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AZOTE AZTECS 175 maps of the 14th century, but little was known of them till 1432, when they were occupied hy the Portuguese, being then uninhabited, and were named Afores from the great number of hawks (Port, afor, hawk) observed on them. AZOTE. See NITROGEN. AZOV, or Azof, a town and fortress of Rij^sia, in the government of Yekaterinoslav, on the river Don, about 7 m. from its entrance into the sea of Azov, 24 m. S. E. of Taganrog ; pop. about 6,000. Built in a remote time near the ancient Greek colony named Tanais, it carried on an extensive commerce with the northern peoples ; but the silt deposited by the river has blocked up the port, and its commerce has been transferred to Taganrog. In the 13th century Azov was taken by the Genoese, who called it Tana; they were driven out in 1392 by Tamerlane. In 1471 it was taken by the Turks, who gave it its present name. In 1696 it was captured by Peter the Great. During the next century it changed hands several times between the Russians and the Turks; but in 1774 it finally fell into the hands of the Rus- sians. It was bombarded and almost destroyed by the allies in 1855. AZOV, or Azof, Sea of (anc. Pains Mceotis), an inland sea of southern Russia, lying between lat. 45 20' and 47 20' N., and Ion. 35 and 39 E. The Turks call it Balik-Denghis, or Fish sea, from the abundance of fish in its waters. Its extreme length from N. E. to S. W. is about 235m.; breadth about 110 m. ; area, 14,000 sq. m. The waters are nearly fresh, very shallow, encumbered with sand banks, and navigable only by vessels of small draught. The sea is properly a gulf of the Black sea, with which it is connected on the south by the strait of Yeni- kale or of Kertch (anc. Bosporus Cimmeriiui), about 30 m. long. For four months it is fro- zen over, the navigation opening early in April and closing late in November. The Siwash, or Putrid sea, a western continuation of the sea of Azov, is cut off by a long narrow slip of land called the tongue of Arabat, and entered by the strait of Genitchi, at the north of the tongue. It is separated from the Black sea by the isthmus of Perekop. The Putrid sea is little more than a long reach of swamps. The Don is the largest river emptying into the sea of Azov. AZTECS, properly the name of one only of the various tribes or nations who at the time of the conquest in the 16th century occupied the plateau of Anahuac or Mexico, though generally used as synonymous with Mexicans. These tribes were the Xochimilcos, Ohalcos, Tepanecas, Acolhuas, Tezcucans, Tlascaltecas, and Aztecas, which collectively bore the name of Nahuatlecas, and their language was called Nahuatl. Tradition variously represents these families as emerging from seven caverns in a region called Aztlan (from the Nahuatl words Aztatl, heron, and tlan or titlan, place or place of), or as wandering away from their fellows subsequently to a grand cataclysm, and after a 64 VOL. n. 12 distribution of tongues. These traditions, how- ever, do not fall within the domain of history, and critical writers have generally preferred to confine their researches within the period fixed by the Mexican paintings or records. Several of these are in existence, and although differing considerably in their chronology, they do not carry back the history of the Aztecs and their affiliated tribes beyond the llth and 12th cen- turies of our era. There is abundant evidence, nevertheless, that the plateau of Mexico was occupied for many ages anterior to the arrival of the Nahuatlecas by a people of much higher culture, of whose civilization that of the Az- tecs was but a rude reflection. (See TOLTECS.) The locality of the traditional Aztlan has been a subject of much speculation. By some writers it has been supposed that this primitive seat of the Nahuatlecas was in Asia, and that the paintings, all of which depict the passage over a body of water in canoes or on rafts, represent Aztec Warriors. (From a Mexican Sculpture.) a migration to America from that continent. Most, however, imagine Aztlan to have been somewhere to the north of Mexico, beyond the river Gila, the so-called casas grandee found there having been erroneously thought to be the work of the Aztecs. (See CASAS GEANDES.) But it is worthy of remark that no native his- tory, chronicle, or known hieroglyphic of the Mexicans assigns a northern origin to the Aztec tribes, except the relation of Ixtlilxuchitl, who wrote a considerable time after the conquest, and who in this matter only followed the Spanish authors who had preceded him. In the painting representing the migration of the Aztecs, originally published by Gemelli Oar- rera in his Giro del Mondo, the sign or hiero- glyphic of Aztlan is accompanied by the repre- sentation of a teocalli or temple, by the side of which stands a palm tree a circumstance which excited the astonishment of the cautious Huinboldt, as opposed to the opinion that Azt-