It is difficult to estimate the amount of authenticity which may be attributed to this legend; the description of the ancient home seems to reproduce the geographical position of Tenochtitlan, situated on an island opposite a mainland town called Colhuacan, in a rather suspicious manner. Still it seems to have been a habit of the Nahua tribes to select such situations for their cities, in proof of which one need only mention such towns as Zumpango, Xaltocan, Cuitlauac, Xochimilco and Acocolco, a previous residence of the Aztec. Fig. 2 illustrates the portion of the Boturini codex which pictures the start from Aztlan to Colhuacan, the footsteps indicating the route, and the eight figures to the right accompanied by glyphs, representing the eight tribes mentioned above, reading from bottom to top. The situation of Aztlan, if the place is not entirely mythical, has given rise to a good deal of controversy; some have identified Colhuacan with Culiacan on the coast of Sinaloa, while Seler suggests that it was in fact the historical city of that name, Aztlan being the island of Acocolco whence the Mexicans were deported as slaves to Colhuacan, a historical fact. The term Colhuan was in historical times restricted to the inhabitants of this city, with whom the population of Xochimilco and Malinalco were closely connected. Chicomoztoc figures as a halting-place in practically all legends dealing with the Nahua immigration, and in some it is regarded as the starting-point. Besides the tribes above mentioned, the following are also represented as having made some stay there: the Huaxtec, Olmec, Xicalanca, Totonac, Michoacans, Tlalhuica, Acolhua (Tezcocans), Tlaxcalans, the inhabitants of Teotitlan and Tehuacan, and the Mixtec. Beyond this we shall see later that this place seems to be connected with the early history of certain Maya tribes whose migration legends have been preserved. Indeed it seems bound up with the mythical history of all the tribes of Mexico and the
