THE AZTECS. The Northern papers for some time past have contained frequent notices of two diminutive specimens of the human race, known as the Aztec children. They are chiefly remarkable for their extremely small size, their general intelligence, and the fact of their being pure specimens of that race, once powerful, but now degenerate, which centuries ago ruled in the country of the Montezumas. It is stated that these children belong to an order dedicated to sacerdotal service, and that they were procured from a secluded and hitherto unknown Aztec city in Central America, at great expense, and even peril of life, to their adventurous protector. Many persons have expressed decided skepticism as to the truth of the story, and declare that it is fabricated for purposes of mere speculation, while others yield implicit credence to it. Without seeing and examining these interesting people for ourselves,we, of course, cannot venture to express a decided opinion as to their genealogy; but it is undoubt edly true that many circumstances related by antiquarians and travelers in Central America tend to corroborate the story. Almost all the inhabitants of that country agree in declaring the existence of a large city situated among almost inaccessible mountains, isolated from communication with the outer world, and which not more than one or two white men have ever succeeded in reaching. Stephens, in his valuable work on Yucatan, we believe, alludes to this subject, and seems to place reliance in the statement. Within the last month we have accidentally been placed in possession of facts which confirm us in our belief of the truth of these stories; and though we are not sufficiently versed in Aztec lore to enter into a minute description, we will endeavor to give a brief explanation for the benefit of those who take an interest in such subjects. About three weeks since, a gentleman, who had recently returned from Tehauntepec, placed in our hands a volume composed of a number of layers of parchment, bound together with brazen clasps, and presenting appearances of great antiquity. It was obtained from an Indian curate-there are many such in that part of Mexico-and the history of it, as related by himself, is this: He said that he had purchased it from a native trader who, once a year was in the habit of visiting a city among the mountains, toward the south, which is inhabited exclusively by Aztecs. The name of this city is Coaxchencingo, which, in the language of the tribe to which the curate belongs, signifies the mystery of the mountains." Within an inner appartment of the grand temple of Coaxchencingo are kept about fifty volumes similar in appearance to the one referred to, which, it is said by the priests, were preserved from the extensive collection of records known to have existed in Mexico at the time of the conquest, and which were destroyed by Cortez in the heat of his intemperate zeal against the paganism of the Aztecs The volumes preserved at Coaxchencingo are regardel as holy things, and are only to be seen on days of great public rejoicing or solemnity. It was on an occasion of this kind that the Indian trader succeeded in abstracting one of them. This volume, which we have now before us, is filled with hieroglyphical characters, almost all of which are, of course, perfectly unintelligible to us. But one circumstance connected with it is of the highest impor tance, and tends to confirm the theory that the Aztecs are descendants of a race which migrated to this continent from the eastern shores of Asia, about twenty centuries ago. It is remarkable that on one or two pages avOC Vasuli beneath the hieroglyphics, 20 puig : #ounouu Angodser ирру хәәм WVHONITTI VOO NALNI puв TVO N ming Descendants and Specimens of the Sacerdotal Caste, (now The above three figures, sketched from engravings in "Stevens's Central America," will be found, on personal comparison, to bear a remarkable and convincing resemblance, both in the general features and the position of the head, to the two living Aztec children, now exhibiting in the United States, of the ancient sacerdotal caste of Kaanas, or Pagan Mimes, of which a few individuals remain in the newly discovered city of Iximaya. See, the following Memoir, page 31. These two figures, sketched from the same work, are said, by Senor Ve lasquez, in the unpublished portion of his narrative, to be "irresistible likenesses "of the equally exclusive but somewhat more numerous priestly caste |