ar and wide and as examples
of such I venture to designate Tulantzinco, literally the title Tullan,
and possibly Teotihuacan, where the native civilization seems to have
undergone its more advanced stages of evolution, and to have risen in
power, developed divergent cults with separate languages (the Maya and the
Nahuatl) and instituted the two religions and dual rulership which
eventually led to dissension and the dissolution of the integral state at
a period anterior to historical times.

The assumption that the most ancient centre of native civilization lay in
a volcanic region affords a plausible explanation of how an inordinate
value would naturally be placed on stability, _per se_, and the feelings
of veneration for Polaris and a passionate longing for a place of
terrestrial and celestial rest would become strongly developed. Indeed, it
is only possible to understand the reason why various American tribes
wandered about in ardent and earnest search for the stable middle of the
earth, when it is assumed that they must have been driven from their
former place of residence by volcanic disturbances which made a firm piece
of ground under foot seem to be the most desirable of all earthly
benefits. I venture to assert that this search and the ideal of stability
would not have been suggested so forcibly to people who had never
experienced a long succession of more or less terrible earthquakes.

Although widely different opinions concerning the identification of the
ancient Tullan are held by American archaeologists they will all
doubtlessly admit that at Cholollan we have, in the first case, a locality
to which the natives assign the name of Tollan, and a pyramid, the largest
on the American continent, which testifies that, in prehistoric times,
this place was inhabited for a prolonged period, by a numerous and
organized community.

The fertility of the surrounding plains now known as the Campina de Puebla
and the ancient name of Tlaxcalla yield evidence that, from time
immemorial, this district was associated with maize cultivation.

The vicinity of the giant volcanoes of Popocatepetl, Iztaccihuatl and
Orizaba(77) sufficiently demonstrate that they must repeatedly have been
the scene of violent disturbances which would fully account for the
tradition of successive cataclysms which destroyed a vast state and almost
annihilated the native race.

The foregoing unassailable facts undoubtedly justify the conclusion that