is comtnon in the northern countries of botH c~mtinents; but whoever will compare the defcription which the cou1i t de Buffon inakcs of th e glutton with that which Hernandez gives of the 'l'epeitzcuinth, wm immediately difccrn the mofl: fl:riking difference between thofe two q~adrnpeds (g) . The glutton is, according to the count de Buffon, a native of the cold countries of the North, the tepeitzcuintli, Jf the torricl zone; the glutton is, according to count f.(J P:rt7r canes notos noflr_o orbi qui omncs pcne ab Il irpanil tranflati ab Indis in his plagts ?~d.te c~uc.:mtur, tua aha offcndas genera, quorum primum antequam hue me confu. rem,. vtdt.m ~ ;~tna, cretcros vero ncquc confpcxcram ncquc aclhuc e.o delutos puto. Primus Xolottzcmnth vo~atus alios corporis vincit m;~gnitudim:, &c. Hcrn. Hifr. ~adrup. N. Hifp. c~.zo. . {g) Buffon, Hift. N:Lt. tom . xxvii. Hernandez, Hi!l:. ~adrup. N Hifp. cnp. :xxi. Ooz ~ IV. .. I I |